20 Best Kill A Watt Meter (2023 Updated)

I got this used and it seems to be 20% low of every utility on the amps and watts. Then at a certain low and high it registers 35% low of the manufacture’s specifications. The voltage drop test is probably the best thing you could do with it.

On this dud the voltage drop test is also strange because I have new extension cords and the voltage seems accurate but unbelievable high drop in voltage. I learned about the 3% maximum drop rule to save your electric tools at voltage calculator.

net. Then the Home Depot 50 feet extension cord at 14 gauge is claiming 15 amps but only if you magically have the full 125 volts in which the higher volts the more efficient. And then on top off that the 15 amp chainsaw can actually take more than 15 amps if you cut too much too fast as with any electric utility.

So I ended up buying the 12 gauge wire which should be well below the 3% voltage drop rule but for some reason it registered well below what the voltage drop calculator. net is estimating. So I couldn’t really tell if I could have kept the chainsaw at 14.

5 amps by maintaining a high speed and not force it to work too hard OR where the exact amount of applied pressure will cause the full 15 amps and without going over 15 amps with heavier gauge cord.

I bought a P4400 in 2011. It showed which household items were power vampires, some using as much power off as on. I could switch them off with power strips or unplug them when not needed. By measuring the power consumption of internet-related equipment, I could estimate how much time a given UPS could give me in the event of a power failure.

I kept a spreadsheet of wattage of various items under different conditions, to help future troubleshooting. When my internet speeds slowed down, the P4400 showed me the culprit. The power consumption of the $4 power supply of my VOIP telephone adapter was abnormally high.

For the refrigerator, I measured KWH per day for a summer kitchen temperature and for a winter kitchen temperature. After that, the P4400 could show me if the refrigerator was still operating as efficiently, or maybe I needed to check for dust or ice.

If a refrigerator wasnt cooling, the P4400 was a quick way to see if the compressor was drawing current. Last year, I bought a smart charger for car batteries. It had no ammeter. Clipping in a multimeter would have risked a short, a disconnection, or damage to the meter.

I plugged the charger into my P4400, and with the multimeter, I determined how many watts the charger needed for each amp out. Then I didnt need the multimeter. By showing me input wattage, KWH, and time, the P4400 let me know output amps, amp hours, and charging time.

The other day, my P4400 was in the engine compartment of a truck as I charged the battery. In case of an unexpected shower, the hood was up only three inches. In a sudden, heavy shower, enough drops blew through the crack to wet the P4400.

It still gave credible wattage readings, but not KWH or amps. I bought another one immediately. The P4400 has proved its value. Update: Last year I bought an electric chainsaw. I finally got around to using the P4400 to see if the manufacturer’s horsepower claims are true.

Apparently so. It also showed me how much voltage I was losing by using 150 feet of extension cords. The flashing display of the P4400 warned me that the current could damage it if I ran the saw more than a few seconds.

The manufacture recommends 14 gauge cord or larger. My cords aren’t marked. To test, I used an electric skillet. Unlike the saw, it’s a resistive load, and it doesn’t draw enough current to endanger the meter.

First I plugged the P4400 into an outlet and plugged the skillet into the P4400. I noted the voltage drop when I turned it on. Then I plugged an extension cord into the outlet and plugged the P4400 and skillet into the cord.

I noted the voltage drop and the amps. I subtracted the voltage drop at the outlet from the voltage drop at the end of the cord to determine how many volts I was losing in the cord. Dividing that by the amps gave me ohms.

In the cord, current runs through the hot and the neutral in series, so the path is twice the length of the cord. To get ohms per foot, I divided the ohms by twice the cord length. Knowing ohms per foot, I could look up the gauge online.

My cords are 16 gauge. I can probably get 2. 5 horsepower with them. I might get 2. 75 horsepower if I upgraded to 14 gauge cords. I’m satisfied with 16 gauge.

I picked this up to check on my power strips and make sure I’m not overloading anything. It’s a fantastic way to check how much power your devices are using and could definitely be helpful for slimming down your electric bill (if you’ve got the know-how).

It’s much lighter weight than I ever expected, though that doesn’t really matter for a device like this. In any case, great product (and at a great price), would recommend.

Recommending it depends on your application. If you just want to monitor output or wattage it will suffice. Problem lies in where your outlet is and reading the LCD screen. It is not backlit and the angle of approach can obscure the readout.

Also, there is NO INTERNAL BATTERY so once you unplug it, all your data is gone. If you have a power surge during your test, it resorts back to zero. Construction is solid and so far it has passed the initial tests.

But for twenty bucks it did put out some entertainment adding up the “vampires” sucking juice when not in actual use. Especially the stereo system when in standby or the cable converter box. Wow.

I use this to monitor power consumption of my computer system and all of its accessories. I went with this product as it was the only one that I had yet to see a failure with a burnt outlet, a potential for a fire.

This one seems to be rated for continuous use where others are for temporary usage. I had not seen any reviews of burning failures. It’s got great options for monitoring volts, watts, amps, max watts and amps, cost details, etc.

My only small gripe is that the yellow back light does not stay on. It’s in a dark spot in my office, and a not so easy to reach spot, so I can’t just glance at the display easily. Otherwise, I do highly recommend this product.

This device does what it says and seems to perform well. The only dislike is the display. It has a view angle in that you have to have the right light and the correct angle to make any of the display readable.

It is almost like the battery or the voltage driving the display is very weak. You can ultimately make out the readings. The idle stats cycle very fast so you have to hit the leftmost button to cycle through them to view.

All other features and operations are good and these issues are minor unless you are going to view it repeatedly.

Competitive price, all the reporting functions you could want, and quick shipment. Instructions are better than average. The display font is small and the display has less than perfect contrast, especially when the backlight is on.

I use a magnifier to read it. Reading is more difficult when running on batteries (even for a fresh pair). One star deducted only because of reading difficulty for older eyes. Still useful and a bargain.

This product has extreme utility. The instructions are clear. My electric rate is 0. 0799. I have it set for. 08. I tested one heater on high and low getting 1000 watts and 1300 watts. I have other heaters I have to test.

I have been tripping a breaker recently. I have a new Honeywell Heat Genius heater with six settings and with no indication in the manual regarding how many watts they are. This product has my genuine endorsement.

– battery compartment requires screwdriver to open for 2 button batteries (included) instead of more common AA or AAA – it connects to an a/c plug, does it really need batteries at all? – instructions are awkward, a little hard to follow – when moving it between devices to measure, the only way to reset the time & power counters to 0 for a new session is a tiny Reset button which also resets the cost back to $1.

00 per KWh. It’s fairly fiddly to set it back again to $0. 29 or whatever your cost is. – cost per KWh is constant, so estimated usage cost is less accurate if your electric costs vary by “time-of-day” – you may need a (fairly hefty) extension cord so you can see the display conveniently + clear, easy to see & read display + pretty good product for the price.

The unit is not of bad quality, but the instructions don’t match the unit. You are suppose to be able to set the time on the unit but I cant get it to do any thing in the time window and the instructions aren’t any help because the pictures don’t match the unit.

any thing I try to do is just guessing because instructions don’t match the operation of the unit.

Am using this to gather wattage info for all lights, electronics in outlets, appliances etc to make a decision on a back up generator. For most things this gives you the wattage and I like the KWH option so I can see what something may use over 24hrs or a week or such to get average wattage it may consume.

Only items I have seen I cannot get wattage so far are for an electric dryer and the heat system due to higher wattage they put out. Will get this thru some other means. The only stop gap I have seen is this unit can only go up to 1850 watts otherwise it may kill it.

Would be really cool also if they could do an upgrade that would give you what the highest wattage recorded was over a period of time when using the KWH feature so you might be aware of what somethings or an outlets peak wattage could hit.

ie: under KWH toggle to number of hours measured, total KWH, and add a toggle to show highest wattage seen during that time was.

This thing starts out as some gee-whiz, inexpensive toy that you purchase on a whim when you geek-out at HFT. After using it for fun, more useful applications present themselves. At some point you will find yourself telling others about how this product helped you and how it can be useful to them too.

Knowing how much energy your appliances actually use is extremely valuable information that can prevent overloading circuits, fires, wasting electricity, burning up your generator etc. This meter can also help to troubleshoot problems with your electrical system or with appliances themselves.

It will also show how honest or dishonest manufacturers are about the power consumption of their products. This is a tool that has proven more useful than I ever imagined it would be.

SOME PEOPLE ARE POSTING MISSINFORMATION! This does allow you to rest watt draw in real time, if people would just read the very easy to understand instructions and spend 5 minutes with the device before writing bad and missinformed reviews, they wouldn’t have so many problems.

This also let’s you calculate how much something costs to run over multiple time periods such as weeks months and years. Great device and if you know how to use it you can tell if a refrigerator for example is in good health and if it’s efficient or needs to be replaced.

This is a great monitor. Breaks down wattage usage in hour, day, month and year. As in other reviews it’s just an awesome monitor and other reviews has it not so awesome as it may overheat and melt even under the rated wattage.

Not that expensive for what it does. If any improvement would be to design the lower half plug in area so that the lower plug in your house receptacle can be used. Right now the monitor takes up the space of a duplex receptacle.

You will need a power strip of some type if you have other appliances or lights plugged in. I watched a 9 minute video someone had made and it convinced me to purchase this one. Glad I did. It’s being used to determine how many times in an hour or day our sump pump cuts on and off.

I have an alarm on the pump when it doesn’t not work, but I am interested in knowing how often it cuts on and off, during rainy days. I can figure this out from the wattage usage. I’m done typing. Just buy it and put it to use.

There are no dislikes to this item. Best way to keep an eye on what your small appliances are going to be costing you to operate, as energy cost go higher consumers are trying to shop for energy efficient products.

This is a big help for saving energy and checking the efficiency of anything that uses 120 volts AC – 100% Satisfied with this product.

I recently bought a small inverter generator and wanted to check the actual wattage requirements of my appliances as well as tools and equipment. The P3 also shows the max startup watts of appliances which is necessary to know when estimating current draw so I don’t overload the generator.

It is easy to operate, large LED readout numbers, and fun to estimate electric cost of each appliance. I now know how many total electric items I can operate on the generator at one time. This helped me plan for home emergency power outings which are sure to be more frequent in the future.

I have owned the P3 for about a month.

Sort of mixed bag. I does what I expected however it was open and used when I received it. Small scratches but it does work and it gives what I assume is accurate information regarding frequency, voltage and current draw.

It can also give estimated cost of operation based on kW cost you enter. Be aware that it must remain in the circuit for you to see all the information. Only the cost per KW seems to remain in memory.

I suggest this to investigate older appliances and how well a generator is holding frequency and voltage (some do better than others).

The KILL-A-WATT was the correct item as described but was not sealed or new condition. When I plugged it in, it did not display anything. I found the 15 amp 250 volt thermal fuse blown. After replacing the fuse, it works great.

It does what I wanted to know.

I’ve owned 1 for a few years. Use it to monitor electric usage on heat lamps. Toggle thru 4 different info modes. I decided to get 2 more for other electric usage areas. It retains information for months unplugged for several months.