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Clamp meter

HamptonHall

New Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2020
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
I don't have a clamp meter and will get one primarily for my 24v battery project, with solar maybe later. Will this Tacklife do everything I need to do? ...or, in the circumstances, is Will's recommended Kline CL380 really worth $50 more?
 
I got the Tacklife one to share with my BIL doing automotive stuff. Since he blew up a Fluke he is not allowed to use the good stuff any more. I have used the Tacklife on a couple of things and it seemed to work fine. I didn't verify the readings with a better meter but they were believable. For what we use it for, checking alternator output and similar it works fine.
 
I have a similar - but not exact - Tacklife multimeter (with the AC/DC clamp). It started giving me flaky results after a couple years of very light use. I bought a Fluke 325 instead and it's been solid.

Flaky = no power on a circuit that I thought had power, but the Tacklife was showing power. Major WTF.
 
I'm in the market for a clamp ammeter. Looks like measurement error at low current is between 0.05A and 0.10A
Some meters have 0.1A resolution and 10x the error of those with 0.01A resolution, pretty much unusable for PV strings.

Klein CL900:


Has inrush feature.
Clamp DC amps, 2000A 1A resolution, 600A 0.1A resolution, accuracy +/-(2% + 5 digits)
Presumably not really "digits", but counts in the last digit. 5 x 0.1A = 0.5A error. 2% of reading? Or 2% of full scale? Either 1.2A error if full scale, or say 0.2A if reading a 10A PV string. 0.5A + 0.7A = 0.9A, 9% error reading my PV string.
If 1A, 2% = 0.02A, 5 counts = 0.5A, error is 0.52A or 52%

Harbor Freight Ames 1000A clamp meter:


Has inrush feature.
1000A, 600A, 60A scales. 2% + 8 counts. That's 2% of 10A = 0.2A + 8 x 0.01A = 0.28A, 2.8% error reading PV string, not as bad.
If current is just 1A, 2% = 0.02A, 8 counts is 0.08A, error is 0.1A or 10%.

Fluke 325:


400A, 40A. 2% + 5 counts. 2% of 10A = 0.2A, 5 x 0.01A = 0.5A, 0.25A error or 2.5%
If 1A, 0.02A + 5 x 0.01A = 0.07A, 7%


Having 0.01A resolution and several counts error pushes error toward 10% for lower current around 1A from a string.
My primary application is checking parallel strings, see how they're performing.
Might be nice to handle 600A not just 400A, measure battery current with full-load 24kW at 48V. Surge would be double that.
Not clear these meters have a DC surge feature; mention is either AC or 40 to 400 Hz.
I could measure current to just one inverter, then about 125A full load, double that for up to 3 seconds.
 
The Fluke 325 has a "max" amps feature. But it isn't clear to me if that accounts for surge or not. I've used the feature on mine, but I'm green (experience-wise, not politically) enough that the way I'm doing it may not be quite right.
 
I'm in the market for a clamp ammeter. Looks like measurement error at low current is between 0.05A and 0.10A
Some meters have 0.1A resolution and 10x the error of those with 0.01A resolution, pretty much unusable for PV strings.

Klein CL900:

Harbor Freight Ames 1000A clamp meter:

Fluke 325:

Just saw a much cheaper one - $40 for a 1000A DC clamp meter.
Doesn't have the 10 mA resolution I wanted, though.

 
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