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Battery Load Testers

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ctb

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May 8, 2011
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Central Europe
What's the cca of your battery?

I have a 100 amp similar to your link but made in the USA by Dayton. It's worked fine for me but they can't put enough load on a battery with over 500 cca.
 
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Karl_B

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Oct 13, 2013
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Killeen, TX
If you have a volt meter or multimeter, especially one you can set to save the high and low voltage while testing, you can use the vehicle to provide the load. This is how I normally test the battery.
 
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Falcon67

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Jun 11, 2009
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Merkel, TX
I have one like the OP linked - forget the brand. I have a lot of batteries around here - quads, race cars, street cars, golf cart, etc. I have a whole rolling rack that is nothing but chargers and testers.
 
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signcrafter

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May 9, 2012
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There's two main types of battery testers, the carbon pile linked to above from HF and the midtronics type conductance testers. The conductance testers are what all the major stores and shops use for the most part. They are what manufacturers say to use for battery warranties. They also can be used when the battery isn't fully charged, whereas the carbon piles the battery should be fully charged. The carbon piles you need to test at half the CCA of your battery, so the 500 amp will do up to 1000 CCA batteries. The 100 amp you linked to won't work on most cars. The carbon pile testers can also be used to test charging systems, the conductance type says they do but I don't think they can put an actual load on the charging system.

If you're just looking to test batteries something like this from HF would work good, http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-automotive-battery-analyzer-66892.html. Or if you want to spend more get a midtronics for a few hundred bucks for the entry level testers. These are quick and easy and accurate. But for the average home mechanic a carbon pile can be more useful in testing since it actually applied a load. I've been meaning to pick up one of those HF carbon piles for a while now.
 
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woodstockva

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Apr 28, 2012
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Here is the one I use. It works great & has never had one issue.

Also, it has never been wrong when diagnosing a bad battery. Every time it has said "replace", the battery was retested at the auto-parts store on their $4,000 machine & always came out with a confirming result that a cell was bad.

OTC 3181

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O3U2UQ/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 

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theoldwizard1

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Personally, I think battery load testers are a waste of money, unless you regularly have spare, un-installed batteries around.

The low cost yet effective way to test a battery installed in a vehicle is:


  • Charge the battery overnight with a known good charger.
  • After removing the charger, the voltage should read between 13.0V and 14.0V..
  • Turn your headlights on for about 10-15 minutes.
  • If the voltage has dropped to below 12V, your battery is on its way out !

Want to test your charging system ? After the headlight load and voltage check, start your car and hold the engine speed at high idle (about 2000 RPM). The voltage should be between about 14.0 and 15.5V
 
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woodstockva

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theoldwizard1 said:
Personally, I think battery load testers are a waste of money, unless you regularly have spare, un-installed batteries around.

The low cost yet effective way to test a battery installed in a vehicle is:


  • Charge the battery overnight with a known good charger.
  • After removing the charger, the voltage should read between 13.0V and 14.0V..
  • Turn your headlights on for about 10-15 minutes.
  • If the voltage has dropped to below 12V, your battery is on its way out !

Want to test your charging system ? After the headlight load and voltage check, start your car and hold the engine speed at high idle (about 2000 RPM). The voltage should be between about 14.0 and 15.5V
Click to expand...


I just literally used mine yesterday to diagnose a bad battery that was 6 months old in a BMW.

The voltage read 12+ volts fine....but a bad cell is kind of like a 4 lane highway going to 1 lane, it doesnt always affect the batteries ability to hold a charge.

So, with a 12+ volt battery the car would not even turn over.....I diagnosed it as bad with the load tester & put another (good battery) in & it fired right up with no isses. The bad cell is what caused it not to start.

They are absolutely necessary if you work on many cars at all.....if you are a homeowner, and want to take your battery out & bring it to Autozone, then you dont need one....since they will test it for free with their extremely expensive machine.
 
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sberry

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Brethren, Michigan
If a guy had to come up with 500$ to have a tester then the free at autozone might be the way to fly but since it can be had for 50 it makes the math easy.

Personally, I think battery load testers are a waste of money, unless you regularly have spare, un-installed batteries around.
Click to expand...
If I can help it remove some batteries for winter but I do that. Had 3 bad in last 6 months, just bought 3 new the other day and saved a couple other ones that tested out.
I have 25 batteries or so, a while back my Dad pulled up in a golf cart, went in to get a coffee, com out and the battery dumped. Must have opened Just as he came to a stop.
 

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theoldwizard1

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Feb 22, 2011
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sberry said:
I have 25 batteries or so, ...
Click to expand...

You need a good battery tester and this looks like a nice one !

attachment.php


They are red now !


image_2344.jpg
 
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CJM8515

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Mar 8, 2014
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Location
NJ
we have REALLY nice midtronics testers at work, then again thats what I do (battery service for roadside service company). I will say that they are light years ahead of the old stuff you see at the mechanic, I once had a mechanic try and argue in front of me and I pointed out his setup was around 20 years old
 
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stingray1966

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May 28, 2012
Messages
124
Location
Philadelphia
I have one of these form pre less I bought it back in 1968 have used the hell out of it all these years and today it still woks like the day i bought it tried other in the past years but I always go back to this one it all ways works
 
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Steinmetz

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Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,274
Location
Washington State
theoldwizard1 said:
Personally, I think battery load testers are a waste of money, unless you regularly have spare, un-installed batteries around.

The low cost yet effective way to test a battery installed in a vehicle is:


  • Charge the battery overnight with a known good charger.
  • After removing the charger, the voltage should read between 13.0V and 14.0V..
  • Turn your headlights on for about 10-15 minutes.
  • If the voltage has dropped to below 12V, your battery is on its way out !

Want to test your charging system ? After the headlight load and voltage check, start your car and hold the engine speed at high idle (about 2000 RPM). The voltage should be between about 14.0 and 15.5V
Click to expand...

That's all I ever did. In my recent experience however, batteries have been failing suddenly and without warning.
 
4

4x4gearhead

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Joined
Oct 4, 2010
Messages
1,820
Location
New Hampshire
You can grab an old Ford Rotunda battery tester on ebay, a guy I worked with who just left had one and it worked the balls. We use 950 cca batteries here at work and it was a lot better than the waffle iron. These on here today are a little steep, Ive been waiting to find one for around $60 which Ive seen them go for. Gonna get me one too! Just a suggestion.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_kw=rotunda+tester

Edit: I see my post is redundant. Should have read
 
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