1. What Is An Hour Meter?

An hour meter is a time recording instrument mainly used for various machinery or heavy equipment, such as lawn mowers. It is usually installed on the equipment itself and records the equipment working time. By reading the running time recorded by the hour meter, we can regularly maintain the equipment, such as adding lubricating oil, cleaning or changing the fuel filter, checking the battery electrolyte level and voltage of the machine, etc.

2. Types Of Hour Meter

Hour meters can be divided into mechanical hour meters and digital hour meters, and we offer both types with the best quality.

Mechanical hour meters, such as our SYS-1, SH-1 and HM-2, use a physical wheel to indicate the elapsed time, which gives mechanical hour meters the advantage that once power is removed, the wheel will still indicate the elapsed time.

Digital hour meters, on the other hand, which uses a clear and easy-to-read digital tube or LCD display to show the running time. And digital hour meters always have a small button battery inside, because once the external power source is lost, the battery still provides power to indicate the elapsed time. Our digital hour meters include HM-1D, H7ET, HM-D48 etc.

3. Hour Meter Applications

Hour meters are used across various industries such as construction, agriculture, mining, and transportation. They help in tracking equipment usage for maintenance scheduling, warranty tracking, and operational efficiency. For instance, in construction, they can help determine when heavy machinery like excavators or bulldozers need servicing.

4. How To Choose The Right Hour Meter?

When choosing the right hour meter, there are 6 things to consider:

1. Installation method: we can provide two kinds: panel mounting and DIN rail mounting hour meters.
2. Product dimension: Different hour meters have different dimensions, we can provide 48*48mm, 72*72mm square types of hour meters, such as HM-2 and HM-1D, also there are round types available, for example, our SH-1.
3. Working voltage: The working voltages of the hour meters can be AC110V, AC220V, DC12V, DC24V, DC5V and other working voltages, therefore, please check which working voltage is available in your equipment.
4. Maximum measuring range: The hour meters maximum counting range can be 999999.59 hours or 999.59 hours etc, this doesn’t mean the more the better, but the suitable range is important.
5. Hour meter types: The digital hour meter is more accurate and easier to read but might lose data once the power fails. While the mechanical one will not lose elapsed time when lost power, but the disadvantage is that the mechanical one can’t bear strong vibration.
6. Certification: Different countries might need different certificates. For example, the American market prefers UL, European markets need CE certificate, Korean customers need KC certificate, so please check which certificate you will need before using the hour meter.

More knowledge for the hour meter, please read our this article: All You Need To Know About The Hour Meter.