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I tried a clamp meter vs a multimeter for compressor starts and one was way more reliable

Last week I used a clamp meter to check start winding amps on a busted fridge in Cleveland and it caught a partial short that my multimeter totally missed. Has anyone else found clamp meters better for those intermittent compressor faults?
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3 Comments
the_aaron
the_aaron11d ago
Ain't it weird how sometimes the simple tools catch stuff the fancy ones miss?
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diana_west27
Yeah clamp meters are way better for catching those intermittent loads since you don't have to break the circuit to get a reading. Were you checking the start winding while the compressor was actually trying to kick on or did you catch it during the startup surge? Seems like the timing of when you take the reading matters a lot with partial shorts.
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miles_garcia
@diana_west27 Timing is everything with intermittent shorts.
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