Tenma 72-1055 Benchtop Digital Multimeter with Capacitance, Frequency & Temp

The backlight button is the mechanical kind that you press in and it stays down (on); unless you press it in again and it pops out (off). You can leave it on or off and it will stay that way every time you use the meter. Just press the button in (detent) and whenever you turn the meter on—the backlight is on. The backlight is very bright and the readout is large. I have a wall of oscilloscopes, Kilovolt power supplies, function generators, frequency counters, etc. and this thing stands out among them all with it’s bright and large readout.SEE THE PHOTO I POSTED—THE METER IS AT THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER, WHICH IS RIGHT BELOW A CEILING LIGHT.This thing is large: it’s 8.75” x 12” x 4”. It’s bright orange and seems even larger. Although it can be powered by batteries it’s too large to walk around with for any amount of time. It’s a “bench” instrument that just has a weird battery option in case of an emergency, I guess.The only thing on the back is the place to put the AC adapter plug into and a switch to go from AC to DC battery. I’m using this as a bench meter, so I don’t care about that. If you want to load this up with 6 C-size batteries you’ll have to set the switch in back to “Battery”.It comes with: a pair of long, pointed probes that are pretty beefy; a short pair of leads that have alligator clips at the ends; a temperature probe; and a one-piece bridge that you plug in instead of probes and then can test for capacitance or PNP vs NPN and it has a place to plug the temperature probe into.It has a HUGE compartment which fits all of the above-mentioned items into it. This opens with two stiff, plastic screws that you can use a coin to open if you have strong fingers. Or a large flathead screwdriver. I put this on a mountain of stuff as a bench unit, so I’m not using that feature at all. I think it’d be pretty nice to have all your leads, probes and bridge if you were walking around with this on battery power.This unit measures: DC voltage; AC voltage; DC current; AC current; Resistance; ***Capacitance; Frequency and Temperature. It is NOT auto-ranging: you have to choose the closest value on the dial to what you (think) you are measuring. I always start at the highest setting of whatever property I’m trying to measure and then dial downward. On any piece of equipment if I think I’m measuring 2vDC I’ll still set the dial to the 200vDC range…then dial downward to move the decimal point to the left (lower to to the 2vDC range). That way, if I accidentally have 200vDC I don’t damage anything. And yes, I do things with 200vDC and lot’s higher quite often (plasma fusor, neon lamp bulb circuits, Jacob’s ladder, slayer Tesla coils, etc.). If I knew for 100% certain what the value was then I wouldn’t be measuring it, sometimes where you expect (ASSume) you’re going to have 2 volts there might be 200 due to an open/fried component. If everything was at the expected voltage/resistance/etc. you wouldn’t be probing it would you? Most of my other stuff has autoranging so I can carelessly jam the appropriate probes into stuff up to 40kV (yep, kilovolts!).Speaking of other equipment, my other stuff mostly has 11M ohms impedance, this thing has 10M ohms. Not a deal breaker and if you’re doing your own calculations it’s certainly much faster to figure with 10 vs 11, but some of my high voltage probes are calibrated for 11M ohms. This probably matters very little to most users. I certainly don’t care, it’s just that most of my hand-held DMMs are 11M ohms.The only thing I didn’t care for was the ***capacitance feature. It didn’t seem too accurate for any capacitor that I tested. You plug in the little plastic bridge-piece (instead of the probes) and you can push in a regular ceramic capacitor, or you can touch the legs of an electrolytic cap to the plates (make sure to get your + and – correct). Every readout was only sort of in the ballpark. A 10uF cap read 7.4uF. For capacitance measurements I HIGHLY recommend the meter you get when you search Amazon for “4897014180608” OR ONE THAT LOOKS LIKE IT: big and flat looking. They’re probably all made in the same factory. As for all the capacitance meters that look like regular red or orange hand-held multimeters: I bought a few and they ALL arrived broken and wouldn’t even turn on (you can click on my name and see my other reviews, there’s for the good and the bad LRC meters). The 4897014180608 LRC meter is fantastic and automatically can tell what it’s looking at and the measurements match what is written on the cap. Very nice.Another bits of weirdness: the selector knob could use a dab of bright paint so you can see where it is pointed. Also, all the choices are printed pretty small and in the same font and color so you have to really look at what you’re choosing. The AC voltage function says “AC” on the screen, the DC voltage doesn’t say anything: I kinda hate that. Tell me which I’m measuring so I don’t have an accident! On the knob selection AC and DC are not listed: you get the wave for AC and the long line with the three dashed under it that symbolize DC. It would have been so much nicer to write “AC” and “DC” and less cluttered too. I’ll write that on with a marker at some point. No biggie. And again: the capacitance readouts are terrible—don’t buy it for the capacitance. It’s great otherwise: a 100 Ohm resistor read 100.1, etc.Would I buy this again? Yes.Would I buy this to use the capacitance feature? No, search “4897014180608” on Amazon.Would I carry this around? No, search “Extech MN36 Digital Mini MultiMeter” here on Amazon and get the autoranging version.This is the best deal on Amazon for a bench meter. Just get it. Mike from Detroit

As one of several meters I have in my shop, this piece performs very well with easy to read display. It replaces an older model from the same manufacturer that I blew up (my fault). Very good, affordable bench top meter.

I wanted a benchtop multimeter with a large display and this one was the perfect choice. The large backlight display is always easy to read from all angles. I find it to be very accurate when compared with my fluke multimeter. As a bench unit it is great. I might be the only one who likes the compartment for test leads on top, but the meter just sits on the bench so I don't need to lock the screws to the compartment lid and I always have an assortment of leads accessible, but hidden from view. It is well constructed and professional in appearance/function. Things to be aware of: -The meter is quite large so it is really just for the workbench. -It is not auto ranging.All in all, for the price this is a great benchtop unit if you don't want to spend hundreds on a commercial grade bench unit.

This is about the best meter ever I could expect for the money. First it has a very large display. This is important for a 75 yo man who does stereo and transceiver repair for a hobby. Meaning I charge only for parts. I paid no attention to the size of this meter before ordering. I bought it because it was low priced and I did not need extreme accuracy. I was really impressed as I unpackaged this meter. I thought first they put this thing in way too large a box. I was wrong. It is a large meter for your workbench, not for being portable, although it has a place for batteries. If you are an experimenter or just plain hobbyist, doubt you could find a better deal. Tenma came up with a winner this time. I am thrilled that I do not need reading glasses to take voltage and ohm readings. It has other scales that I may use someday, but mostly I am just doing voltage and ohm readings to repair equipment.Update: It is now 2 months later of using this meter. It still works perfectly as described above. I know, I sound like I have an interest in the company. I do not. It is just that this product deserves the rave review I gave it.

Awful, Capacitance measure doesn't work, Displays voltage even when probes not plugged in,(mv range) when my hand is close to unit. See pics and video.Maybe my unit is defective, don't really know. Will try and return it.