An AC/DC Clamp Meter with 1 mA sensitivity

It’s useful for DC parasitic load tests and troubleshooting GFCI nuisance tripping

I’ve had a number of questions about testing for parasitic currents in 12-volt battery systems. Plus I’ve been troubleshooting nuisance tripping when an RV is plugged into a GFCI outlet at your house or storage facility.

You need a clamp meter with 1 mA sensitivity…

Here’s what I’ve been using for these types of low-current testing. It’s a Thsinde BSIDE ACM91 clamp ammeter and volt meter. The clamp measures AC or DC current as low as 1 milliampere, the probes can measure up to 600 volts AC or DC, and it includes a Volt-Alert (Non-Contact Volt Alert) function. It’s a pretty handy little meter for testing low-amperage faults.

What about testing GFCI nuisance tripping?

If you combine a 1 mA clamp meter with a line splitter that separates the Hot, Neutral and Ground conductors, now you have a way to isolate the various low-amperage leakages that can add up to trip a GFCI. The small jaws of the clamp meter above are just large enough to fit around this line splitter test loop.

I have a pair of these HT Line Splitters which are unique with a separate test loop for measuring leakage current on the ground wire of your RV.

This splitter has 15-amp connectors, so you just need to add appropriate adapters for your 30- or 50-amp shore power plug. Combined with a low-current clamp meter, this splitter allows you to find ground fault currents as low as 1 mA. That’s perfect for troubleshooting GFCI nuisance tripping.

Where to buy them

Buy the BSIDE ACM91 Thsinde Meter HERE

The HT Line Splitter has been discontinued, but if you look around you can find a few in stock. It’s still available HERE.

More on testing procedures later…

I’ll make videos next month on how to use this type of low-current clamp meter to test parasitic DC battery current or AC ground fault leakage. Once you identify the fault current, it’s a lot simpler to fix it.

Let’s play safe out there… Mike