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?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_baker9929d ago

Better to buy a nice meter once instead of cheap ones twice, right?

the_lucas29d 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.