Thanks for United Kindom customer's feedback on our GVDA GD109 Small pen type multimeter
The negative probe fits in to the bottom of the tester and has a cover on the probe. Interestingly, the positive has two covers, with one leaving just the tip exposed, and then in removing the second cover you have a full-length probe.
I tested it next to some more expensive equipment and the readings were very similar. Certainly within a reasonable margin of error for most electrical work (this has a plus /- .5 percent margin for DC and plus /- .8 percent for AC). I like having auto-sensing on these. Flipping dials around is not only annoying, but I have blown two multimeters not noticing that I clicked the knob one setting too far and had it on ohms instead of AC voltage. Now it usually is replacement of a fuse, but I would prefer not even having to think about it. My auto multimeter simply disconnects the resistance setting if I touch it to live current.
This little thing is easy to read and so convenient. It has AC, DC (nope, no rock bands), and resistance in Auto mode, as well as pushing the function button to get frequency measurement, capacitance, diode, non-contact phase detection, and you can have it operate like many other testers this size that tell you when there is a live wire - unlike those little pen testers that light up or beep, this also will display whether is is a weak electric field (L) or a strong one (H).
Great little tool to have, and far more useful than those detectors that beep whether you have .5 volts of current or 125 volts - many a time my wife has claimed a circuit is fine on her car restoration project because her detector is beeping. I take my meter and show her she has virtually no current and she needs to find the problem. Those little detectors are useful, but this one is so much more so.
