Mastech 5-in-1 Multimeter Review - Some Disappointments
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As high as the quality seemed to be in the test leads, the thermocouple seems to lack. I'm not sure if it's necessary to make thermo wire thin and cheap or what, but it seems to be the case here.
I will give Mastech the benefit of the doubt, however, since instead of a plain plastic coating (like the one on the wires for my CompuNurse), these wires have a sort of woven fabric coating. I'm making an educated guess that this coating protects them from extraneous ambient temperature interference. The other thing worth noting about the K-type thermistor or probe used by Mastech is that it may be a bit inconvenient due to its thick ball shape (the Mastech is on the left while the CompuNurse is on the right). The CompuNurse also uses a K-type thermistor but it's much thinner and encased in a transparently thin coating.
As you can see above, the MS8209's thermistor is rounded and more suited to liquid temperature testing, where as the CompuNurse has a paper thin 103JT thermistor that would come in handy when being used say, in between two flat pieces of metal, such as a heat sink and the component from which it's trying to dissipate heat. A flat contact point also allows you to easily tape it to the surface whose temperature is to be measured. Though this is a con in my eyes, it's also one that can be easily remedied by purchasing a 103JT thermistor and soldering it on yourself. I would only suggest that, however, if you are already fairly competent with a soldering iron, since this would be a pretty delicate job--though simple if you know what you're doing.
Before getting into the specifics of the instrument I feel the need to point out a fairly noticeable scuff on my particular unit.
I'm not one to gripe over small scratches like this, but since there was no visible damage to the box or the carrying case, this leads me to believe that this happened before it was packaged. Since this is such a precision instrument, and since Mastech speaks so highly of its quality control, this seemed worth noting. Hopefully this doesn't affect the readings that I get now or in the future. So far, it doesn't seem to.
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