Side by Side Comparison of: SMAKN vs Innova

Great little voltage display, I made a little camper in my pick up and wanted a box to tell my solar charge state and mount a phone charger, this worked great with some basic parts from Home Depot.

Easy to use and clear to see. Super fast installation. Used this to monitor a battery without always having to hookup my volt meter everytime.

Bought this to monitor voltages on some of my RC video equipment. It's small, cheap, and accurate. Mine was accurate right out of the box (tested with a Greenlee DM-820a multimeter), so no further adjustment was necessary. The display is nice and bright, visible even in daylight. Can't ask for anything better for this application.

2 things to be aware of:
1) The plug on the back is a little loose - not the plug soldered onto the board, but the removable plug containing the voltage leads. I don't expect it to come apart while the display is mounted, but if you're not permanently mounting the display, you may want to reinforce the connection with some hot glue or similar non-conductive adhesive.
2) The clips on the side are positioned for this display to be mounted on a panel that is 3/16in or less. I mounted mine on a 1/4in plywood board and had to wedge it in there without the clips to hold it firmly. Seems to work just fine though.

Before I permanently mounted it to my chassis to measure a 13V +/- 2V source, I connected it to my bench power supply and varied the voltage from about 3v to 20v. I cross checked its accuracy against my Fluke 87V, a more accurate and higher resolution meter. This SMAKN meter was about 0.5V off in the low voltage range, up to about 7-8V. However, beyond that range it seemed to track the Fluke quite well. It has a pot to calibrate it, but I didn't mess with it. Its default accuracy was OK for my use.

The green display is pleasant and large enough to read from several feet away.

Considering that it cost me just about $6 including Prime shipping, it wouldn't be fair for me to complain that it is not as accurate as a Fluke that costs a few hundred dollars. For $6, it is 5 stars!

Bought these to install in my 50/10/2 amp manual battery chargers. Just made keeping the batteries charged on 5 vehicles a whole lot easier. Now I don't have to drag a multimeter along with the charger.
I mounted the SMAKN ( love that name) volt meter on the front right below the original amp meter. Looks awesome, especially at night I can check where voltage is at a glance from afar.

Both SMAKN VMs I recieved were reading .1 V too high according to my expensive Greenlea multimeter which read 13.9 V. I noticed a variable resistor on the PCB marked "VR". It takes a small flat screwdriver such as for eyeglass repair to fit it. I turned it CCW just a few hairs and lost .3 V on the display so it doesn't take much to make a fine adjustment. Got both meters down to 13.9 from 14 and everything is peachy.

The hole required to panel mount these bad boys is 1-25/32" x 1"

I might buy more of these to put on my riding mowers just because they look so cool. The green LED would match the John Deere too!

GREAT multimeter! Have used it a few times, but really like the easy large readout. The selector is quick and easy to use. Comes with batteries already installed. Nice little bonus!! All my INNOVA products have been high quality!! Very happy with purchase...

Handles all the functions I need for diagnosing issues with vehicle/trailer wiring. If you frequently switch between testing amps and testing voltage, I recommend buying an inline fuse and modifying your leads to put a fuse inline. I smoked my first multimeter by leaving it hooked up to the 10amp connection when trying to measure voltage. I immediately bought a second meter (and some inline fuses!).

Great little tester!! I use it for home use and leave my Fluke at work. Auto ranging and audible continuity buzzer. Does just about everything my Fluke does, but for a heck of a lot cheaper. I don't know if I would use it for very precise measurements, but for light mechanics and hobby work, can't beat it for the price.

Pleasantly surprised at the value for the price. This is great for occasional use for the DIY inclined or hobbyist. Not appropriate for a professional or someone who needs safety around high voltage. This is better than some $40-50 multimeters I have used in the past. However, time will tell whether it stays accurate and continues to work for years to come.

So far, this meter is excellent. I love the auto-ranging. I no longer have to choose AC or DC or the voltage range--just stick on the leads. I am confident that the other functions work as specified, but voltage and continuity are what I use most.

Great meter for a great price! Does so much more than a comparably priced unit. Did a quick walk through with my father and now I can never find it because its in HIS tool box. Now I need to buy myself another one!

The display is brighter than you'd expect. The unit I received is very accurate for the price, within 0.1 volt of what my EXTECH multimeter reads.

Would like a trimpot for lowering the display brightness. If there is a trimpot for brightness then instructions or a label on the silkscreen showing it.

This is a decent voltmeter. I am using it to monitor my motorcycle battery. I have it hooked up to a switch that also turns on other accessories on my motorcycle.

It's very simple to install, just splice some longer wire to your positive and negative contacts and it will run off of the power source. It does draw power so you need to install a switch or disconnect it when not in use. It was not accurate out of the box, but this was solved easily by the adjustment knob.

You may want to fill the connection point, or even the entire back end with hot glue to keep it waterproof and to ensure the connector does not rattle loose.

I had to send my original back for a replacement, but the replacement worked just fine.

What a sweet little voltage reader. I put in a solar system on my Motor Home and need something to monitor the voltage -- the controler only has idiot lights, and while some see me as an idiot, I don't so I had to have something a real idiot could read. Hum, did I say that right? Anyway this works as it should and I can see battery condition at a glance. Cut a hole in a thin panel next to a cupboard, about eye level -- traced out and measured a couple of times to get it just right, cut the rectangular hole and pressed this little gem in for a perfect fit. No screws need, nice and clean.

I havent installed it yet but i have tested it with a 9v battery and seems to work just fine. crisp display and seems well built.

Only down side is the shipping and handling is excessive, 5.99 for the product but then charged me $6.01 shipping. was mailed from IN to KY (neighbor state). Small light weight just in a bubble wrapped envelope. I also at the same time ordered a charge controller (much heavier then this meter) from another company on the same order which came from southern CA area and same bubble wrapped envelope (slightly larger size) and they only charged $2 shipping.

Pros: Product seems really good quality and arrived 2 days early then estimated.

Cons: Excessive shipping fees which i suspect so it can have a perceived cheaper price listing and just make up for it on the shipping fee as a marketing gimmick.

I bought two for monitoring my solar voltage coming straight down from the array. It proved to be quite accurate, fast, eye-catching display, and inexpensive. Here are my gripes though:

- The black and wires are way too small (think 6 strands of hair). I was able to splice enough wire off to extend the length with longer wire. I was able to solder and heat shrink over the wires...but, dang that was a PITA.

- I mounted it into a project box I got at RShack. I had to use a utility knife to cut a rectangle out to match the backside dimensions of the meter. That was, well, a PITA. It didn't fit perfectly in the rectangle cutout because this meter has 4 mounting clicky deals that stopped it from going all the way in. So, in order to secure it to the project box...I used Shoe Goo (rock hard rubber cement) and let it sit overnight. That worked great.

- Be careful with the wires and the little plug in connector. Do they make a connector plug with heavier wire? That would help.

-Needs a faceplate type mount with 4 screw holes.

Meter seems to be doing fine for the number of times I used it. One thing that takes some getting used to is that when measuring voltages, it would look like it was dancing all over the place with readings, till I realized that there was a small indicator also showing that it was millivolts instead of volts. OK, I guess I can buy that. Otherwise it seems fairly well constructed and for the price, offers some nice features.

I had originally bought this just to have something not from Harbor Freight to measure resistance in my ignition coils. This can technically measure in the megaohms, but it has a really hard time with anything above about 6 kiloohms, and the accuracy takes a hit on 220v lines. Maybe my unit, maybe just the model, I don't know. Don't really care either.What I do know is that it gets regularly borrowed by friends that already own lineman service level Fluke multimeters. The holsters on the side won't hold most other probes though, but whatever. At this price, you could seriously, easily do worse.

I needed a inexpensive multimeter that could help me locate a parasitic draw and it did the trick. It's accurate, reliable and inexpensive. You can't ask for much more than that. Great purchase, I'm sure it will come in handy for all the projects around the garage.

This multimeter works well for someone who doesn't rely on it for a living. It has good features. The only reason I took off a star is because the battery load test doesn't seem to work right and sometimes the tone for continuity doesn't work until I switch off of and back onto continuity test. I would buy it again.

Really nice item; the display is big and clear; the continuity lag behind but it is OK, considering that this is not a Fluke nor it cost a lot of money.Tollerance is good too; I did use it for 3V and 5V projects and so far it has been quite accurate, compared to the professional multimeter. Easy to use, even my kids can use it without problems.The only thing that I don't like is that you can't hang the probes; the clips are soft plastic and they are more for show than to hold the probes.Overall, it is a super deal for the price.

Would give it 3.5 if I could. I needed a multimeter for around the house and this one was rated very highly. I haven't gotten a chance to play with some of its more advanced features, but the basic functionality works great.My only problem with it is the little clips on the sides that are supposed to hold the probs. They're basically useless. The plastic is way too soft and bendy to hold the prob securely, and any amount of jostling or putting it in a bag with other tools will result in the probs popping out of their retention clips. I'd rather it not have the clips at all if they don't work correctly and am thinking about just cutting them off the case.But like i said, this is a great product other than the clips. In general it feels solid and well built for the price. OK screw it i'm changing my rating to 4 starts. Its not fair to deduct 2 stars for such a trivial gripe

I was using this to monitor my batteries on an E-Bike. After several months, it got so I have to tap the screen to get all the segments to light up. No big deal, but I suppose that some day I will have to tear the panel apart and replace this item. I am thinking it's all the bumping and crashes that induced this problem, so I really don't blame the meter. I have three other digital meters that seem to have survived the same treatment, so it looks like by the luck of the draw I got one a bit more sensitive to being knocked around. Still, a good digital meter.

I've gone through several of these in just a year. For the price they are great, but they aren't made to last very long if you run them 100% of the time. I've had them on my Camper Trailer battery so I know when to charge the battery, and the LED's burn out after a pretty short time.. 4 months? Not to mention the wires are REALLY thin gauge.

The unit is very tiny. I was surprised. Hopefully it displays the correct voltage.

The construction of this meter is not great. The PCB traces are on the top side of the board, so the connector has no mechanical support. The only thing holding it on is the adhesion of the traces to the board substrate. Which means that it's going to pull off with very minor stress. When mine failed, I just cut the connector off the wires and routed them around the side of the board, and through the holes from the bottom. This creates a much more mechanically sound connection. Really, there's no point in even having the connector there in the first place.

The nice part of this is that it includes a trimmer to calibrate the meter, and it already comes calibrated to a reasonable tolerance. As much as you can expect for three digits, anyway. There's a diode that protects from negative voltage reaching the chip, and if you pull that off, you separate the chip's power supply from the main sampling input. If you give it an external supply, you can measure down to 0 volts, and it has the added benefit of not loading down what you're trying to measure. Doing that, you can probably also measure higher than 30 volts, but I don't have a power supply that goes high enough to test it.

Apart from the connector pulling off, my only other complaint is that the display is WAY too bright. It seriously lights up a dark room. I could fix it by replacing the 6 SMD resistors, but it's really more trouble than it's worth.

Very nice little meter. The one I received was accurate and the display was bright. The wires & power connector are very fragile, however. Make sure you mount it solidly with no stress or vibration on the wires. The power connector on mine broke loose from the circuit board. I only took two stars off for the meter breaking in less than one day, because I had not mounted it solidly yet.

Decent multi-meter. It worked well for a while, but then started giving erroneous voltage and amperage readings when trying to measure. Resistance still works fine. I haven't really used any of the other features as I don't have need of them.

Good product does exactly what it should do. The reason I have given three stars is I ordered it with prime and didn't arrive for a month.

Bought one a couple years ago and it still works awesome. Bought a second one 3 months ago for my assistant, and it died just today...It was working fine one minute while I was checking voltage on a 3.3v circuit. I look back at it a minute later and the voltage is reading out random numbers from -100mv to +200mv with the probes touching nothing... ?

I bought a couple of these and I have varying results. One works great but the 2nd one will not complete a battery load test. If you get a good one you'll love it, otherwise you'll only be getting a basic voltmeter.

Meter is accurate with my beckman. But wish it had more functions it's a automatic range that I'm not use to.

Mine should of gone back, misplaced packaging so cant return. Will go to dumpster instead. Wont hold zero, numbers bounce constantly seems to always be searching for correct range. Battery tester is gimmicky at best. Cant hear continuity tester in a noisy environment. Lacking any sort of real AC testing. I honestly wasnt expecting much for the price, but not being able to hold zero for a simple 12v test is a deal killer. Maybe i just got a rare bad unit, as other reviewers love this unit. Unfortunately i cant return which is my fault so i gave 3 stars instead of 1 since its partially my fault.

no good

Two stars, it works good but the back is wide open, needs to be closed off with plastic or something

It reads two tenths of a volt low and there is no adjustment. Not accurate enough for what I need.

Easy-to-read display, and consumes very little power. I really liked it until it died after 30 hours of use.

I like the display. I like the size. I like the low draw.

I don't like the weak wiring and circuit connections. I have two of these. It has a fatal flaw though. The plug on the back that is soldered into the board. The soldering is very weak & fragile. You can easily break it with light pressure. So if you buy it - keep it stationary. Don't expect to move it around much. Don't expect it hold up during difficult installations.

Wires need to be longer and bigger guage too.

Wouldn’t always zero out and sometimes I got erratic readings. I rarely ever use a multimeter but when I starting having issues it was outside of warranty.

I bought this back in July but never opened.Opened it today (brand new from box), plugged in the probes to check the voltage, and when I attempted to disconnect the probes to put it away, 1 of the connecting pins got stuck in the socket.I can plug the probe back into it and the meter still works, but it's pretty frustrating when parts break after the first use. Not sure if I want to look for new probes, but I would expect a product to at least last a few uses. I definitely would NOT buy this again.

while this is a cheap meter, it is better suited to a 10-15 year old--the quality is poor and the teat lead appear to not be suited to "real" high voltage and accuracy. I would not buy this meter again.

I bought this meter due to all the good reviews. I worked as advertised - for about a year and a half. Now when I turn it on the display just jumps all around. New batteries did not fix it. I took it apart looking for loose parts but I can't find the problem and you can only spend so long trying to fix a $25 tool - especially one that you can't really depend on anymore. I would not buy again and I'd advise you to get something with a bit better quality because this won't last long.

At first it seemed to work but of course shortly after the 30 days I started getting questionable readings and it was too late to send back. It seems like some functions work fine while others don't. In addition, the "battery lights" never illuminated but the readings of that function are correct. It's a shame, I did a lot of research on these before purchasing and thought this one was going to be perfect but instead it just leaves me confused sometimes.

The reviews were good and the price was too. I could not get past the way the display jumped around when switched to DC voltage. This is what I use the thing the most for, checking automotive DCV. It worked fine once connected to a voltage source, but when the leads were not touching the display just showed a ever changing voltage and would never settle down. Maybe this is normal, but I sent this meter back over this issue. In the future I'll just stick to manual ranging meters if this is considered normal.

Bought two.- one failed after 6 minutes second after 22 minutes. Waste of time.

bought in 2014. just installed. worked 4 days before display segments failed. maybe it died in the box.

After asking the question, will this work for a vehicle charging system and receiving verification that it would I tested the meter. Wired it all up, sadly as soon at I powered my car on the unit started to get hot and the tiny wires melted through their insulation. I'm not sure if it was a bad unit or if they just can't handle the power.

Ordered DC 4 to 30 volt. Will not measure above 20.5 volts. Marked 4 to 30 on end, but 0 to 19 on the side. I used an adjustable DC voltage source and all of the meters were ok at 20 v but failed to measure above 20.5 v

2 out of the 3 items still work-- the Voltage Meter failed in about 1 hour.-- doesn't work any more.--

Very poor quality -- I cannot believe this is a top seller! The display was faulty as soon as I got it out of the box. I tried changing the batteries and used fully charged rechargeable batteries with the same result. Also, the contacts for the batteries were poorly placed and one of the batteries seemed to work intermittently. I have returned it for a full refund and will now look for a better product!

the display jumps all over when not connected to a voltage. difficult to work with if you are looking at low DC voltage I've been trying to use this to help trouble shoot a battery electrical system and it is less than useless. I can't always use clipleads and have to use the probes that come with the meter. I never know when I've got a real reading or just he constantly changing noise

Less then a year old and it won't power on. Only used it twice. Customer service from Innova is all but useless.

I bought this to measure induced current in one of my experiments. As I didn't have any idea how much voltage my setup is producing, the reading on the meter didn't give me a whole lot of sense. I repeated the experiment and got totally different readings. Also the auto ranging was not stabilizing even after 5 minutes. It was shutting off after 10 minutes even it is was not idle. Probably I got a defective unit, from reading other positive reviews I am thinking there is some other unit out there does its job correctly.

Poor Quality.Just received it and I can't event trust the continuity test function because I have to move the probes contentiously to get it to work. I don't know if the problem is in the jacks or in the probes. I can touch copper filaments on probe cables (Safety issue if testing AC Voltage) Waste of time and money.

This would be a great value if it held up. It feels quality has a large display, auto-ranging, lots of functions, and auto-off. However, my battery load test LEDs failed after one month. They worked fine for only a couple of testings, then nothing. I have to pay to send it back for repair. Not happy.