Fluke 287 vs Fluke 117: Advanced Meter or Electrician's Meter?

Specs side by side

Specs checked against manufacturer documentation and official Amazon listings. Fluke 117 is hands-on tested by OhmSavvy; the Fluke 287 assessment is desk research. How we research.

Key differences

• →Purpose: the 287 is a 280 Series logging meter aimed at electronics and diagnostics; the 117 is a 110 Series meter Fluke built around electricians' everyday checks.
• →Field features: only the 117 has VoltAlert non-contact detection and an AutoVolt LoZ input (about 3 kΩ). Fluke's manual reserves LoZ for the 289, so the 287 has neither.
• →Precision: the 287 shows 50,000 counts with ±(0.025% + 2) DC accuracy; the 117 shows 6,000 counts at ±(0.5% + 2), twenty times wider on the percentage term.
• →Small currents: the 287 has a 500 µA range resolving 0.01 µA. The 117 has no mA or µA range and steps in 1 mA.
• →Extra functions on the 287: temperature, frequency to 999.99 kHz, duty cycle, capacitance to 100 mF, 250 µs peak capture and 10,000-interval logging.
• →Rating and warranty: the 287 is CAT III 1000V / CAT IV 600V with a lifetime limited warranty; the 117 is CAT III 600V with 3 years. The 117 is lighter (550 g vs 871 g).

Two meters, two jobs

The Fluke 117 carries our Hands-on Tested badge: the owner has bought and hands-on tested one. We haven't tested the 287, so its side of this page comes from Fluke's manual and product data. The 287 is the more expensive meter, and most of that difference buys bench precision and recording that an electrician on a service call rarely needs. Equally, the 117 leaves out the functions an electronics bench depends on. Our Fluke 117 review covers the electrician's meter in depth.

What the 117 does on a job site that the 287 can't

An electrician's most common question is "is this wire live?", and the 117 answers it in two ways the 287 doesn't. VoltAlert lights and beeps when the top of the meter is held near an energized AC conductor, a quick screen before you open a box. AutoVolt picks AC or DC automatically and measures through a low-impedance input of about 3 kΩ, which matters because of how switched-off wiring behaves.

A conductor that is switched off but runs alongside live ones picks up voltage through stray capacitance. The 287's 10 MΩ input draws almost no current from that weak source, so it can display a convincing voltage that disappears the moment any real load is connected. The 117's LoZ position loads the wire enough to drain the coupled charge, so a ghost reading collapses while a real supply holds up. For an electrician in a remodel full of shared conduits, that one function prevents a lot of wasted time. Our explainer on voltage on a disconnected circuit shows how to check without LoZ.

What the 287 does at the bench that the 117 can't

Turn the question around and the gaps are just as large. The 117 has no temperature function, no microamp or milliamp range, and reads frequency only to 50 kHz. The 287 covers all three and adds recording.

The microamp gap is the decisive one for electronics. A microcontroller board in sleep, a sensor loop or a furnace flame sensor all run at currents the 117 can't see: anything under 1 mA reads as zero or a single count. The 287's 500 µA range resolves 0.01 µA, with Fluke publishing its burden voltage at 102 µV per µA so you can work out how much the meter disturbs the circuit. Our guide on how to measure microamps explains the setup.

Precision in practice: a 120 V outlet

Electricians mostly measure mains, so here is what the accuracy gap means there. On a 120 V AC reading, the 117 uses its 600.0 V range (0.1 V per count) and Fluke allows 1.0% plus 3 counts: 1.2 V + 0.3 V = ±1.5 V. The 287 uses its 500.00 V range (0.01 V per count) with 0.3% plus 25 counts at 45–65 Hz: 0.36 V + 0.25 V ≈ ±0.61 V. This is arithmetic on Fluke's published lines, not a measurement.

For deciding whether an outlet has 120 V, a breaker has tripped or a voltage drop exceeds a few percent, ±1.5 V is plenty. The 287's tighter figure helps when you document readings for a report or compare them over time, which is where its logging comes in.

Recording: Min/Max/Avg vs a full log

Both meters can be left on a circuit. The 117's Min/Max/Avg reports the extremes and average since you started, which is enough to confirm that a voltage sagged during a motor start. The 287 records up to 10,000 intervals with a real-time clock, shows the run as a graph on its screen and transfers it to a PC over an infrared link with FlukeView Forms. That turns "the lights flicker sometimes" or "the board resets overnight" into a timeline you can line up against loads and events. Battery life reflects the different jobs: Fluke quotes 100 hours minimum, 200 in logging mode, on six AA cells for the 287, and about 400 hours typical on one 9V for the 117. The two figures are on different bases (minimum against typical), so treat the comparison as rough.

Which should you buy?

Skip the 117 if you need microamps, temperature or recording; skip the 287 if your day is panels and outlets and you value NCV and LoZ. If you want one meter that sits between the two, the Fluke 117 vs Fluke 87V comparison covers an industrial meter with a microamp range and CAT IV, and Fluke 87V vs Fluke 289 covers the logging meter that adds LoZ. For bench-only buyers, Fluke 287 vs Fluke 179 compares the 287 with Fluke's 170 Series. Wider rankings are in our best multimeter for electricians and best multimeters for electronics repair guides.

Frequently asked questions