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Bought a $30 clamp meter off Amazon and it gave me a false reading that nearly fried my panel
Last week I was troubleshooting a breaker that kept tripping and the cheap clamp meter said 15 amps on a 20 amp circuit. Turns out the thing was off by almost 4 amps when I tested it against my buddy's Fluke. Anyone else had luck with those mid-range Klein meters or should I just bite the bullet?
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uma_baker995mo ago
Better to buy a nice meter once instead of cheap ones twice, right?
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the_lucas5mo ago
Huh, I'm not sure that's entirely fair to blame the tool. A $30 meter is a gamble, but a 4 amp error on a 20 amp circuit should have still kept the breaker from tripping if the real draw was actually over 20. Sounds like the real issue might have been something else in the panel, not just the clamp meter lying to you.
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karen_nelson403mo ago
Funny you mention that. A buddy of mine had a similar situation with a cheap meter at his job site. He was checking a circuit he thought was pulling maybe 25 amps, and the cheap meter showed 18. So he figured he was safe. Turned out the real load was closer to 32 amps, and the breaker was old and didn't trip right away. The meter being off combined with a tired breaker almost caused a fire. Moral is, even a small error on a cheap tool can hide a much bigger problem.
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