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Hot take: a $12 analog multimeter beats my $180 clamp meter for finding ghost draws in dryers
I keep seeing newer techs reach for the fancy clamp meter on every no heat call, and I get it, the thing looks professional and has a nice backlit screen. But three weeks ago I was in Dayton chasing a dryer that kept tripping the breaker after about 20 minutes of run time, and the clamp meter read 0.4 amps on the motor leg, which told me basically nothing. I grabbed my old analog meter from the van, the one with the needle, and watched it twitch through a range instead of jumping between digits. That slow needle sweep showed me the draw was pulsing, which pointed me straight to a nicked wire rubbing on the drum housing. The digital meter averaged all that out and hid the problem from me. I have had the same thing happen on fridge compressors and washer pumps, the analog needle shows you the trend while the digital just gives you a flat number. I am not saying toss your clamp meter, I still use mine for quick amp checks on heating elements, but for hunting a ghost draw the cheap needle meter wins almost every time. What are you all using when a digital reading looks fine but you know something is off?
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