The novel application of elasto-magnetic (EM) sensors to conduct the stress measurement of pre-stressed members such as stay cables or pre-stressed tendons has recently been adopted in several foreign or domestic cases. The feasibility of stress measurement with EM sensors is based on the fact that the subjected stress of steel material is the major parameter to influence its magnetic permeability. Consequently, the corresponding stress of a pre-stressed member can be determined by detecting the variation of its magnetic permeability. The stress of steel material, however, is not the exclusive parameter to control its magnetic permeability and their mathematical relationship can not be simply described. Due to these complexities, there still exist a number of problems requiring further clarification and improvement for the practical engineering applications of EM sensors. It is accordingly aimed in this study to explore these problems by investigating various possible factors to affect the accuracy of EM sensors with extensive measurements and analyses for a single tendon in the laboratory. The applicability and limits of EM sensors are also discussed based on these results.