Volt Meter For Irrigator

[ed2hess]

I want to get my son a good volt meter for use in his irrigation repair business. Presently we both use a Sear meter worth about $40 but not very hardened. I want to to able to clip on to wires not just have probe ends.
Any suggestions?

[mitchgo]

I just use my greenlee

http://www.all-spec.com/products/TK-...FWrZQgod4FgAUw


If you want to get technical go all out with Fluke's

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...FWlxQgodmC0Ajw

[1idejim]

Seriously, the Armada pro 30 sees 90% of the work around me.

It is manual, fits in a shirt pocket and costs less than $20. Push on probe clips are a couple bucks at RS and work very well.

Most irrigators can't use a FLUKE to its potential. I can't but have 2 of them anyway. Both ruined by me testing something incorrectly.

Any inexpensive manual meter will beat the most popular meter that irrigators own
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[1idejim]

Btw, the most popular multimeter in most irrigators tool box is NONE.
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[irrig8r]

My favorite is my Greenlee CM 850. I use it for both irrigation and lighting. The "amp clamp" is especially useful for lighting.

http://www.greenlee.com/products/CLA...oduct_id=18372

[Wet_Boots]

There are now some clamparound ammeters with current ranges between the leakage meters and the conventional ones. Those would be useful for solenoid current readings.

[greenmonster304]

Originally Posted by 1idejim

Btw, the most popular multimeter in most irrigators tool box is NONE.
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It always blows me away when another irrigator tells me they dont use one. It is the first tool I use on most service calls. One guy tells me he just uses a solenoid to test for voltage

[1idejim]

Originally Posted by Wet_Boots

There are now some clamparound ammeters with current ranges between the leakage meters and the conventional ones. Those would be useful for solenoid current readings.

You can use a low cost clamp to measure solenoids shoes, you have to make 4 or more turns around the meters jaw. The result is then divided by the number of turns.
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[1idejim]

Originally Posted by greenmonster304

It always blows me away when another irrigator tells me they dont use one. It is the first tool I use on most service calls. One guy tells me he just uses a solenoid to test for voltage

Solenoids activate between 19 and 30vac so even if he observes "real world" results of the solenoids operation, he has no clue of the condition of the system.
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[bcg]

OK, serious question, are you telling me that the .19 - .21 amps I get for solenoids with my Fluke clamp meter is wrong? I use it sometimes with systems where a zone is err'ing out the controller but when I arrive it ohms fine and a reset gets it running again. Some of those solenoids need to get warm before they go short and I do see a slightly higher amp reading on them, which causes me to go ahead and replace them. "Good" solenoids always seem to be around .19 - .21 amps but I'm just using a regular Fluke meter, not a leakage meter...