Fluke 106 vs Fluke 114: Which Compact Multimeter Should You Buy?

Specs side by side

Specs checked against manufacturer documentation and official Amazon listings. Desk research, not bench testing. How we research.

Key differences

• →The 106 measures current on 4 A and 10 A ranges and capacitance to 1,000 µF; the 114 has only COM and V/Ω jacks and lists neither function.
• →The 114 is True RMS and has AutoVolt, a low-impedance 600 V position that picks AC or DC for you; the 106 is average-responding with a conventional high-impedance input only.
• →The 114 adds a 33-segment bar graph, a listed backlight and Min/Max/Average with elapsed time; Fluke's 106 page lists none of these.
• →The 106 weighs 200 g against 550 g and is 28 mm thick against 46 mm.
• →Both are CAT III 600V with 6,000-count displays, and their shared DC and AC voltage accuracy is close: ±(0.5% + 3) versus ±(0.5% + 2) on DC.
• →Warranty is 3 years on the 114; Fluke's 106/107 documentation gives the 106 two years, though the 106 product page itself doesn't state one.

Only one of these is really compact

Searchers often lump the 114 in with Fluke's small meters because it does so few things, but physically it shares the same 167 × 84 × 46 mm housing as the 115 and 117. The 106 belongs to a different family: the 101/106/107 pocket line, built around two AAA cells. Drawn to the same scale, the gap is obvious.

The bulk buys the 114 a 9 V battery rated for twice the hours, a bar graph that refreshes 32 times a second and a backlight. The 106 trades all three for something you can drop in a shirt pocket. If "compact" is your top requirement, the honest answer is the 106, and the real question becomes whether you can live without True RMS and LoZ.

Function coverage: a crossed trade

Most Fluke pairings are a ladder, where the pricier meter does everything the cheaper one does and more. This pair isn't. Each meter has functions the other lacks entirely, so the table below matters more than the spec sheets' headline numbers.

Notice that neither meter tests diodes or reads frequency. If you need those on a pocket body, the step up is the 107, covered in Fluke 106 vs Fluke 107. If you want the 114's voltage tools plus current and capacitance, that combination is the 117, compared in Fluke 114 vs Fluke 117.

Two ways to be wrong about a dead wire

The biggest practical gap is how each meter behaves on an open conductor that runs beside a live one. The 106's volts input is over 10 MΩ, which is what you want on electronics, but it also means a disconnected wire picking up voltage capacitively from its neighbor can show a sizable AC reading with almost no current behind it. You then have to decide whether that number is real.

The 114's AutoVolt position puts a low resistance across the leads. A stiff source such as a real 120 V feed barely notices; a weak, coupled voltage collapses toward zero. As a hedged illustration, a coupled wire might read tens of volts on a high-impedance meter and close to nothing on LoZ, while a genuinely energized circuit reads about the same on both. That contrast is the diagnostic. Fluke doesn't publish the LoZ input resistance on the 114 page we checked; the same feature on the 113 and 117 is specified at roughly 3 kΩ.

Where the 106's current and capacitance ranges win

Current is the job the 114 simply can't start. The 106 reads up to 10 A in series, AC or DC, at ±(1.5% + 3), with AC current specified from 40 to 200 Hz. That covers a 12 V accessory in a car, a bench supply feeding a project or a low-voltage lighting run, as long as the load stays within 10 A. It has no milliamp range, so best resolution on the 4 A range is 1 mA and small standby currents are out of reach; see Fluke 17B+ vs Fluke 106 if you need finer current.

Capacitance follows the same pattern. The 106 reads from its 50 nF range up to 1,000 µF, though Fluke notes readings can take up to 18 seconds to settle. That handles a furnace blower's run capacitor or a power-supply filter cap. The 114 lists no capacitance function at all, so an HVAC or appliance user who needs that test should not start with it; our Fluke 114 vs Fluke 116 page covers the 110-series model that adds it.

Which should you buy?

Buy the Fluke 106 if you're a homeowner, car owner or hobbyist who wants a tough, small meter that covers volts, amps, ohms and capacitance, and you mostly measure clean utility power or DC. Skip it if you work on building wiring for a living, because it has no LoZ, no True RMS and no backlight listed. Buy the Fluke 114 if your day is spent proving circuits live or dead in panels and boxes. Skip it if you'll ever need amps or capacitance, since the more complete 115 and 117 share its body; compare it with the Fluke 115 first.

Where the published specs disagree

Fluke's 114 overview mentions "voltage and current", but its own spec table lists no current range and the meter has only two jacks, so we treat it as voltage and resistance only. The same page carries a temperature footnote without any temperature function. Amazon gives the 114's weight as 0.51 kg against Fluke's 550 g. On the 106, our product summary mentions data hold, yet Fluke's 106 page doesn't list hold or a backlight, so treat both as unconfirmed. Fluke's 106/107 documentation gives a two-year warranty that the 106 product page itself doesn't repeat. A 1 m drop rating is published for the 107; for the 106 and 114 it is not stated in the sources we cite.

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