Using Multimeter to Measure Electricity in Water?
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TheEngineer
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Yep. Remember that voltage is the potential between two points. So you can measure the stray voltage in your tank but only by putting one end in the tank and the other to ground.
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Tristan
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What setting should the multimeter be on?
I also read that setting it on the "ohm" setting would work but I do not have a multimeter on hand right now so I am not sure.
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Voltage is measured (funny enough) in volts. The multimeter will likely have at least two different voltage settings, AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current). You mought have several settings for AC and DC. These are ranges You can measure up to. The lower range numbers give you more precise readings where the higher ranges can read larger voltages.
AC is what comes out of the wall. It is ideally 110 Volts AC (or VAC) at 60 Hertz (that's how fast the voltage alternates from positive to negative). DC is what comes out of a battery.
What type of voltage are you measuring? What are you testing?
AC is what comes out of the wall. It is ideally 110 Volts AC (or VAC) at 60 Hertz (that's how fast the voltage alternates from positive to negative). DC is what comes out of a battery.
What type of voltage are you measuring? What are you testing?
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Tristan is an up and coming reefer. I don't want to give him the answers but help him find them himself. He's a very smart guy for his age.
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Tristan, here's the heads up on multimeters.
Multimeters come is a number of different looks. The first thing you'll need to do is plug in the two probes. Some meters have a couple choices of holes. Althought the color of the probe doesn't really matter for AC volts measurements, we will still plug the probes in the "correct" holes....in case you needed to measure some other parameter where the color of the probe matters.
Plug the black wire probe into the "COM" hole, and the red wire probe into V hole. Note, the V hole might have other initials next to it, and that's OK.
Setting the multimeter...and this is what will potentially be different for meter to meter. The "old school" meters were easy.....just set to "AC volts" and set your voltage range (to cover the maximum volts you'd be expecting). The newer digital meters....most likely the one you have.....simply have symbols. You want to set the meter to the "V" symbol with the squiggly line over it. (If this works, it looks like this: ṽ).
Setting the voltage setting: Some meters have "autorange", were you don't have to set the maximum voltage. But with others, you'll need to pick a maximum voltage....again, these vary from meter to meter, but 200 is typical. It should be obvious on the face of the multimeter if you need to pick a range....they will be right there.
And that's it!
Now to measure, put one probe end in the water and the other to a good ground. At this point color of the probes doesn't matter. The round hole in an outlet is a good choice for a ground.
Hope this helps.
Multimeters come is a number of different looks. The first thing you'll need to do is plug in the two probes. Some meters have a couple choices of holes. Althought the color of the probe doesn't really matter for AC volts measurements, we will still plug the probes in the "correct" holes....in case you needed to measure some other parameter where the color of the probe matters.
Plug the black wire probe into the "COM" hole, and the red wire probe into V hole. Note, the V hole might have other initials next to it, and that's OK.
Setting the multimeter...and this is what will potentially be different for meter to meter. The "old school" meters were easy.....just set to "AC volts" and set your voltage range (to cover the maximum volts you'd be expecting). The newer digital meters....most likely the one you have.....simply have symbols. You want to set the meter to the "V" symbol with the squiggly line over it. (If this works, it looks like this: ṽ).
Setting the voltage setting: Some meters have "autorange", were you don't have to set the maximum voltage. But with others, you'll need to pick a maximum voltage....again, these vary from meter to meter, but 200 is typical. It should be obvious on the face of the multimeter if you need to pick a range....they will be right there.
And that's it!
Now to measure, put one probe end in the water and the other to a good ground. At this point color of the probes doesn't matter. The round hole in an outlet is a good choice for a ground.
Hope this helps.
