How to Take an Amp Reading on an Electrical MotorDIY Guides

In order to take an amp reading on your electrical motor is by using a multimeter. By doing this reading, you would be able to know whether parts of your wiring are broken or not, you are having components that might have been burned out or your power source is no longer viable. Whenever this type of problems occurs to an electrical item involving moving parts, the first thing that you must check is the electrical motor. The motor is the main component of a system and when it is faulty, it is the most expensive part to replace and also quite difficult. One of the best ways to do checking if your electrical is not working is by checking its amp reading using a multimeter.

What you need to do:

Multimeter
Screwdriver
Wrench
Allen key

Amp Reading

Method:

Firstly, if you do not have a multimeter, you can simply buy an analog or digital multimeter, which is available at your local hardware store where its price range is from $15 to $20.
If your electric motor uses casing, you need to remove the casing by using appropriate tools such as a screwdriver, a wrench or an Allen key.
Then, you must set the multimeter to the correct reading which normally indicates by ‘A’ for amps, the right range which also depends on the device that you purchased and the device that you decided to check. Although, there are some multimeters which does have the range set.
After that, you have to attach the clamp clip lead for your multimeter onto the ‘COM’ plug where the red wire lead needs to be attached to the “VOmA” plug while the other plug which is labeled as ’10A’ will not be used for the task.
The next thing to do is to attach the clamp clip lead onto the input cable located on the motor and you should test its output cables.
The testing should be done with the red lead to enable you to see whether or not the current is flowing accordingly. If you find that the amp reading shows you have a faulty motor then you have to replace it with a new one immediately. However, it the motor is still working fine, the problem should be coming from another component.
For your information, if you are only checking whether the motor components are still working or not, you can just use an analog multimeter. However, if you want to have an accurate reading of the amperage, it is recommended that you use a digital multimeter.