What is a Milliamp Clamp-meter?

A milliamp clamp-meter can measure small electrical currents by simply clamping over a wire. This is especially useful in measuring the small pulses created by decoder activity on 2-wire irrigation circuits without undoing wire splices. Clamp-meters don’t have to be inserted in an electrical circuit to measure current, while conventional meters do.

What kind of electrical meter do I need for landscape and irrigation?

Get the most basic meter you can, as long as it does what you need:

  • Just checking batteries, clock volts or solenoid resistance: use a basic multimeter like the Pro30™,
  • Measuring different electrical things like resistance, low or high voltage, and low or high current without much experience with meters: use an automatic meter like the Pro90™,
  • Measuring a wide range of electrical currents with unusual characteristics (LEDs, decoders): use a sensitive true RMS meter like the Pro93™ or Pro95™.