Battery Tester

ctva

ctva

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I will be replacing my three domestic batteries this year and having read various threads and articles on the subject, feel that it might be worth investing in a battery tester. Can any one offer any advice on what to look for and any recommendations as what I have seen range from the cheap at around £20 to lots!

A couple I have seen are;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Househol...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R52E4W8ZGD7NNBC38XPN
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/gunson-g4184-battery-tester/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A27GAT8CUSKOL6

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chris
 
I've got the silverline one ....... cheap cheerful and does what it says on the tin.....and been used more than I thought I would soa £20 well spent.

The other two are the same but you're paying a premium for a fancy digital readout......IMHO :)

JR
 
GHA said:
Are any of those testers any good at indicating what capacity there is left or just that the battery can supply a load of amps for short while?
Click to expand...

These are loads of amps for a short time.

If you want to test capacity, it's better to take around a ten hour discharge rate and watch the voltage fall over a few hours.
I use a few headlamp bulbs.
 
If you want to know if a battery will start an engine, the acid test is can you get something like 100 amps out of it at a useful voltage for 20 seconds or so.
Testing it like you need to use it is quite useful.
 
Plevier said:
No to the first part, yes to the second.
Click to expand...

Thought so, ta.

So for domestic banks these testers won't actually tell you much of interest, other than last week it could kick out a load of watts for a few seconds but no hint about being able to keep a radar going all night.

Is it worth bothering splashing out 20 quid for one.

Even a very basic load test could probably tell you more?
 
GHA said:
Thought so, ta.

So for domestic banks these testers won't actually tell you much of interest, other than last week it could kick out a load of watts for a few seconds but no hint about being able to keep a radar going all night.

Is it worth bothering splashing out 20 quid for one.

Even a very basic load test could probably tell you more?
Click to expand...

These things are intended for starter batteries essentially.
They are a cheap and quick way of seeing a problem is the battery or the starter motor etc.
I'd rather use a voltmeter and a DC clamp ammeter, but that's about £90 worth of kit.
 
GHA said:
Thought so, ta.

So for domestic banks these testers won't actually tell you much of interest, other than last week it could kick out a load of watts for a few seconds but no hint about being able to keep a radar going all night.

Is it worth bothering splashing out 20 quid for one.

Even a very basic load test could probably tell you more?
Click to expand...
So, these are only useful on engine batteries and the ones with a load test will not show anything on the condition of a domestic battery? How do you test the condition of a domestic battery?
lw395 said:
These things are intended for starter batteries essentially.
They are a cheap and quick way of seeing a problem is the battery or the starter motor etc.
I'd rather use a voltmeter and a DC clamp ammeter, but that's about £90 worth of kit.
Click to expand...
The dc clamp meter looks interesting, how do they work and would they be better at identifying the condition of a domestic battery?
 
lw395 said:
These things are intended for starter batteries essentially.
They are a cheap and quick way of seeing a problem is the battery or the starter motor etc.
I'd rather use a voltmeter and a DC clamp ammeter, but that's about £90 worth of kit.
Click to expand...

Those battery testers are all a waste of money. I have a "professional" one on the van and it's about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. I use a voltmeter and DC clamp ammeter, as you suggest. Wasn't £90 though.

http://cpc.farnell.com/tenma/72-7224/clamp-meter-ac-dc-current-frequency/dp/IN05110
 
It is not so easy to "test" a battery. The testers linked do not indicate actual current drain when testing. Sure it can be useful to test voltage at say 20 amps but of course in real life you need to test at 100+ amps to emulate a starter motor. When you can easily just start your engine to test the battery. or better still try to start with stop lever operated so some time of cranking. All this test cranking current capability. A tester that can drain100 amps for some seconds would have to be a lot bigger to cope with the heat.
But we still might want to know capacity ie ability to supply a low/medium current for a long time. The only way to test this is to discharge with a current drain over a period and monitor voltage. Again actual experience in use will test your battery. So all you need is a volt meter and the knowledge of what you are doing to "test" a battery. olewill
 
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ctva said:
Good learning curve here with some other reading.

As to the clamp meter, is this a good one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MXGTGGC?psc=1
and how dies it compare to the one noted above, http://cpc.farnell.com/tenma/72-7224/clamp-meter-ac-dc-current-frequency/dp/IN05110

Funny how you think you are looking for one thing and then get shown down a completely different route. Love the expertise on this forum.

Thanks
Click to expand...

The Amazon one appears to only measure AC current, this is quite common for clamp meters.
AC is easier to do, years ago there were only AC clamp meters. Just a transformer essentially, while a DC clamp meter uses a Hall Effect sensor.
DC ones are now much cheaper than say 5 years ago when I bought mine.
The Tenma one has a adequate spec, but it's not a top brand.
Should do the job though.
 
lw395 said:
They have their uses, if you know what they are telling you.
Click to expand...

Usually says "charge battery and retest". If you charge the battery and retest it'll tell you if there's a bad cell, but not much else with any reliability.

For a quick and reasonably reliable diagnosis for a flat battery the little Tenma one does the job.

If i was testing boat batteries i'd be more inclined to use a hydrometer. In reality, for me, onboard monitoring systems tell me all i need to know.
 
PaulRainbow said:
...
If i was testing boat batteries i'd be more inclined to use a hydrometer. In reality, for me, onboard monitoring systems tell me all i need to know.
Click to expand...

How would you use a hydrometer on a sealed battery?

lw395, What are the top brands in meters?
 
Fluke are always up there. At a price!
I have an Isotech which has had a fairly hard life and stayed accurate.
I don't know that it's worth paying for top brands unless you're going to use it heavily.
The £4 yellow things are fine for an awful lot of 'garage' work, I use them a lot and don't worry about them being borrowed, abused, dropped etc.
My Fluke was bought for a reason, its 'True RMS' performance. A lot of meters have different ways of measuring a small complex AC signal, you can get different answers on anything that's not a 50Hz sinewave.
 
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