Okay so If you’ve been around the RV Repair Woman world for a minute you’ll know that I preach a LOT about using a multimeter in and around your RV and how it can save you a lot of moolah.

But this has led a lot of people to ask the obvious question of: which multimeter do I need?

Here are the three options I tend to push people towards. 

$7 Harbor Freight Meter

ANY multimeter you learn to use is going to save you time and money in your RV. If you want just go get the cheapest meter from Harbor Freight. It only costs $7 and you can use it to do ~80% of the things that you’re going to want to test in your RV. 

This meter isn’t going to last long. You’ll probably break it within a month. BUT if you just want to get over the hump of having never touched a multimeter before this may be the best option for you. 

$20 Meter

If you have it in your budget to jump up to a meter in the $20 range I HIGHLY recommend it. Usually jumping up to around $20 is going to get you a meter with the continuity test on it. 

Continuity will let you easily test your fuses in your RV. It is designated by the audio symbol. 

The audio symbol tells us that for this test your meter is actually going to make a beeping noise to tell us if we passed the test or not. This makes testing fuses super quick and easy and is definitely worth the upgrade if you can afford it. 

Klein CL800

And then if you really love this electricity stuff and want a meter that is going to outlast your RV then I usually point people towards the Klein CL800. 

This guy usually comes in at a little over $100 and is my go to everyday meter. That bump in price gains you an amp clamp - which is the big orange mouth part at the top. The amp clamp lets us really easily test amperage without ever having to unplug anything from the circuit. This makes testing really fast and easy and drastically decreases the chances of us getting shocked during testing. 

The CL800 is also autoranging. With the cheaper meters I have to tell the meter roughly what range of voltage, resistance, or amperage that I expect to see before I start testing. The Klein is smart enough to do that thinking on its own. 

And finally the CL800 has the LoZ test. This test is invaluable for testing Dometic air conditioners. You can not use the cheaper meters to test the AC volts on a Dometic air conditioner - you will get wild readings that make absolutely no sense. BUT you can use the LoZ setting on the Klein as a substitute. I LOVE this about my Klein. 

Challenge

Once you’ve chosen the multimeter of your dreams (or at least for your RV today) check out the $5000 Challenge. 

This is a mini course that I’ve put together that will show you how to use almost all the settings on your meter to save money in and around your RV. 

I’ll walk you through 10 of the most common calls that I get as a tech and show you how you can use your meter to solve them yourself. 

By the end of the challenge you’ll know how to save over $5000 in repairs in your RV. 

Join here to learn how to become your own personal RV tech. 

You Got This!