Products > Test Equipment
Watt Meter / Kill-A-Watt alternative
arcfault:
Hi everyone,
I like to be able to measure appliance power usage easily. Extreme accuracy is not important. I've owned three Kill-A-Watts in the past few years, but two have died. Not even used a lot. The one I opened up had a blown fuse and looked sketchy as far as the soldering goes. Another one had burn marks on the plastic.
It seems like there's some very high end equipment options. I'd like something similar, but of actually good quality (and maybe UL listed?)
I'm in the US and only need to do 120VAC single phase stuff.
Would appreciate any suggestions you can offer.
Thank you!
coppice:
If you think a genuine Kill-A-Watt is bad, you'll hate most of the alternatives. Some of these don't even measure active power. They use some crude RMS voltage and RMS current measurements, then multiply the answers. So, the are calculating apparent power, and not the active power most if us are interested in. Many have terrible dynamic range. Its an easy product to make with a 20 cents utility energy measurement chip, but it still something most people make a horrible mess of. Some of them do have a really attractive case, though. :)
arcfault:
I'm not 100% certain they have all been genuine, but I think one was bought new from Amazon and maybe another new in packaging, so I would be surprised.
I'm completely fine with the unit other than the reliability. Not sure if it's worth replacing the fuse or not, if it'll go out again. It's just that 2 out of 3 dead, with such limited usage, is really disappointing.
coppice:
Was the failed fuse a small value one for the electronics, or a big one between the input and output? If its a big one maybe someone just blew the fuse with an excessive load, and it just needs replacing.
bdunham7:
I have an old one, model P4400.01, that has worked fine for many years. It is pretty accurate and I'm not aware of anything similar that is better. I don't use it on space heaters or large electric motors though, since the 15A maximum rating is a "blows up at" spec, not a safe level for continuous operation. I don't know if newer versions are worse. If you have blown F2--the 15A fuse set way off the board--you have simply overloaded it. Keep in mind that many large appliances may have surge loads much greater than 15A, although anything designed for continuous usage, like a space heater, should be limited to 12A continuous draw.
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