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Clamp-on Ammeter with Inrush capture.

FilterGuy

FilterGuy

Solar Engineering Consultant - EG4 and Consumers
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Does anyone have any experience with this:

www.ebay.com

HoldPeak Clamp Multimeter Auto Range AC/DC Tester AC INRUSH CURRENT Amperemeter | eBay

Inrush Current. Resistance/ Capacitance/ Temperature/ Frequency/ Duty Cycle Test. Capacitance: 9.999nF/99.99nF:2.5% of rdg+15 digits;999.9nF/9.999uF/99.99uF: 2.5% of rdg+10 digits; 999.9uF:3.0% of rdg+20 digits; 9.999mF/99.99mF: 5.0% of rdg+25digits.
www.ebay.com

It is clearly in the 'value' market, but sometimes that can be good enough. I used a cheapo clamp-on for a few years before I upgraded....and the only reason I upgraded is that it did not have in-rush capture.

(I am not really in the market but I stumbled across this and thought I would point it out.)
 
If anyone springs for one. What is the shortest duration time measured for inrush?
 
FilterGuy said:
Does anyone have any experience with this:

www.ebay.com

HoldPeak Clamp Multimeter Auto Range AC/DC Tester AC INRUSH CURRENT Amperemeter | eBay

Inrush Current. Resistance/ Capacitance/ Temperature/ Frequency/ Duty Cycle Test. Capacitance: 9.999nF/99.99nF:2.5% of rdg+15 digits;999.9nF/9.999uF/99.99uF: 2.5% of rdg+10 digits; 999.9uF:3.0% of rdg+20 digits; 9.999mF/99.99mF: 5.0% of rdg+25digits.
www.ebay.com

It is clearly in the 'value' market, but sometimes that can be good enough. I used a cheapo clamp-on for a few years before I upgraded....and the only reason I upgraded is that it did not have in-rush capture.

(I am not really in the market but I stumbled across this and thought I would point it out.)
Click to expand...
Did you get any feedback on this FilterGuy? Did you buy one? I am looking to buy something similar. My DC clamp-on is falling apart.
 
I've been looking for a good ac/dc clamp on amp as well. I just don't use one enough to justify big money on one.
 
A note of warning: Most clamp meters - especially the cheaper ones - will measure AC amps only. For most purposes mentioned on this forum, DC is critical, so keep an eye out for that.

Years ago I bought this one from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/cm1000a-1000a-t-rms-acdc-clamp-meter-64017.html

As with most things from HF, sometimes you strike gold but most times you get something that you know you will replace sooner than planned. This meter though has been pretty good. It does have an inrush capability that I've used a few times. I'm not sure of the specs on the inrush sampling, but I remember thinking it seemed about right on the inrush I was checking (both AC and DC). I fall back on my much more expensive Fluke meter for cell voltages and such, but this one has been pretty good for clamp amps and a secondary choice for ohms and volts.
 
Roswell Bob said:
Did you get any feedback on this FilterGuy? Did you buy one? I am looking to buy something similar. My DC clamp-on is falling apart.
Click to expand...
I did not get feedback.

I purchased the Harbor Freight a while back and my review is mixed.

Out of the box there was a problem where one of the places you plug a lead into has a cold solder to the internal circuit board. This meant the connection was intermittent. I was about to take it back but instead I opened up and touched my soldering iron to the bad joint and it has been fine ever since.

It works fine, but for most of what I do I use my old $38 amazon clamp-on. It is smaller and easier to use. I only pull out the HF when I need to check inrush. (I don't see it on Amazon anymore)
 
I bought the "AMES INSTRUMENTS CM1000A 1000A T-RMS AC/DC Clamp Meter"
from HF a few months ago to measure the LRA for the heat pump compressor.

It worked twice for inrush measurements. (Not too surprised at this outcome.)

Annoyed that I could not take any more inrush measurements, I paid the ransom money
for a Fluke 381. Saved a tiny amount w/ a ZORO discount code.
 
FilterGuy said:
I did not get feedback.

I purchased the Harbor Freight a while back and my review is mixed.

Out of the box there was a problem where one of the places you plug a lead into has a cold solder to the internal circuit board. This meant the connection was intermittent. I was about to take it back but instead I opened up and touched my soldering iron to the bad joint and it has been fine ever since.

It works fine, but for most of what I do I use my old $38 amazon clamp-on. It is smaller and easier to use. I only pull out the HF when I need to check inrush. (I don't see it on Amazon anymore)
Click to expand...
ok. good. I will look for $38 amazon clamp-on. I have DSO to check inrush so just need dc clamp-on.
 
Horsefly said:
A note of warning: Most clamp meters - especially the cheaper ones - will measure AC amps only. For most purposes mentioned on this forum, DC is critical, so keep an eye out for that.

Years ago I bought this one from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/cm1000a-1000a-t-rms-acdc-clamp-meter-64017.html

As with most things from HF, sometimes you strike gold but most times you get something that you know you will replace sooner than planned. This meter though has been pretty good. It does have an inrush capability that I've used a few times. I'm not sure of the specs on the inrush sampling, but I remember thinking it seemed about right on the inrush I was checking (both AC and DC). I fall back on my much more expensive Fluke meter for cell voltages and such, but this one has been pretty good for clamp amps and a secondary choice for ohms and volts.
Click to expand...
HF does a nice job with the Predator series of generators.
 
Good way to check and calibrate a clamp on meter surge current capability is to measure with closed loop hall effect sensors with high bandwidth. It took me three clamp on meter purchases to find one claiming surge current reading with accuracy worth using. With their high bandwidth can actually measure power factor and impedance for motor turn on surge.

Single phase induction motors have startup surge typically lasting 0.4 to 0.5 seconds so any inverter surge rating specifying less that 500 msecs is pretty meaningless for starting AC motors.
 

Attachments

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2nd the kaiweet 208d for a lowcost inrush clamp. No fluke by any means especially on safety side.
Decent reviews online for it though. Haven't played around with mine much yet but it seems solid enough.
I couldn't really find many feature rich clamp meter like this for less. I have a good fluke
and didn't want to spend a lot on a clamp that would see seldom use. So this seemed like it fit the bill.
 
pvdude said:
I bought the "AMES INSTRUMENTS CM1000A 1000A T-RMS AC/DC Clamp Meter"
from HF a few months ago to measure the LRA for the heat pump compressor.

It worked twice for inrush measurements. (Not too surprised at this outcome.)

Annoyed that I could not take any more inrush measurements, I paid the ransom money
for a Fluke 381. Saved a tiny amount w/ a ZORO discount code.
Click to expand...

You mean the HF inrush didn't work on the 3rd try?

I bought that one a few months ago, primarily for 0.01ADC resolution. Still seems to work fine.
Its inrush doesn't capture brief capacitor inrush or transformer inrush.
My 100A current transformer rolls of response for fast (millisecond) inrush peaks.
Both should be OK for "inrush" of motors, some number of 60 Hz cycles.


I just bought the Fluke i2000 probe (1 Hz to 20 kHz, up to 2000A) probe after using a colleague's to measure transformer inrush. It followed the waveform another probe (a 40A AC/DC model) showed, except that one had clipped at 48V. With the Fluke I was able to capture a 70A peak during first cycle of a 6A transformer.

diysolarforum.com

Auto Transformer based all-in-ones (how do they handle ground?)

I’ve tested this rewired under a 5000W load on one leg and it handled it like a champ: Inside the “ST-5000” power adapter is a toroidal autotransformer with 0/110/200/220/240v taps, I wired the 0/110/220 through a 3-pole 30 amp breaker. I already have a high-frequency split-phase inverter, I...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com

Turns out the yellow i2000 has ranges 20A, 200A, 2000A. The grey i2000 which cost me $150 only has 200A and 2000A.
 
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