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Battery Tester? Solar vs Ctek cs Midtronics?

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PhilMeUp

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After some dramas with a car battery last week it’s time I bought some sort of battery tester.

I have two cars, each with a SuperCharge MF50 battery: http://www.supercharge.com.au/supercharge-gold-mf50

The battery warehouse that I dealt with had a Midtronics MDX-P300.

Having done some reading, there are options such as the Solar BA9 and the CTEK Battery Analyzer. I’m trying to decide whether to buy one of these new, or wait until a Midtronics MDX-P300 turns up on eBay used but in good condition.

Questions:
1)
Is there anything that makes either of the Solar BA9 and the CTEK Battery Analyzer better than the other?

2)
Besides print able to print the results, is there anything that the Midtronics MDX-P300 has that is better than the Solar BA9 and the CTEK Battery Analyzer? What makes the Midtronics worth so much more?
 
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PhilMeUp

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Last edited:
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PhilMeUp

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bcradio said:
Thats a nice unit there. You **** :bounce:
Click to expand...

**** in Wisconsin said:
You do ****!
Click to expand...

Awwwww... shucks... you guys are so kind... I'm flattered.

:D

And I just bought a Ctek Battery Analyzer cheap as well.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/381299018332

I'll mess around with both of them when they get to me here in Australia. If the much cheaper Ctek does things as well as the Midtronics, then I'll sell the Midtronics and make a buck out of it.

I shall have to update this with some photos and feedback when they get here.

What I do: I live in Perth, Western Australia. That's on the left-side of the country, and no, it's not near Sydney.

I bargain hunt. I buy stuff in the US that is either cheaper there or not available in Australia. I have it sent to a freight forwarding place called Shipito.com. Things get accumulated there, and eventually I get it all re-packed into one box and sent to me. When each box of new toys gets here it's like Christmas morning for a young child...

:bounce:
 
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theoldwizard1

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IMHO, that unit is way overkill ! To properly use it, ou have to connect the positive clamp to the STARTER ???

If you have a decent battery charger, a multi-meter and maybe a load tester, and the knowledge to use them, you can find out just about everything they list.

I still want to find a Sun VAT-28 or VAT-30.
 
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sasquach

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I have an OTC Smart tester 3200 . So far it works pretty good but really haven't had time to screw around with it
 
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anndel

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PhilMeUp said:
Awwwww... shucks... you guys are so kind... I'm flattered.

:D

And I just bought a Ctek Battery Analyzer cheap as well.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/381299018332

I'll mess around with both of them when they get to me here in Australia. If the much cheaper Ctek does things as well as the Midtronics, then I'll sell the Midtronics and make a buck out of it.

I shall have to update this with some photos and feedback when they get here.

What I do: I live in Perth, Western Australia. That's on the left-side of the country, and no, it's not near Sydney.

I bargain hunt. I buy stuff in the US that is either cheaper there or not available in Australia. I have it sent to a freight forwarding place called Shipito.com. Things get accumulated there, and eventually I get it all re-packed into one box and sent to me. When each box of new toys gets here it's like Christmas morning for a young child...

:bounce:
Click to expand...

You **** +2 :shocking:

Cool you got two units for a nice price.
 
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PhilMeUp

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The Ctek is good for giving a quick CCA reading. Would be useful to have for basic home use.

I like that the Midtronics has the printer. I've currently got three taxis and two personal cars. The taxis go through a battery roughly every 12 months.

With the Midtronics unit I have been checking each battery every couple of months and printing out the results. With these printouts, I have been able to see each battery's CCA get a bit lower each time.

The batteries that I use are 650CCA - http://www.supercharge.com.au/supercharge-gold-mf50 I might end up selling them secondhand when they drop to somewhere in the 550-600 range, and replacing them with a new one. When a battery in a taxi goes flat it's a nuisance to sort out (taxi has to go to a particular workshop to get the camera reset).

The taxis have a computer system that runs 24/7 (ie MT-Data). Then there's the camera setup. These both chew through power. Even with a brand new battery it will go flat in around 36 hours if a taxi hasn't been driven. So, these batteries are going through a lot of cycles. Hence my interest in monitoring battery wear.

The Midtronics is also useful because it checks the alternator. I did this with a car last week - it took seconds to confirm that the alternator in that car stopped working.

However, when the Midtronics 700 requests that I turn the headlights on or rev the engine it isn’t recognising this. Not sure why. I have to wait a while each time until the Midtronics gives up and proceeds to the next test.

I'm going to have to get more organised and label each battery. I was doing ok with monitoring the wear on each battery, but I had to rotate batteries between different cars and now I've lost track of which battery is which. In the future I'm going to zip-tie a key tag to the handle of each battery. Instead of writing the car details on the Midtronics printout I'll write the battery number (eg 1215 for a battery that I buy in December 2015).

I’ve currently got four SuperCharge MF50 (ie 650CCA) batteries. Either battery tester is useful for working out which battery has the highest CCA (ie which one is the newest).

Although I like digital gadgets, it's becoming obvious that sooner or later I'm going to have to also get an old fashioned battery load tester.

However, for someone that’s dealing with cars regularly or commercially then a Midtronics is worth adding to the collection if you can get one cheap enough.

I also bought a Midtronics 300 for $US102.50. The 700 has a few features that I don’t need (ie trucks) so I’ll try reselling it and sticking with the cheaper 300 (which is leaving the US today and will be here next week).
 
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PhilMeUp

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Gadget Addiction Update:

Summary:

- Bought a Midtronics MDX-700P HD cheap on eBay. Overkill for use on cars (ie meant for truck use). Later sold it when I got an MDX-P300.

- Bought a CTEK Battery Analyser as well. Haven't really used it, although the few times I did try it out it was within a couple of CCA of the Midtronics (ie the CTEK rounds off to the nearest 5 CCA).

- Bought a used Midtronics MDX-P300 cheap on eBay. Been using that this year.

- Just bought another Midtronics MDX-P300 on eBay, but new. Was going to sell the used one and keep the shiny new one, but heck, I don't really even have a use for one anymore. There might be a fire sale of Midtronics battery testers here soon.:lol:

Thoughts:

- If you're doing regular automotive work then having a Midtronics battery tester is worthwhile. Put the battery on charge and then check the CCA level once it's fully charged.

- It's not common, but they can be found secondhand on eBay. I'm in Australia, so Craigslist isn't relevant to me but check it in your area. Find a cheap secondhand one. My used MDX-P300 cost $US109.20 with postage and the new MDX-P300 cost $US181.00 with postage. I have things like this sent to a freight forwarding place, repacked into one box and then forwarded to me in Australa.

- You definitely want one with a printer. I was checking the batteries in my taxis every couple of months and was able to predict when to replace the battery.

Due to the constant demands of the taxi computer and camera systems a 650CCA battery would last 10-12 months. I was printing the results each time and keeping them together with a bulldog clip in the Midtronics bag. I learned to replace the battery once it dropped below 600CCA (ie once the CCA started dropping, it was dropping fast).

- If you buy a brand new battery then it's reassuring to test the CCA on the first day (once it's fully charged). The new 650CCA in my ute just tested at 684CCA. I checked a cheap generic brand battery for someone recently and found it to be below the rated CCA.

- If you're outside of the US and curse the availability and pricing of stuff in the US then spend a few months buying the things that you want and have them sent to a freight forwarding place. I use Shipito - www.shipito.com

- I also bought a Midtronics HYB-1000 to analyse the hybrid batteries on the Toyotas that replaced the Ford Falcons. Turns out that Techstream software does the same thing for much less money, but that's a whole different adventure.
 
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theoldwizard1

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PhilMeUp said:
Gadget Addiction Update:

Summary:
Click to expand...
As my Dad used to say, "You have too much money burning a hole in your pocket !"

PhilMeUp said:
Thoughts:

- If you're doing regular automotive work then having a Midtronics battery tester is worthwhile. Put the battery on charge and then check the CCA level once it's fully charged.
Click to expand...

The thing everyone misses is that to properly test a battery it must be properly charged. For most batteries, this means 8+ hours.

ANY carbon pile and a decent volt meter will tell you what you need to know.


  • After charging and letting the surface charge dissipate (30-60 minutes), the battery should read 13.0V +/- 2V.
  • Put a load on it and watch the voltage. If it drops below 12.0V in the first 30-60 seconds, time for a new battery.
 
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White Shadow

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theoldwizard1 said:
As my Dad used to say, "You have too much money burning a hole in your pocket !"



The thing everyone misses is that to properly test a battery it must be properly charged. For most batteries, this means 8+ hours.

ANY carbon pile and a decent volt meter will tell you what you need to know.


  • After charging and letting the surface charge dissipate (30-60 minutes), the battery should read 13.0V +/- 2V.
  • Put a load on it and watch the voltage. If it drops below 12.0V in the first 30-60 seconds, time for a new battery.
Click to expand...

Wait....what? Plus or minus two volts? A fully charged flooded lead acid battery is 12.6V without a surface charge on the battery. Anything under 12.0V is considered a discharged battery.

A load tester can't give the internal resistance measurement, which is really what conductance testers use to calculate SOH for a battery.
 
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redmondjp

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White Shadow said:
A load tester can't give the internal resistance measurement, which is really what conductance testers use to calculate SOH for a battery.
Click to expand...

What kind of load tester are you talking about? Even a carbon pile tester indirectly gives you the load resistance, as that value increasing (causing the measured voltage to decrease) tells you how much capacity that battery has.

If you know Ohm's law, a carbon pile tester and a voltmeter are all you need. For production environments like a commercial repair garage, the new-fangled testers are ideal because of their ease of use, and will give a general idea of the battery's goodness (with one major advantage being that you don't have have a fully-charged battery in order to perform the test, as you do with a carbon pile).
 
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White Shadow

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redmondjp said:
What kind of load tester are you talking about? Even a carbon pile tester indirectly gives you the load resistance, as that value increasing (causing the measured voltage to decrease) tells you how much capacity that battery has.

If you know Ohm's law, a carbon pile tester and a voltmeter are all you need. For production environments like a commercial repair garage, the new-fangled testers are ideal because of their ease of use, and will give a general idea of the battery's goodness (with one major advantage being that you don't have have a fully-charged battery in order to perform the test, as you do with a carbon pile).
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about load testers at all. I was talking about conductance testers, which will use internal battery resistance to calculate an amperage reading and then it's easy to come up with the SOH or percentage for the battery. Carbon pile load testers only measure voltage over time (timed by the user) to determine SOH. There's no accurate way to measure amperage with a carbon pile load tester. And if you don't have two of three (voltage, amperage, resistnance) then Ohm's law isn't going to help.
 
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Michael_in_DE

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I have an old on-wheels solar. It was abused before I got it and it still brings very dead batteries back to life. It constantly amazes me.
 
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6PTsocket

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Anybody like the HF Digital Analyser as an alternative conductance tester choice? I also would leave carbon piles and similar resistance testers out if the mix. I have an old Marquette that uses a big resistor coil for a load. I have not found it to be reliable. After the 10 second test, freshly charged batteries that read "good" will sometimes fail to start the vehicle a few days later. The battery has to be pretty bad to see the meter voltage rapidly falling, under load.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
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White Shadow

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6PTsocket said:
Anybody like the HF Digital Analyser as an alternative conductance tester choice? I also would leave carbon piles and similar resistance testers out if the mix. I have an old Marquette that uses a big resistor coil for a load. I have not found it to be reliable. After the 10 second test, freshly charged batteries that read "good" will sometimes fail to start the vehicle a few days later. The battery has to be pretty bad to see the meter voltage rapidly falling, under load.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I actually purchased the HF unit because it actually had some decent reviews online. I'm going to return it simply because it's not repeatable, meaning that the results differ greatly doing back-to-back tests on the same battery.
 
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Danglerb

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Solar BA5 does all I need, which includes testing a battery that isn't fully charged.
 
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kblee27

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Singapore
I have a few digital analyzers, including Solar, Schumacher and Midtronics.
The only one I use or reached out for, is the Midtronics.
For the others, reading will sometimes fluctuates. Midtronics doesn't.
And the Solar can't read an alternator with > 14Vdc, it'll go blank, useless for measuring charging system.
 
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warrens

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I have a Midtronics PBT300. It is quite pricey but well made and reliable.
 
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Bartleby

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theoldwizard1 said:
[*]Put a load on it and watch the voltage. If it drops below 12.0V in the first 30-60 seconds, time for a new battery.
[/LIST]
Click to expand...


Most manufacturers recommend:

  1. Battery voltage should be at least 12.4V to test
  2. Load battery to half CCA and hold for 15 seconds.
  3. Battery voltage should not drop below 9.6V.
  4. Replace battery if voltage drops below 9.6V.

Here's a video:


I disagree with the guy about recharging to retest. I replace it
 
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FigureItOut

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itsvegas said:
I have a midtronics and really like it but theyre not cheap! I lucked out and picked it up dirt cheap!
Click to expand...
I got lucky on an Exp-800. There was a Napa closing down near me and sold me the one they were using, for $100. It's really a great tester and walks you through a whole slew of tests. Load test, cranking voltage and crank time, and alternator output at idle, at 1500 RPM, with and without loads on.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk
 
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