KAIWEETS HT208D Inrush Clamp Meter 1000A True RMS AC/DC Current Amp Meter, VFD, LOZ Mode, 6000 Counts, Measures Current Voltage Temperature Capacitance Resistance Diodes Continuity Duty-Cycle

Cons:- Battery: must remove screws to change batteries. Not big deal, but this would be a "nice to have" feature.- Beep: unit continuously beeps when measuring near zero ohms. Perhaps can be disable but haven't discovered how yet. Again not a big deal.Pros:- Purchased during Amazon Prime deal (July 8 - 11) and got fantastic price break- Overall solid and strong construction (possibly could easily withstand 3 feet drop)- Good display: easy to read in normal household ligting; and option turn on back light (illuminate)- Easily detect AC voltage near houshold sockets or behind walls- Easily measure AC and DC current (amps) using clamp (which easily opens, right amount of torque)- Provides option to automatically or manually perform measurements- Solid and durable case for unit, temperature sensor and measurement cables- Great for hobbies, or professional electrician or electronics work- Pleased with product, and would recommend or purchase again

I own both the HT208D and the HT208F. Both are a great value with a great many useful functions. I originally bought the D model because I wanted to measure the peak inrush current on our RV AC when I was debugging what turned out to be an on board generator problem. Even though I have a lot of good meters at home, none had inrush capability. The D performed very admirably, but as mentioned by many others, the display can be difficult to see in bright sunlight. Still, I liked the meter so much that I wanted a second one. That's where the F model (HT208F) comes in: It's not immediately apparent, but the F is identical to the D except that it has a standard (backlit) LCD display that is visible in bright sunlight. So if this is a concern for you, get the F model. It's a quality meter with features for most everyone.

I am not an electrician, but am pretty obsessive about accuracy, and I also care about ease of use and readability of the little screens. There are many dozens of digital multimeters (DMMs) available from Amazon, but I have investigated only the DMMs listed below. I will briefly offer an opinion on three DMMs from Kaiweets (the HT208D; the KM100; and the HT118A) and one DMM from Mestek (the DM100C), all purchased from Amazon. In the accompanying pictures, the units are, from left to right, the Kaiweets HT208D, the Kaiweets KM100, the Kaiweets HT118A and the Mestek DM100C.SUMMARY of my opinions. Overall, the STATED accuracies of the Mestek DM100C are usually higher than the stated accuracies of the three Kaiweets DMMs I looked at here – and the accuracies of the little Kaiweets KM100 are the worst. I feel that the Kaiweets HT208D is the easiest to use, while the Mestek DM100C is the most challenging to use (although not bad). And as for readability of the little screens, I feel that the Kaiweets HT118A is the best, and the Kaiweets HT208D is, by far, the worst. The rest of this review explains why I have come to hold these opinions.ACCURACYAccuracy is always compromised to some degree because many factors affect accuracy of DMMs including “resolution,” “range,” “number of digits displayed,” “altitude,” “temperature” and “humidity.” As I said, I’m not an electrician and, with one exception, I don’t pretend to understand how these factors affect accuracy. But there is one overriding aspect to accuracy you might wish to consider: each manufacturer states (i.e., tells you) the various accuracies of the particular DMM right there in the user manual. Moreover, the user manual states SEPARATE accuracies for “DC voltage,” for “AC voltage,” for “DC current,” for “AC current,” for “resistance,” for “capacitance,” for “frequency,” and for the various other types of measurements within the particular unit’s capability.All four DMMs were checking the DC voltage from the same, fresh, 9-volt battery; all are shown in “hold” mode, and I have removed the probes to avoid cluttering the pictures. In my evaluation I looked at the stated accuracies for “DC voltage.” All I could do was “compare” them to each other because I don’t own any expensive highly accurate measuring equipment. As you can see, they all show different readouts for the same battery.Here are the results:For the Kaiweets HT208D, the user manual says the accuracy for measuring DC voltage is: plus or minus (0.5% + 5) for all DC voltages from 600 mili-volts up to 600 volts, and plus or minus (0.8% + 5) if you’re checking a source for up to 1000 volts.At first this stated accuracy notation was entirely Greek to me, but I read and learned how to understand this “plus or minus (0.5% + 5)” stuff. It’s way too complicated to put into these remarks, but you can learn from an nifty article at a website called “bettertechtips,” found at https://www.bettertechtips.com/how-to/digital-multimeters-accuracy/ But there is one piece of information I can tell you, and that is: the smaller the numbers inside the parenthesis, in this case the “0.5%” and the “+ 5”, the more accurate the DMM’s reading will be. In other words, it tells you how far off the source’s (e.g. a battery’s) actual voltage might be from what the DMM readout tells you it is. The one exception that I mentioned above has to do with the number of digits displayed on the DMM’s screen, but particularly the number of digits to the RIGHT of the decimal point. So if the DMM shows a total of four digits but only TWO digits to the right of the decimal point, the stated accuracy is not as good as a DMM which also shows a total of four digits, but THREE of those digits are to the right of the decimal point. (This is referred to as the DMM’s “resolution.”)For the Kaiweets KM100, the user manual says the accuracy for measuring DC voltage is: plus or minus (1.0% + 5) for all DC voltages from 200 mili-volts up to 600 volts. As you can see, the “percentage” inside the parenthesis for this DMM is 1.0 as opposed to 0.5 for the Kaiweets HT208D. This means the stated accuracy of the Kaiweets HT208D is better for DC voltage than the stated accuracy of the Kaiweets KM100.For the Kaiweets HT118A, the user manual says the accuracy for measuring DC voltage is: plus or minus (0.5% + 3) for all voltages from 600 mili-volts up to 1000 volts. But the “+ 3” is smaller for this DMM than the “+ 5” for both the Kaiweets HT208D and the Kaiweets KM100. Because “3” is smaller than “5”, the HT118A is stated to have better accuracy than the other two Kaiweets DMMs.For the Mestek DM100C, the user manual says the accuracy for measuring DC voltage is: plus or minus (0.5% + 3) for all voltages from 999.9 mili-volts (call it: 1000 mili-volts) up to 999.9 volts (call it: 1000 volts).At first glance the stated accuracy of the Kaiweets HT118A for DC voltage appears the same as that of the Mestek DM100C, but it’s not. In fact, the accuracy for the Mestek DM100C is MUCH BETTER than that of the Kaiweets HT118A for one critical reason: The Mestek DM100C’s “resolution” is better for DC voltage than that of the Kaiweets HT118A. As you can see in the pictures, the Mestek DM100C has THREE digits to the right of the decimal point, while the Kaiweets HT118A has only TWO digits to the right of the decimal point! To put it simply, the “resolution” of DC voltage of the Mestek DM100C is much better than the resolution of all three of the Kaiweets DMMs mentioned above. But keep in mind that I’ve only spoken about the readings for DC voltage for these four units. So this doesn’t mean that the Mestek DM100C performs better than the three Kaiweets units in all other types of electrical measurements. Moreover, just how much accuracy is necessary when you’re measuring DC voltage from 9 volt batteries? For non-electricians like me, not a lot, but for real electricians, the degree of accuracy is very important.EASE OF USEI feel that the Kaiweets HT208D is the easiest to use for two reasons. First, because there are only two ports for the probes to connect to the unit. Just two. The black probe always connects to the clearly-marked COM port and the red probe always connects to the one and only other port. No thinking is required! Meanwhile, the Kaiweets KM100 has a total of three ports. The black probe always connects to the clearly-marked COM port, but the user has to decide which of the two remaining ports to use for the red probe. It’s not a hard choice by any means, but it does require a mili-volt of brain power. The Kaiweets HT118A and the Mestek DM100C each have a total of four ports. As with all DMMs, the black probe always goes into the COM port, but you’re left to decide which of the remaining three ports to use for the red probe. For the Kaiweets HT118A, once you have figured out what you are going to use the DMM to measure (e.g., testing DC voltage, AC current, resistance, capacitance, etc.), the Kaiweets HT118A tells you which port to use for the red probe by means of flashing lights – like the “idiot” lights on many cars. So, again, no brain power required. On the other hand, the Mestek DM100C is not so generous; there are no flashing lights. Once you have figured out what test you want to conduct with the Mestek DM100C, you are left to decide where the red probe goes. Again, it’s not a difficult choice, but it’s up to you to determine.The other reason I consider the Kaiweets HT208D to be easier to use than the others is because there are fewer settings to choose from. All available functions are accessible by choosing from only eight settings, while the Kaiweets KM100 has 19 possible settings, the Kaiweets HT118A has 10 possible settings and the Mestek DM100C has a whopping 29 settings. On the other hand, however, the more available settings you have, the higher the unit’s resolution will be. For example, when testing DC voltage, the Mestek DM100C’s 29 possible settings allow you to put more digits to the right of the decimal point, while the Kaiweets HT208D’s eight settings offer less flexibility. The more digits to the right of the decimal point, the better the resolution.READABILITYI found that the best readability of the four DMMs shown in the pictures is the Kaiweets HT118A (third from the left). It is readily readable in both dim and bright light, and from all angles. The second best for readability is the Kaiweets KM100 (second from the left), also visible in both dim and bright light. Both of these DMMs display black numbers against a light background. The third best is the Mestek DM100C (on the right), also visible in both dim and bright light, but not as good as the previously-mentioned Kaiweets DMMs. The least visible is the two-color Kaiweets HT208D (on the left); it’s pretty, but that doesn’t make up for its visibility problem. It is easy to read in dim light, but in bright light it is quite challenging to read and that’s putting it mildly. Both the Mestek DM100C and the Kaiweets HT208D use illuminated numbers on a black background – which seems a little harder to read than black numbers against a light background.

Great meter, reasonable price. Does everything you you need it to.

In my business before I retired, my default electrical test equipment was always Fluke. Not just because it's some of the best available, but because I could write it off as an expense.I'm retired now so cost IS an issue, so when I needed to replace my defunct Fluke clamp meter, I bought the HT208F because of all of it's quite advanced features for the price. The $10 extra to get the "F" display over the "D" display is well worth it because the F version is so much easier to read in sunlight with the backlight available for low light areas.I'll finish up to say that that I am VERY impressed with this meter. It's 1/5 of the cost of a Fluke that has similar options and it's seems to be quite accurate compared to other Fluke meters I still have (including my 117).I now use this clamp meter as often or more than I use my Fluke 117 because of the easier way to measure amps (and Inrush current). I often use the HT208F with the Triplett ET200 AC Line Splitter and GFCI Outlet/Receptacle Tester which makes measuring current even easier.

Great purchase...I use it all the time.

Updating my one star review because the company tried to make things right but unfortunately I have an issue with the replacement as well (related to the temperature readings) it doesn't give me much confidence for precise reading. Maybe ok for hobby use where precision is not critical.At first glance, it looks, and it feels like a quality tool. After a few uses, the screen started glitching. It either turns off during use or when I switch settings the screen freezes, it turns off, and then on with new batteries. At this point, I doubt the long-term reliability and accuracy of this meter.

This is the first Inrush Meter for me. It is very easy to use. It is readable in the Sun.