P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
by P3 INTERNATIONAL
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List Price: Our Price: $22.41 You Save: $37.54 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $18.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
Customer Review: Dont Buy.
Summary: 1 Stars
I may be returning this thing.
The hardware MAY ? be OK ..... dunno...
but the user interface is VERY crude
and clumsy and erratic.
So it's hard to say if it's worth the
effort to troubleshoot the thing or not.
Meanwhile I dug out an old clamp-on
style AC ammeter, made a little split-wire
AC extension cord for it and quickly measured
the current drain of all my computer stuff
and my wall-warts, in various states of
on-off-asleep-standby-etc..... and quickly
came up with an arrangement of multi outlet
powerstrips which allows me to save a few
watt-hours of our vanishing energy store
for the use of my kids.
I wanted to do that with the Kill-a-Watt but
found it not so easy to get working so
abandoned the effort.
Sorry.
Customer Review: Frustrating design, poorly made
Summary: 2 Stars
Poorly made... mine had a defective LCD display right out of the package.
Bad design - because of the way they shaped the device, it will cover BOTH of the outlets in a standard wall socket. Had they moved the plug part on the back an EIGHTH of an inch lower, it would have been fine, leaving the other outlet free. Incredibly frustrating... want to measure one device when there's two things plugged into an outlet? Sorry, you're out of luck... you have to move other devices to other outlets in your room which can be really inconvenient, if not impossible.
And as others have pointed out, it's virtually impossible to read the UNLIT display... and it goes blank when you pull it out of the wall since they didn't include a battery backup.
All-in-all, a very frustrating product not worth the money.
Customer Review: Kill A Watt Monitor
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my daughter. She moved to a townhouse apartment and her first electric bill was $55. After her boyfriend moved in, it skyrocketed to nearly $300. He swears it has nothing to do with the fact he never turns off a light, leaves a space heater running even when he's not home, and has enough computer and game peripherals to start a small store.
I plugged it into my computer's power strip as a baseline test. I liked being able to scroll through the different readings. I didn't like where the display was located. My option was to either get down on the floor to see it or use an additional power cord that I could move to a more usable position. I did the latter.
My daughter hasn't given me the results yet, but I have no doubts about what the Kill A Watt will reveal about the boyfriend.
Customer Review: Nice product with a few flaws (Beware - not supplied in retail packaging)
Summary: 4 Stars
We decided to purchase this power monitor (P4460) because of the advanced feature but as other mentioned it really needs a backlit display and offline powered display for easy use. It does functions very well so I would recommend it highly. I will also caution you that Amazon ships a unit in a brown box not a retail packaged unit. I'm not sure if it is refurbished or not but it is definatley not a retail unit. This should have been mention since we were originally buying it as a gift but due to packaging decided to use it in house instead. Way to go Amazon! Even with the few minor flaws it works great and you will be amazed what different devices cost to run annually. Items we thought were very low actually cost a lot while others we unplugged actually cost very little. This is a great device to add to any tool box.Customer Review: Great power monitor in small package
Summary: 5 Stars
Ideal instrument for determining power consumption of household equipment.
Has all the scales you would normally need for testing incoming power - Watts, Amps, Volts, Power factor, Etc.
Making some test leads will make it even more versatile when trying to determine power consumption of some equipment which may be hard wired or does not come with a standard plug. A short extension cord also makes reading the display much easier when testing devices that do have a standard plug.
I'm an electrical contractor so I suggest you do not attempt making additional test leads unless you understand how to correctly attach them to a ac circuit.
Comes with a 3 prong plug connection on the back of the monitor but will test any device with only 2 prongs (like a table lamp).