Floureon TS-838 Plug Power Meter Energy Voltage Amps LCD Display Hz Monitor Analyzer Electricity Usage Monitor, Reduce Your Energy Costs

I got the Floureon TS-838 for $18. It is great for the price, but I would have much rather had a much better meter for $40 or $50. But they simply aren't on the market now. The Kill-A-Watt Control (P4482) once held that spot in my heart, but P3's quality control has gone bad, and they still aren't addressing serious concerns, plus I simply don't want to pay for outlet control, anyway, I just want to measure power usage. Anyway, the Floureon is hard to read from most any angle. You need good eyes, good light, and/or hold it at a good angle. The unused parts of digits (not currently on) are almost as dark as the used part, making it hard to tell if everything is an 8 or not, sometimes. Like all such products, use it with an extension cord or get down on your knees, lol. The manual is poor and the ways to reset it don't make sense at first, but are ultimately workable. It's huge saving grace is how cheap it is... now you can do some long-term monitoring almost for free. But you will need to write down when you started if your device drops below 2 W, because its clock stops then (and you can't get an average watts over the course of real-world time period, without the real-world time elapsed). TRICK FOR GETTING AN EXTRA DIGIT OFF THE KWH METRIC: Plug in the Cost as $9.999 (the highest kWh cost allowed). Then look at the total cost instead of the kWh. It will be ten times the kWh. Viola! If you are in the middle of a measurement when you read this, don't reset the whole thing - just change your kWh cost and Bam, effectively see another digit of kWh reading.What's with the horrid colors? Why do they always make these things so they block outlets like they're going out of style? You really wonder what alternate tiny universe these designers are in sometimes, lol.

I have used this meter to read wattage and amps on various appliances and gadgets in my house and below are the pros and cons.Pros:- Looks nice- Works right away with no lag time- LCD placed well above socket making it easy to read the LCD- Remembers the last reading, setting and historyCons:- Not easy to read if it is not looking at it straight, bad angle of viewing- Buttons to switch from amps to watts and voltage are not very easy to toggle- Big digits for $$ display, from my perspective is a overkill for a watt meter, where the purpose is more about technical aspect.- Didn't see much use or a functionality of the sine wave, I have a modified sine wave inverter and really didn't see anything different.Bottom line, having multi display is not a plus when we have to toggle buttons to read watts, amps, volts etc.. If you are a techie guy this may not be the most simplest device but if you are more looking for the cost aspect this probably works well for you provided you don't have back issues to bend down to align your eyes to the LCD panel to read the display.

A nice unit and interesting seeing the wattage of whatever I measure, especially LED light strings to see how little they use.Be sure to have a rip-roaring funny time reading the instructions! A must read. I suspect it was written by a chinese person(s) who thinks they have command of english, or maybe it is lost in translation. We think the original instructions were written for european countries, and then modified for the US. That makes it even more head-scratching and laughable. Read it aloud to others for a real laff off.I have no interest in inputing local electric rates with an output showing the cost the appliance is using, but if you do, then there are 22 steps required to inputing the information! Assuming of course that you will understand what each step is saying. Good luck!Otherwise, it seems to be made from a nicer plastic than so many cheap plastic things.

I am giving this 5 stars because it was cheap and did exactly what we needed. I have a more expensive power meter that tracks how it costs daily/monthly/yearly etc and I love it. I sent my father a breakfast station, he is a truck driver, and they needed to test how much each item used because the packaging listed it at 1500w which was impossible that each item drew that much power. They live states away so they couldn't borrow mine, instead I ordered this for them because I was not spending $30 for one time use. So for the basics of measuring the power draw it is great... I don't think they tested anything else out, nor did I expect them to.

I gave it a 3 star instead of a 5 because it's not back lighted! You cannot see what's on the screen. I have it under my cabinets where I plug in my coffee pot, toaster, hot plate & so on & I cannot see what is on the screen. I tried using a small penlight & I can make out most of the readings that way. But you have to keep a penlight handy when using it & using the buttons.I would have given it a 5 if it was backlit so you could see the screen. So, for most people......it Sucks & is worthless only because even though it works great, what good is it if you can't read what's on the screen.....Really!

I've used this on several appliances and it seems to measure things fine. I can't figure out why something would spike 4-5 times higher than normal levels. Not blaming the product, just an observation on the measurements it recorded. The one reason for the 3 stars is the bottom graph which depicts levels over a 7 days is blank. That feature is dead on arrival. It normally would be a reason to exchange for others.If the device was twice the price, I would have done it but its such a bother and not a guarantee the new one would work any better.