ever hear "You get what you pay for"? It's a one time purchase and it pays for it self over and over again. The cheap meters almost never have the DC clamp on feature, only AC. The DC is what you should be looking for because it's used in so many situations. I diagram every piece of equipment on board and do clanp on DC readings at every connection when it's new and running. That way, later when it fails, I can go back to my drawing and trouble shoot all of the circuits and loads. I check my solar panels, my wind generator and both of my alternator outputs. I check my battery charger, my running lights and the list goes on.