Electrical tests for everything from acceptance testing to preventive maintenance serve us well. But bad training and poor choices can turn a beneficial activity into a lethal one. One mistake you don’t want to make is using cheap test equipment.
We all want to economize. But cheap test equipment often means saving a little money now only to incur enormous costs in the near future. Don’t use inexpensive DMMs designed for the home DIY market; these aren’t designed with the safety features needed for industrial work.
And simply buying a meter that’s marketed as industrial grade isn’t enough. There’s a reason your electrical distributor carries those familiar name brands but doesn’t carry those bargain knockoffs you found online. The reason is the name brands are built to the industry’s safety standards.
These standards include a long list of characteristics. For example, one major manufacturer of DMMs likes to point out the difference in terminal spacing between its DMM products and those of a cheap import. Insufficient spacing can lead to a flashover inside the instrument.
Next, we’ll look at the energy category.