Battery tester - any good?

I have an identical one in my garage, and yes it works, have used it on a variiety of batteries, but the one I own was about 10/15 quid off of ebay..
I am sure at that price it is not 100 percent accurate, but it tells me battery voltages tested amps and soc, checked one today 800 a battery, results 851a, 12.52 volts and 92 percent soc, good enough for a battery stored on the floor.
 
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I got a very good one from Lidl, it has its own battery and has multi multi function for both AC and DC .
It was not a lot of money .
Works well for me!
 
The amp meter might be useful but keep in mind that it probably inserts around .1 ohm into the circuit so will not always reflect the true current of the circuit when .1 ohm is removed especially so at cureents more than 10 amps. ol'will
 
I am rather suspicious. The only meaningful results of a battery test can be provided under a substantial load sustained for a period of time (10-15 seconds at least). I don't believe this tester can provide such a load without melting.
 
jiris said:
I am rather suspicious. The only meaningful results of a battery test can be provided under a substantial load sustained for a period of time (10-15 seconds at least). I don't believe this tester can provide such a load without melting.
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The days of drop testing batteries are pretty much long gone.

Even the very expensive battery load testers do the test in a few seconds.
 
For a house battery, the only meaningful capacity test is to load with an appropriate constant current until it hits nominal 50% voltage. Then charge fully again of course. Might take a few hours. Units to do it are only about £75 and can hook up to PC.
 
lynallbel said:
The days of drop testing batteries are pretty much long gone.

Even the very expensive battery load testers do the test in a few seconds.
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A gimmick. A lot of things are happening inside a battery when being charged or under load. Not only chemistry, there are actually strong physical forces between the plates under a high load. There is no way detecting some of the faults without applying one.
 
jiris said:
A gimmick. A lot of things are happening inside a battery when being charged or under load. Not only chemistry, there are actually strong physical forces between the plates under a high load. There is no way detecting some of the faults without applying one.
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That is what I used to think, but like I said above things have moved on.

Have a google for Midtronics battery testers, ignore the specs just look at how small the croc clips and their cables are, pro machines and pretty expensive to boot.
 
In the right hands, some of these little testers can instantly tell a good battery from a dead one.
They can be very good at telling the difference between a battery which won't start your car because it's simply flat and one which won't start your car because it's knackered.
They can cut out the normal 'step one, charge the battery overnight' of amateur diagnosis, which is obviously good for a garage type business which wants to fix the problem and bill you in a few minutes and not have you come back moaning.

I don't know this particular unit, but most 'Duratool' stuff is OK for shop floor use, even it's not exciting to the refined collector of tools and instruments.

The ordinary boat owner might be better off charging overnight and doing simple tests with a voltmeter etc.
 
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