Loop Calibrator Opinion

[Frank_Rizzo]

Hello all.

I am looking to purchase a loop calibrator.

I've had my eye on this one for a while, just wanted to see if I could get any thoughts/criticisms/opinions before pulling the trigger.

Fluke 789 ProcessMeter DMM & Loop Calibrator

Can read Ma without breaking the loop.
read, simulate, source, step, + volt ac/dc, ohms, its got it all in one package.
Not cheap... But worth it?

 

[thermionic1]

I still have my first Fluke 87 from 1995. It still works just fine. I don't know your meter specifically, but I don't know too many folks that complain about a Fluke handheld meter.

 

[danw2]

You're better than me if you "can read Ma (sic) without breaking the loop" when the photo on your linked site shows conventional meter probes (not a clamp-on pickup) and the 789 manual on the Fluke site says that current measurements are made in series, in the conventional method:

 

[FreddyNurk]

There are Fluke products that do allow for loop measurement without breaking the loop, as far as I'm aware the 787/789 are not.
Those products are generally pretty solid, I don't know that they're immune to wrong probe input issues though.

EDMS Australia

 

[btrueblood]

We have one of those at work, they are decently accurate. You do burn thru batteries in self-powered mode, though.

 

[catserveng]

I use one of these when I have to go somewhere where carrying my large multi-function calibrator would be a pain, like up a ladder to get to a transducer up on piping,

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/calibration-tools/ma-loop-calibrators/fluke-773

It seems pricey for what you're getting, but has been a good additional to my tooling and does what I need it to do. It does have the feature of reading 4-20mA without breaking the loop.