Thread: Battery Expert - Not

Load tester
I wouldn’t bother for general use.

Maintenance charging regularly etc is the best thing you can do for your battery.

as a simple guide:
voltage measures how full a battery is.
not how strong it is.


however, when a battery gets empty it is also pretty weak.

Battery tests at the battery shop are generally free.

When I thought my battery was playing up I got it tested - at first he did the voltage test ok - then under load and voltage held and declared the battery was Ok but then after I explained the issues he did a CCA test and showed the battery only had 1/3 of its CCA. If not issues on starting - the battery would work fine but had no reserve.

So get a professional test done - they are cheap enough

Garry

A volt meter is like a temperature gauge that'll tell you how hot the engine is but won't tell you if you're in a Mini or a Mack truck.

Battery voltage is useful to know once the battery capacity has been established by load testing.

Originally Posted by bee utey

A volt meter is like a temperature gauge that'll tell you how hot the engine is but won't tell you if you're in a Mini or a Mack truck.

Battery voltage is useful to know once the battery capacity has been established by load testing.

What would be the cheapest decent load tester a home mechanic could buy?

Originally Posted by Kidbeen

....

This morning the Marshall battery man came to replace it. When new, the battery was rated at 440 cold cranking amps but when he tested it today it was measuring only in the 200's. So while the voltage appeared good and the green eye was showing, the CCA reading told the real truth about the battery.


I am a still a bit perplexed by it all. To really tell how a battery is going do I now need a device that measures CCA?

I had similar problems with my 300Tdi starter battery. just under 12 months old, and I knew it started to develop a problem.
Drive to the store to get it replaced, but in stupidly doing that and not pulling the battery out, the short drive charged it just enough to give the illusion that it's OK.
They tested it and it showed 'within spec'.
I argued my case to no avail.

A month later battery left me stranded, pulled it out replaced with aux battery .. dead battery tested, assumed to have a dead cell going by the voltage level they recorded on one of the tests.

For next time, with your multimeter:
A good battery should maintain over 10v whilst the engine is being started.
My replacement battery now shows a min 10.5v during cranking.
The dead battery dropped down to below 8v during their load test.

So you'd have a helping hand crank the vehicle while you 'multimeter' the battery and watch carefully as the volts drop during cranking. It's quick tho, unless you can pull something to stop the engine firing up, and just crank it over for about 10sec or so.

Originally Posted by Ranga

What would be the cheapest decent load tester a home mechanic could buy?

I just had a look on eBay and this one might be OK
Digital Battery Analyzer 12V 100-1100CCA Car Battery Load Tester ANCEL BST200 | eBay

I have 2x 4WD's and 4x camping batteries so $50 isn't too big an expense to be able to test my own batteries

Originally Posted by trout1105

I just had a look on eBay and this one might be OK
Digital Battery Analyzer 12V 100-1100CCA Car Battery Load Tester ANCEL BST200 | eBay

I have 2x 4WD's and 4x camping batteries so $50 isn't too big an expense to be able to test my own batteries

These things are handy to have
Makes it much easier to do a cranking load test when you don't have any assistance.
I ordered a Foxwell branded one, but it arrived two days after my dead battery/replacement issue I mentioned earlier.

I'm in a similar situation to Trout tho, but also look after dads car, sisters cars, brother inlaw's car .. etc.