General Purpose Tools

Brymen BM235 True RMS Multimeter

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True RMS Professional Multimeter

While I‘m no electrician or expert, I occasionally do some simple electronics projects which warrant the use of a multimeter.

Over the years I‘ve gone through cheapo $5-10 ones, to a slightly better $30 no-name multimeter, to a $50 Uni-T Multimeter. Yet all of these pale in comparison to the BM235 — to the point that I never want to use a cheap multimeter ever again.

To put the differences I have experienced in a nutshell, the BM235 just works, and it does so more reliably and faster than any of the cheaper multimeters than I‘ve ever owned. Measurements are fast, snappy, and accurate, checking for shorts in continuity mode is an absolute pleasure as the included gold-plated probes react consistently with the meter beeping pretty much instantly if there‘s a short, unlike my previous ones which tended to not only have a noticeable delay but with cheap probes they regularly failed to contact properly and detect actual shorts.

It doesn‘t come with any fancy bells and whistles function-wise, but every single feature that is implemented is done so solidly. It‘s a trustworthy workhorse. The BM235 comes with the seal of approval by the electronic design engineer and video blogger Dave Jones. In fact, he likes it so much he sells an EEVBlog-branded version of it (same thing, different color, and a bit more expensive).

Though not as cheap as my previous ones, it‘s a great multimeter punching well above its price class. As an addendum, if you have some spare change after getting the BM235, do yourself a favor and get a set of the previously-reviewed and absolutely fantastic, worth-every-penny Probemaster 8000 Series Test Leads. Especially the 8043SK Softie Test Lead Master Kit, which comes with so many neat clamping and probing options it‘s a breeze to test and measure whichever component you need to measure.

-- Kristian Reinhart 04/8/21

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