USA Source for Brymen Meters? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 03:45:44 am
content: What is the best way for someone in the USA to get a hold of a Brymen multimeter?I'm assuming they have an agreement with the companies that re-brand them so they won't sell direct, and there doesn't appear to be any consistent sources on ebay. While I generally speaking really like Extech gear, it would be nice not to have to pay the Extech tax on this one.Thoughts?

author: kodai
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 08:33:26 am
content: The Brymen meters are sold under the Greenlee name in the U.S. and can cost a pretty penny here. The upper end of the Greenlee meters dont show up on ebay that often and when the do, they tend to be NIB and are close to full retail. Their price vs their 50,000-500,000 counts tends not to be worth it. Just my two cents.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 10:03:12 am
content: Ya I saw the Greenlee, Amprobe and Extech re-badges from the other thread. What I'm interested in is getting a genuine Brymen branded one since they seem to be at least 1/2 the price of the name brands. If I wanted to pay Fluke prices I'd buy a Fluke, but if I could get that same meter for 1/2 the price it would be pretty attractive.I know abouthttp://www.tme.eubut their prices seem high, as well and the shipping is probably a killer.If there are no other sources, who wants to bring a box full back from Taiwan and sell them in the states?

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2012, 05:45:21 pm
content: Thanks. Ya I saw the ebay link thread. I was hoping to get a TBM867, but I guess I don't really need the dual screen.I did end up getting one of those BM857 from ebay. I also got a DMMCheck reference standard so I'll be able to check this and my other 20 year old test equipment soon. I figured if I keep getting old test equipment from ebay I should probably have a means of at least basically seeing how much out of cal it is.

author: kodai
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2012, 04:45:00 am
content: Well, we dont know much about the Brymen company. Are Brymen rebadged Greenlee or is it the other way arround? Nobody has really given any viable info on it. But its a given (the way the market works) that unless somebody does just buy a box of them and bring them back to sell, you will not be able to find a Brymen branded meter here in the U.S. since Greenlee has the rights to sell those meters here. Some places have them at a very reduced cost because they are under protected economies (ie devloping nations) and more often than not, the cheaper price they pay for the meter is subsidised with the higher cost that other countries have to pay.In short, there really is no source for Brymen badged meters in the U.S. and if you manage to find any then they will tend to command a price that will be close to their Greenlee counterparts. I really thought about buying one of those 857's on ebay just to see how well made they really are, but I've got my electronics budget set aside this month to order me up a new JBC CD-1BB. I already have 14 DMM's (a half dozen are fluke's) so I really couldnt justify $100 (with shipping) for the fun of playing with yet another new meter just becuase its a half million counts. Since you bought one, give us a review on it. Besides, that guy didnt sell all of them so maybe he will list the relist the last couple of meters next month and I'll have another chance to grab a new toy if your review shows its worth it.

author: Tepe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2012, 09:12:09 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on October 07, 2012, 10:03:12 amYou could try setting up an account at TME. Then you can see what the shipping will be.

author: Tepe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2012, 09:15:29 am
content: Quote from: kodai on October 09, 2012, 04:45:00 amYou wouldn't get an 869 for so little, even without shipping.

author: kodai
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2012, 09:37:45 am
content: I was talking about the 857 on sale on ebay. The seller had 3 new 857's for sale for $89.99 (plus shipping). The OP said he bought one of them. The sale ended the other day with 2 of the 3 unsold. Iwas asking the OP if he would review the DMM when he got it in to see if the $89.99 price is worth it. My main concern is build quality. I know the 857's case well as its been in service as a generic DMM case for more than a decade. That tells me the unit maybe a farmed out design that cut some corners.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2012, 11:25:53 pm
content: What about suppliers in the UK or Europe? The 0.02% + 500,000 count for the BM869 is appealing.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2012, 06:33:11 am
content: I think the tme price for the 857 was around 175USD in the cart. Not sure if the included shipping. There are other threads where people did teardowns of both the 857, 867, and 869. The construction isn't quite fluke quality, but its not terrible. I'm not sure if I've seen the insides of the extech rebadge but I would assume its near exactly the same. There is a thread where the extech rep confirmed that brymen was the oem, and yet another thread where someone got in contact with brymen and he said they were really helpful. Sorry I'm on my phone now so I can't find links.I got my DMMcheck reference today so ill be able to test at least the 5V, 1mA, and some resistances.On a side note the keithly 175 I got off ebay was surprisingly close when I checked it against the reference. I still need to calculate all the percentages but it looks like its still pretty close to spec for those measurements. Ill see how the brymen does against it when it comes in. For a real comparison with something certified you will have to wait till the calibration party happens

author: crispus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 09:53:46 pm
content: Quote from: IanB on October 09, 2012, 11:25:53 pmhttp://www.tme.eu/en/details/bm869/portable-digital-multimeters/brymen/#and it is ~240USD without VAT or shipping.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 28, 2012, 04:56:00 am
content: I have been trying to buy from TME, but they refuse to answer me when I ask how to pay by credit card. I finally realized that they do not appear to accept credit cards, only bank transfers. I am not willing to send someone cash before shipping.

author: Tepe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 28, 2012, 07:36:17 am
content: Quote from: Lightages on October 28, 2012, 04:56:00 amI have bought from them twice using PayPal.

author: crispus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2012, 04:10:14 pm
content: I bought a couple of times from them and always paid for on delivery (from EU). I don't know how is it outside of EU...

author: LEECH666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2012, 01:10:20 am
content: Wow, that meter has gone up in price a lot. Last time when I checked the price on TME it was around 105€.Yup, guess I took a look at the 867 back then and not the 869.There is this South African dude called Martin Lorton who did a few videos on theBrymen 869Brymen 867, but you probably know these videos already.If not here is short look inside it's guts.Cheers,Florian

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 09:20:13 am
content: Good deals on Ebay at the moment for these 857s.(I'm not affiliated with either of these guys.)69.95USD and free shipping. Thats nuts.http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-True-RMS-CAT-IV-Precision-Multimeter-/281048509155?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D4934911449918460045%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D121051191083%26#89.99 + 11.99 shipping USD. (Same guy I got mine from)http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-True-RMS-CAT-IV-Precision-Multimeter-500-000-Count-Brymen-BM857-/121051191083?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2f36972b

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 09:30:53 am
content: Looks like a few people got them for as cheap as $30back in 2008 although we have no idea what the shipping prices were.

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 09:31:45 am
content: They must have got these meters from a surplus sale or something as Brymen doesn't have this particular model in their current lineup anymore. In any case, users in the US, GO GRAB ONE!!!

author: tino_so
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 08:32:04 pm
content: March 2016 update. Just a quick follow up, I did a search for both Greenlee and Brymen on major US/Canadian providers, such as Active123.com, Digikey.ca, GapWireless, Newark Element 14, etc. to no avail. Too bad Brymen has not found a decent distribution channel in North America yet.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 08:42:39 pm
content: It is more than likely that Brymen has an agreement with Greenlee to not sell the Brymen brand in the US in competition to Greenlee. In that light, there will never be a Brymen distributor in the US as long as they have other manufacturers re-branding and selling their meters.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 10:06:31 pm
content: Quote from: tino_so on March 03, 2016, 08:32:04 pmIf you really want a Greenlee meter, try ebay.com. The majority of Greenlee sellers will be USA based so be prepared to pay customs, duties, brokerage fees keeping in mind the 70 cent loonie. You will find new in box (NIB) and used ones.In addition, read the terms and conditions of the Greenlee warranty wrt to ebay sellers. That is, does warranty apply to non authorized sellers and how long does the warranty apply (how many years)?

author: nidlaX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 10:16:19 pm
content: If you're looking for the BM257s, just grab the Greenlee DM-510A from Sears. The lowest historical prices are even lower than Franky's, and that's with Greenlee's warranty support included. If you buy at the right time, you might even get an LCD HDTV thrown in for free!

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 10:28:29 pm
content: Just remembered that I saw Greenlee meters on amazon.ca.For example,http://www.amazon.ca/Greenlee-DM-510A-Professional-Digital-Multimeter/dp/B003TO5YU0/Beware that on Amazon, the product may not be sourced from Amazon, but some 3rd party seller. Same questions that I had in the previous post apply to Amazon as well.

author: tino_so
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 01:49:10 am
content: Quote from: Lightages on March 03, 2016, 08:42:39 pmThat is a good point. I guess my hope is that one day, Brymen breaks that cycle and it could have a more prominent place in the handheld dmm market than it current has. Perhaps the Eevblog badged model will give it a nudge in that direction

author: tino_so
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 02:54:21 pm
content: I have taken a look at Amazon.ca and it indeed has some selection there. Also at Sears in the US, also plenty of selection. I do cross the border to the US to visit relatives from time to time, so ordering from a US reseller would be one option, although nothing beats the convenience of getting stuff delivered to your home and if one has to use the warranty, to deal with a local reseller.This conversation got me thinking that I should widen my search and so I also checked Lowes, Home Depot and other hardware stores that have websites on both sides of the border and found for example the Greenlee DM-200A at Lowes.ca, (which is similar to the Brymen 251 perhaps?) at a price of CA$114, which is around US$84 at current exchange rates, not too bad.I also saw some Southwire DMMs on the Lowes.com site, they look like Extech, is that the case? I am just starting to realize this is such a common practice for these companies to sell their product under a different company name, similar to Siglent and others in the oscilloscope market.Thank you all for your input.

author: Iwanushka
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 06:14:11 pm
content: Cheapest place to get brymens is from tme.eu, bought mine bm869s a week ago for 190e +VAT

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 07:12:20 pm
content: Quote from: tino_so on March 04, 2016, 02:54:21 pmAvoid Southwire meters. The original OEM is CEM Instruments and their quality control, in particular the soldering, is questionable at best. They also make some meters for Extech including the one Dave's $100 shootout.

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 02:14:10 pm
content: Just a word of caution for those considering purchasing a Brymen from overseas: I purchased a Brymen BM257S late in 2015. Did a very thorough review before buying and was very impressed. I ultimately purchased one through an authorized seller on eBay, received the meter quickly, and was impressed with the build quality and accuracy. Only one problem: it died after 7 months of occasional, light use. To make matters worse, I find that I have to return it to Hong Kong on my own dime. I was shocked to find out what shipping charges are from the USA to Hong Kong! The average price for a slow boat trip is $60. Lesson learned on buying anything of value from Hong Kong or China. It will literally need to be a throw-away item, which it looks like I will need to do with the Brymen.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 04:37:55 pm
content: Quote from: QualityGuy on July 26, 2016, 02:14:10 pmYes, this has been mentioned here before in other Brymen threads about buying overseas either from TME or Franky. The cost of their shipping to the USA might be heavily subsidised, but shipping from USA back to them could be very $$$ especially with tracking, signature, etc.QuoteThat has been the case with pretty much all online ebay, aliexpress, etc purchases. If you bought it from Franky, his auction clearly states "Buyer pays return shipping".QuoteI can't guarantee it, but if you want to start another thread on what is exactly broken with your Brymen, I and others can try to help determine what is wrong and possibly fix it? I sent you a PM as well since this is your first post and you may not come back to eevblog.

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 05:32:46 pm
content: Thanks for the reply. Since this was my first post, I'm still learning the way around the Forum.I was fully aware of my responsibility to pay for return shipping to the seller but thought a warranty return to the factory for service would be covered. It seems I must return it to him and he takes care of it with the factory. My "bad" for not inquiring on this point. What I wasnotaware of was that (1) a "Fluke-like quality" meter would crap out after only 7 months of very light use, and (2) just how much the shipping to Hong Kong would be.I would love to have some help on fixing it and I will start another thread. I plan on being a regular participant.Thanks Again,Mike

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 11:02:05 pm
content: Just to be clear, the problem of warranty on items purchased overseas is a problem for all manufacturers. They will all tell you to ship the item back to the seller. This the risk with the global market. It is always better to but locally, if the price is not ridiculously high. Well almost always. There are some companies locally who will screw you too.

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 11:36:35 pm
content: Quote from: Lightages on July 26, 2016, 11:02:05 pmThis is a lesson I've learned the hard way!

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2016, 04:17:08 am
content: Quote from: QualityGuy on July 26, 2016, 02:14:10 pmIt's notthatbad... for a 2 pound package, USPS First Class Mail International costs $22.And BTW, USPS no longer offers boat trips. Everything goes by air.

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2016, 05:05:17 am
content: I put in the weight and dimensions in the on-line USPS calculator and it was much, much more than $22.00. With some padding, my meter won't fit into the small flat rate box, which is the cheapest I found at $31.95. It's the 1-5/8 inch dimension that gets me.Regards,Mike

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2016, 04:09:17 pm
content: ...eDavid, thanks for mentioning First Class. I asked the local post office about this and was told that for the dimensions of my shipping box and weight, it could go this way. So, it's now on its way to Hong Kong for $22.75. Not cheap but better than $60.00!Many Thanks,Mike

author: iloveelectronics
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 04:36:55 am
content: Quote from: QualityGuy on July 27, 2016, 04:09:17 pmHi Mike,This is Franky (I sold you the BM257S). I just saw this thread. I'm sorry about the trouble with your particular unit. I hope we can sort this out quickly. You can also contact me here on the forum if you prefer this over the eBay messaging system (which is rather limiting!).Cheers,Franky

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 12:39:33 pm
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on July 29, 2016, 04:36:55 amHi Franky; Just so everyone knows, I have not mentioned you as the seller. But now that you've volunteered the information, let me say this: you've been very, very responsive & helpful. You've offered to send me a replacement meter as soon as you receive mine (hopefully soon). No complaints with your service at all. Now, if we could just get more reasonable shipping rates to Hong Kong! Thanks, Mike

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 03:39:14 pm
content: Quote from: QualityGuy on July 29, 2016, 12:39:33 pmYou didn't have to. Regulars here know it is Franky.

author: QualityGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2016, 04:00:03 am
content: Quote from: iloveelectronics on July 29, 2016, 04:36:55 amHi Franky;Replacement Brymen received and it works on all functions. Looks good, too! Thanks very much for your great customer service and help.So, although getting the meter back to Hong Kong wasn't cheap, I fortunately picked a good, honest seller to work with. Hey, one out of two ain't bad...Regards,Mike

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2021, 04:10:04 am
content: It's 2021, and apparently Brymen still doesn't have a US Distributor? I wonder what the deal is. Could they still be under contract with Greenlee and not able to sell under their name?

author: kawal
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2021, 10:27:45 pm
content: I ordered a Brymen clamp meter from TME Poland with shipping to the USA . The shipment made it to me within a few days and the shipping was super cheap (FEDEX priority shipping for $9.99).Ordered on September 15th and received the package on September 20th. That is better than some amazon deliveries.TME has very attractive prices - got some spare Brymen meter probes for $12Overal I am very impressed with the service provided by TME.Brymen sells to Greenlee and Ampro and a few others so they might be contracted not to sell in the USA directly.