MFT recommendations?

[fall-apart-dave]

So I had a little helpful advice on another thread I atarted, but thought I would ask specifics.

I'm about to buy an MFT, and was looking at the Megger MFT 720. It's pricey but looks nice and I have used them before, but is it overkill? I will be doing domestic and commercial work, sole trader, I suspect in my catchment area there will be a bit of fault finding too.
I have had a chat with someone who callibrates mfts and he said to avoid flukes, he gets them in for repair most often than not, and he too seems to like the Megger mfts and said he has not had one fail cal yet.

But I thought I would ask before outlaying my last coinage (I have everything riding on this, I'm flat broke and need to make this self employment lark work!). I have always had the mantra of "buy the very best you can afford" with tools. What do you guys all use?

 

[telectrix]

i use a megger 1553. does all you want and you can pick up a 2nd hand, calibrated mint condition for < £300. mine was bought from MDJ 2nd hand 3 years ago and it's still spot on.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Hmmm... thats much cheaper than a £700 hit for a 720! I dont need the bluetooth and bells and whistles... I am guessing I will never use the ramp test for rcds and all those fancy buts. Even the no trip setting for rcds seemed superfluous to me.

 

[Amp David]

As tel said, plenty of either 1552 pr 1553 megger mfts for sale. Only thing that i see you'd benefit from is the 2 wire no trip zs test

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Yeah but no trip is hardly a show stopper just means slightly more work when testing.

 

[telectrix]

ramp testis useful for leakage problems. test the RCD wwith no circuits connected. say it trips @ 25mA. then, with circuit/s connected retest. if it trips at less, say 18mA, then you have 7mA leakage. also it can detect a RCD that trips too high or too low a current.

 

[DPG]

Wait till you need the RCD ramp test feature at some point (which I reckon you probably will), then decide whether it was worth the few pounds saving after all. Daz

 

[Sparkie30]

Megger 1720, cant go wrong.

 

[Midwest]

Auto RCD test is dead useful working on your own, which I believe the 1720 has, not sure about the other models mentioned, but is another £400 worth that? Was for me, save my little legs!

 

[mattg4321]

You will need the ramp test sooner or later imo.

Another vote for Megger 1552/3 here. Had mine over 6 years now and hasn't missed a beat.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

The 1552/3 has the ramp test, right?

 

[telectrix]

yep. sure that the 1553 does. can't remember if the 1552 has it.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Cool cheers. Once I've taken off my Lazy trousers and dug out my best Tinterwebs Shopping trousers, I'll get on it.

 

[Midwest]

Cool cheers. Once I've taken off my Lazy trousers and dug out my best Tinterwebs Shopping trousers, I'll get on it.

Auto RCD test.

 

[NDG Elecs]

The 1552/3 has the ramp test, right?

The 1552 has ramp and auto RCD tests.

I recently posted this in a post on the tools and products section:

'Just got my Megger 1552 back from calibration. Quite a few of the applied test values and what the MFT actually recorded were 100% accurate. I think that's excellent for a well used machine that is 7 years old. Instills confidence to know it's accuracy is as such. So I would wholly recommend Megger.'

There are a good few posts on here about MFTs and Megger are consistently up there mate.