earth clamp meter

**bergie** · 10-May-17, 01:17 AM

anybody know which earth clamp meter is worth buying? im doing more and more earth tests of earth electrodes in hazardous areas. it would be worth investing in one but i dont have a high budget.
im also looking for one of those chisels that fit in a demolition breaker with the attachment on the front for knocking in earth spikes. anybody know where i can buy it?

**AndyD** · 10-May-17, 01:11 PM

I usually get them from the UK. You could try PTR in Woodstock, they should be able to order the bosch HS1924.

I see theyre on Wantitall as well

https://v2.wantitall.co.za/industria...nk__b00004rhfc

also https://v2.wantitall.co.za/tools/sds...er__b00ot0aiko

and https://v2.wantitall.co.za/industria...er__b000vlv3pe

Not cheap though....

**bergie** · 11-May-17, 02:22 PM

thanks andy. do you know if the threads are the same as our spikes?
any ideas on the earth clamp meter?

**AndyD** · 12-May-17, 12:47 AM

The threads on the rods are the same or at least I haven't come across any that don't fit.

Earth leakage clamp meters are generally expensive items, for a Fluke or Megger you're going to pay maybe 6 grand or more depending what you're after. I have a Chauvin Arnoux flexible (Rogowski type) clamp meter which I can't praise enough, it's accurate, small, very lightweight and the flexible clamp makes it very handy when you need to clamp live and neutral simultaneously for RCD tripping faults. It's not marketed as an earth leakage clamp meter but it does work down to 2mA which has always been low enough for my earth leakage fault finding applications. I got mine from RS Components a couple of years ago, they were actually the cheapest at that time and they deliver to doorstep. I see they've gone up in price since then but they're still available. I recomended it a while back to another forum member who also purchased one, can't remember who at the moment but I'll dig around for the thread when I have some time. Maybe see if they were happy with theirs as well.

I also picked up a cheapy clamp from ACDC the other day, it was just over a grand with discount so at that price I thought it would be rude not to buy one and strip it on my test bench to check out the build quality and see how well it worked. I haven't got around to dismantling it yet but I put it on my calibration unit and it was surprisingly accurate at low currents (2-50mA) if the wire was central in the clamp. Accuracy plummeted at least 10% as the wire was moved off-centre but with any cheaper tester it's to be expected where they've sacrificed the accuracy of having a small internal clamp diameter for usability with a larger clamp. What it was lacking in sample rate it made up for with being reasonably accurate across a fairly wide frequency range (30-80hz), it's rated as 600v CATIII as well so I'd say it might be quite usable for most domestic and commercial sparky applications.

**bergie** · 12-May-17, 02:45 AM

thanks andy,but i think you talking are talking about an earth leakage clamp meter but i am looking for an earth ground clamp meter just for testing earth electrodes
http://en-us.fluke.com/products/eart...amp-meter.html

they call it the stakeless system. you can measure the resistance of the earth electrode without disconnecting. i think it can be used as an earth leakage clamp meter as well.
i see the uni T models are the cheapest at about R 5000 . i think fluke is about R 25 000 at RS components

**AndyD** · 12-May-17, 12:30 PM

Can you give a link to the Uni-T tester? Is it available locally?

I still use the 3 stake rod tester to take Ra readings. I looked at buying a Megger stakeless type tester a couple of years ago, the big issue for me (apart from the price) was their current and voltage limits on the spike where if the earth rod had more than a couple of amps flowing through it the tester gave an error message and a reading couldn't be taken. Maybe for small general domestic installations this wouldn't be a problem but with commercial or industrial supplies it's rare to find an earth rod with such low standing current flow. That said, it was a while ago when I looked at them and the technology was still relatively new so maybe their capabilities have improved now.

**bergie** · 12-May-17, 04:38 PM

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/28296...CFRUTGwoduesFp
heres a link to bid or buy . you can see the specs on their page. i am waiting on a price from RYKE electrical.

i would mainly need it for industrial supplies. i have so many requests to do earthing surveys on industrial sites. mostly hazardous areas.

**ACEsterhuizen** · 13-May-17, 10:03 AM

I have a uni t Bergie it works fine just make sure you read this

For earth rod driver just take steel connector and get someone to do a good weld job to an old drill bit.

**bergie** · 16-May-17, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by ACEsterhuizen

I have a uni t Bergie it works fine just make sure you read this

For earth rod driver just take steel connector and get someone to do a good weld job to an old drill bit.

thanks, that makes interesting reading. i was hoping it could test electrodes without it being connected, but you obviously need a closed circuit for it to work.
i will see if i can weld the driver onto an old bit.