Switched from a multimeter to a clamp meter for diagnosing fridges last month, wish I did it years ago

3 comments

3 Comments

jana11925d ago

Honestly I grabbed an AC/DC clamp meter from Klein Tools last week and it saved me an hour on a tricky freezer call where the compressor was pulling intermittent amps.

paige8625d agoMost Upvoted

Ngl I used to think clamp meters were overkill for basic diagnostics, figured a multimeter was fine for everything. That freezer call you mentioned pretty much changed my mind after I spent 3 hours chasing ghosts on a similar issue last summer. Picked up the same Klein model you got and it caught a bad start capacitor within minutes on a fridge that would run fine then trip randomly. Now I swear by it for anything with intermittent power draw, saves me from pulling my hair out on those weird load issues. Sometimes you just gotta admit the old way wasn't cutting it and this tool does the job better.

dylanmurray12d ago

Pro tip if you haven't already - try it on ECM motors too. Caught a failing blower on a rooftop unit that way when the amp draw was bouncing around but never tripping a breaker.