An approach to the design and fabrication of a mass flow meter of a fluid using heat transfer technology is presented. The method uses the application of a simple matched pair of transistors as the flow transducer and compares the results with another flow transducer using a platinum resistance temperature detector. The effect of the temperature of the fluid is eliminated using the bridge circuit with the reference temperature probe placed in the static reference bath within the flow meter. The experimental results conform to the theoretical analysis that the bridge output follows the mass flow rate linearly if the flow is stream line. The effect of turbulence makes the output nonlinear. However a low cost microprocessor is used to linearise the flow data and display the flow value in digital form. The method used is a low cost one and is experimentally tested for flowing water at room temperature. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.