Master Electrician Ref. Lite vs Electrician's Sidekick
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Master Electrician Ref. Lite
This electronic pocket reference guide provides essential information for electrical professionals. It offers calculations, code tables, and detailed sections on motors, ampacities, grounding, and more, all accessible on your mobile device.
- Motor and wiring information
- Ampacity tables
- Conduit fill and grounding sizes
- Voltage drop calculations
- Conduit bending guide
- Integrated scientific calculator
- NEC code tables
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Master Electrician Reference Lite (or MER Lite for short) is your electronic pocket electrician reference guide. MER Lite is for electrical designers, engineers, installers, contractors, facility managers, inspectors, exam candidates, apprentices, electricians, journeymen, architects, and technicians. MER is for people doing residential, industrial, and commercial work. Simply, if you are a Master Sparky or work with electricity in any way, this reference guide is for you! Have you ever lost pages or had damaged pages in your pocket electricians reference? The solution is here: Use MER Lite to keep the most important information easily accessible on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. MER Lite will even do calculations for you; something your old pocket reference book can't do. MER Lite is divided into the following sections: * Motors and Wiring - Standard motor and motor starter sizes, tables of full-load currents, locked-rotor information, overload units, OCPD, nameplate information, synchronous motor speeds, three-phase STAR and DELTA diagrams, three-wire start-stop diagram, motor frame dimensions, and motor enclosure types. * Ampacities - Ampacities in raceway, cable, earth, and free air, and derating tables. * Conduit Fill table * Grounding Sizes - Equipment grounding conductor (EGC) and grounding electrode conductor (GEC). * Voltage Drop calculations * Conduit Bending - Includes the guide "The Master Bender Way" on how to bend conduit. See the Master Bender app or MasterBender.com website for more information. * Standard Tool List * Safety - Safety manual and first aid. Most pages contain a general scientific calculator. It is expression based: Just enter an expression and evaluate it. It understands trig and power functions, can convert between radians and degrees, and has built-in basic constants like pi and e. MER includes key NEC tables from the National Electrical Code (NEC) 2011. Visit our website at MasterSparky.com for more information. If you like MER Lite, you will love the full MER. It contains much more information. The full MER are available in versions covering the NEC 2011, 2014, and 2017 code years.
Electrician's Sidekick
This free tool consolidates essential electrical calculations and reference guides into a single app. It offers precise tools for conduit bending, wire sizing, voltage drop, and conduit fill, designed to enhance fieldwork efficiency and accuracy for professionals. The app functions offline, ensuring constant access to critical information.
- Conduit bending calculator
- Wire sizing and voltage drop calculator
- Conduit fill calculator
- Construction calculator (feet/inches)
- Electrical wiring color charts
- Digital clinometer (level)
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Tired of juggling multiple calculators and reference guides on the job? The Electrician's Sidekick app from IDEAL Electrical is a free tool that combines the functions of many electrical calculators into one convenient app. Instantly calculate rolling offsets and bends with the precise conduit bending calculator and integrated level. Determine accurate wire sizing, voltage drop, and conduit fill to meet compliance standards. Designed by pros for pros, this app maximizes your fieldwork efficiency and accuracy from layout to final connection. The calculators continue to function even without internet connectivity, ensuring you always have access to the information you need. Key features include: Connector Selector – input the wire combination and connector style to receive recommendations for the right connector for the job. Smart Meter Connectivity - Connect compatible IDEAL smart test instruments to automatically capture measurements, monitor readings in real time, and document results directly from your mobile device. Wire Sizing & Voltage Drop Calculator – input wire size, voltage, amperage, and length to determine volts and drop percentage. Conduit Bending Calculator – select the type of conduit and desired bend (offset, saddle bend, or rolling offset), then input the angle, offset distance, and clearance. The dynamic display quickly shows the bend required, shrink, and other important information. Conduit Fill Calculator – input the conduit type and the number/size of conductors to calculate the minimum conduit size required for a certain percentage of fill. Construction Calculator – this specialized calculator permits electricians to add and multiply feet and inches and get the answer back in feet and inches. Electrical Wiring Color Charts – provides the wiring code for the various phases in a panel for both 120/280V and 277/480V systems. Clinometer – transform your phone into a digital level with zero/reset options. When placed on a flat surface, it automatically becomes a bubble level. Simplify every job with this all-in-one electrician's companion. Join the thousands of other electricians using the free Electrician’s Sidekick app from IDEAL Electrical. DATA COMM - T568A/T568B Wiring Reference and conduit fill calculator for data cables. Box Fill Calculator - Calculate NEC® box fill requirements in seconds. Account for conductors, devices, grounding conductors, cable clamps, fixture studs, and plaster rings while instantly verifying box capacity and available volume.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Master Electrician Ref. Lite at 4.7 against Electrician's Sidekick's 3.6. Master Electrician Ref. Lite also leads on ratings volume (2.5K vs 18) and review sentiment (50% vs 33%). Electrician's Sidekick's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Master Electrician Ref. Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Master Electrician Ref. Lite has 2.5K ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Master Electrician Ref. Lite's written reviews are positive against 33% of Electrician's Sidekick's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Master Electrician Ref. Lite | Electrician's Sidekick |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.5K ratings) — better | 3.6 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2.5K — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.4 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PawEng, LLC | IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC |
Customer experience
Master Electrician Ref. Lite
Electrician's Sidekick
In-app purchases
Master Electrician Ref. Lite
No in-app purchases
Electrician's Sidekick
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Master Electrician Ref. Lite free?
Is Electrician's Sidekick free?
Which has better reviews, Master Electrician Ref. Lite or Electrician's Sidekick?
Do Master Electrician Ref. Lite or Electrician's Sidekick have ads?
Which is updated more often, Master Electrician Ref. Lite or Electrician's Sidekick?
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