Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 333
 Works Well September 16, 2005
Jack A. Mracek (Yucaipa, CA)
66 out of 66 found this review helpful
This is a nice little meter. It measures Volts, Amps, PowerFactor, Watts, VA, KWH and Elapsed Time in use. I got it to survey my house loads for a potential solar system and it performed very well. I could plug a device in to it for a week and figure out what the average power consumption was. I couldn't believe how bad the power factor is on my window swamp cooler.
The addition of a pigtail would be nice because it is hard to see behind furniture and it is so big that it uses an entire outlet while in use. A 240V mode would be nice also.
It worked better then I had expected.
 Works as Advertised September 29, 2004
R. Garth (Montego Bay Jamaica)
51 out of 52 found this review helpful
I have had one of these for 3 months and it has worked very well. I started by testing 60W and 30W bulbs and the meter gives me a dead on accurate wattage reading so I assume that the wattage that it reads for my fridge and other items is accurate.
I next started to use the unit to gather data on how much power my home devices where using and locating which items where power hogs, one great surprise was that my Ceiling fans use about 1/3 the power of my Bedroom AC units! If most people realized that the power consumption was that high they would probably not install them. After testing I decided that the cooling effect VS $$ it was a better value to go back to using my AC.
For people who are using Solar Energy or RV owners this gadget is very handing for mapping out your power use, just keep in mind that it only reads 110/120 volt devices
"Kill-a-Watt" Electricity Usage meter September 17, 2005
Stan L. Suring (Wisconsin)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful
This piece of test equipment has just saved me hundreds of dollars by avoiding our purchase of a new freezer. While our chest type freezer is over 25 years old my wife and I suspected that it was the cause of our high electric bills. However after monitoring it for a number of days with this meter we discovered that the power it was taking to run it was very nominal and there would be no payback for at least 10 years to replace it with a new one.
Great Gadget, Excellent for for Monitoring Energy Usage January 16, 2006
Patrick S. Pope (Chicago, IL)
31 out of 34 found this review helpful
There were two primary reasons that I purchased the Kill-A-Watt: 1) to measure the [questionable] energy savings performance of the Power Planner by Energy Smart (see review) 2) to disprove the stated 2900 Watts on my Bellissima Ionic Volcano Hair Dryer (see review). Tertiary reasons included a general interest in energy savings. As it turns out, the Kill-A-Watt demonstrated that both aforementioned devices did not live up to stated manufacturer claims.
The Kill-A-Watt plugs into any typical grounded three-prong receptacle. It also has a receptacle so it acts as a splice, presumably measuring voltage and current to determine power in watts (ohm's law V=IR, Power=VI). In addition to measuring power, voltage and current in real-time, it can also measure kilowatt hours (kwh), via an imbedded timer. This unit, kwh, is the measure by which your electric utility company bills you.
In general, the Kill-A-Watt is extremely easy to use. There is a large LCD display indicating the value of interest. The digital readout and buttons make it extremely easy to navigate through the various functions.
Particularly interesting is observing the difference between the stated wattages and realized wattages of various consumer devices. It is also interesting to watch the energy creep caused by thermal factors (in p=ir^2). FYI, for typical resistive elements "R" goes up as temperature increases.
As you can see, the Kill-A-Watt allowed me to disprove various manufacturer claims.
Measured Wattages:
Belissma 2900 Watt Hair Dryer
Ionic Hair Dryer (aka Volcano) ...1525 Watts
ConAir 1875.............................1515
Hair Made 1875........................1540
Andis ProStyle .........................1250
Other Consumer Devices:
Heated Towel Warmer (stated 100 watts)....... 131
Lights:
Sunbox Sunray Full Spectrum Lightbox (stated 120 watts)....123 watts
Lights of America Fluorex Outdoor Lamp (stated 65 watts).....65 watts
Lightwitz 30 watt light bulb..... 30 watts
Lights of America 200 Watt Equivalent Compact Fluorescent (stated 42 watts)....45 Watts
It is important to note that the Power Planner by EnergySmart was intended to save money on devices with older electric motors. In my review of the Power Planner, I outlined the test results using the device on my parents 40+ year old secondary refrigerator. Sadly, the Kill-A-Watt showed that there was no realized difference using the Power Planner over multiple 24 hour periods.
If you have any interest in energy conservation/savings or are questioning manufacturer claims, I would highly recommend that you purchase the Kill-A-Watt. It is great for measuring instantaneous power, current and voltage, but also power consumption over a period of time.
 Don't Buy this version October 29, 2007
Palo Alto VC (Silicon Valley)
28 out of 40 found this review helpful
Make sure you get the other version of this product. This version (the 4400) does not calculate electricity costs!!!
The 4600 (or EZ) version is much more useful as it projects your electricity costs.
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