Sears Allstate by Sun Battery tester

[Oregon rock crusher]

So this vintage Sun battery tester has been on the local C/L for a few weeks now, with a steadily decreasing asking price, and since my wife's car battery failed yesterday I decided to have a look. First thing that really surprised me was how big this thing was...from the C/L pics I was thinking more the size of a nice top handle carry charger. It is much larger. Also I'm not finding any info on a Sun built Allstate tester so far on the net but haven't dug into old Sears catalogs yet.

Model SBT doesn't turn up anything but I can find plenty on other Sun testers. Does anyone have any info on this Sun Tester built for Sears under the Allstate label? I would hope to find a manual but if not I guess I'll use a Sun VAT manual to find my way around it. It is kind of cool. Some pics. Ed.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Model SBT doesn't turn up anything but I can find plenty on other Sun testers. Does anyone have any info on this Sun Tester built for Sears under the Allstate label? I would hope to find a manual but if not I guess I'll use a Sun VAT manual to find my way around it. It is kind of cool. Some pics. Ed.

I don't think Sears ever SOLD that model, but every Sears store that had a garage and installed batteries had one (or very similar) and I used it MANY times. Nothing special about the charging half, except that it can put out a LOT of power, which is why it is on a timer.

There is one thing special about it. The stick like probes on the end of the volt meter probes. By placing them in advanced cells you measured the voltage BETWEEN the cells. The first and last cell was tested by using the pointed probe on the battery terminal itself. All cells needed to be within at +/- 0.1 volts. If not you had a "dead cell".

After a "quick charge" (what ever the timer would allow) you should have close to 2.2V/cell (13.2V).


I sure wish I could find those probes as they would work with any volt meter !

EDIT : That unit is probably from the 1970s or possibly the 1960s. At that time every Sears garage probably had 2 or 3 SUN VAT 28s. I sure would like to get one of those in working condition from someone who does NOT want an arm and a leg !

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Thanks a bunch for the info oldwizard. I guess if this model was only intended for Sears service shops it would explain why I haven't found any info on it. Still though, there were a lot of Sears battery outlets across the country and I expect there are many others out there....now in private hands. I'll have to try it out on a few of the batteries I have laying around here and make sure everything still works. It does power up. Ed.

 

[bigbert87]

So this vintage Sun battery tester has been on the local C/L for a few weeks now, with a steadily decreasing asking price, and since my wife's car battery failed yesterday I decided to have a look. First thing that really surprised me was how big this thing was...from the C/L pics I was thinking more the size of a nice top handle carry charger. It is much larger. Also I'm not finding any info on a Sun built Allstate tester so far on the net but haven't dug into old Sears catalogs yet.

Model SBT doesn't turn up anything but I can find plenty on other Sun testers. Does anyone have any info on this Sun Tester built for Sears under the Allstate label? I would hope to find a manual but if not I guess I'll use a Sun VAT manual to find my way around it. It is kind of cool. Some pics. Ed.

I have one of those leads and all. I don’t know if it works or not super clean though. What do you reckon a good price for it would be

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

The guy I got mine from had reduced his price to $50. After talking to him we made a deal. I did a small welding repair job for him and we called it an even trade. Try it out to make sure it works. If it doesn't, it isn't worth much. They are really large testers that take up a lot of shop space but like most Sun testers, do have a cool factor.

 

[Provincial]

That is a VAT of some kind. The 1961 catalog on Internet Archive shows the VAT-20, which looks very similar. These are great, since they use carbon piles for load testing the battery. That is a good score! I'll give you a ****!

Edit: If the rubber covered leads are old and brittle, look for true rubber-covered wire, like welding lead, of the same gauge.

 

[Modern Garage]

The VAT 20 is a tester only. The OP has a tester/charger combo and is much larger than a VAT, although you're right - very similar appearance. I've never seen one like this before and I'm waiting to see if someone shows up with a with a Sun branded version.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

I first posted this quite a while ago. With the model number of SBT (sears battery tester) I came to the conclusion that it was purpose built by Sun, for Sears only. Maybe bigbert, who revived the thread, will pop back in with pics of his. The info above from the old wizard is about all I ever found on the SBT, but I haven't looked very hard the last few years. Ed.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I sure wish I could find those probes as they would work with any volt meter !

EDIT : That unit is probably from the 1970s or possibly the 1960s. At that time every Sears garage probably had 2 or 3 SUN VAT 28s. I sure would like to get one of those in working condition from someone who does NOT want an arm and a leg !

Worth repeating !

 

[Modern Garage]

I saw it was a zombie thread but I hoped maybe new eyes would come along with new info. Realistically the gray hair I see in my mirror should remind me that there are some questions that just aren't going to be answered anymore.
Joe

 

[ChrisBuss]

I used the "SBT" for years at two different Sears Auto Centers in Maryland in the 1980's (the SBT in the photos above looks better than the one I used) - In the shops I worked in the SBT had two purposes - Load Testing the entire battery and/or Load Testing Individual cells with what were called "cadmium" probes (the individual cell load test can be done with a VAT 28 with the same kind of probes) - The quick charge feature was discouraged because it allegedly stressed the battery being tested (I would never rely on a load test result after an SBT quick charge since you could wrongly condemn a good battery) - If Google is correct there were 850 Sears Auto Centers at their peak - Probably 1 SBT in each or 2 SBT's in the larger 40 bay shops - So my guess is that Sun produced roughly 1,000 of them - Given the internal cooling fan and how rugged they were made I would not be surprised to walk into an older repair shop and see one still working - If anyone puts a SUN Sears Allstate SBT up for sale (or a SUN VAT 28) I'd like to know about it.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

If Google is correct there were 850 Sears Auto Centers at their peak - Probably 1 SBT in each or 2 SBT's in the larger 40 bay shops - So my guess is that Sun produced roughly 1,000 of them - Given the internal cooling fan and how rugged they were made I would not be surprised to walk into an older repair shop and see one still working

That is a lot of SBT's to go missing Chris. I doubt Sears would require that they all be destroyed when they closed the auto centers, but it kind of seems something like that happened. I expect a few more will turn up, especially considering all of the Sun collectors out there...

 

[ChrisBuss]

That is a lot of SBT's to go missing Chris. I doubt Sears would require that they all be destroyed when they closed the auto centers, but it kind of seems something like that happened. I expect a few more will turn up, especially considering all of the Sun collectors out there...

Once SUN was purchased by Snap-On in the 1990's it's hard to imagine that SBT's were maintained in service once they needed repair - Even back in the late 80's only 1 of the 2 we had worked and management was unconcerned (which baffled me) - I remember at some point SUN came up with a 'computerized' tester (forgot its designation) for Sears - It was set on a large cart that had a tv monitor - It was supposed to replace the VAT 28 and the SBT but it was more or less a joke - It routinely overheated & shut down and I caught it saying bad batteries were good a couple of times because it was not designed to fully load test a battery - I stopped using it and went back to the SBT/VAT 28 - Eventually they could not keep the new wonder tester working and it was pushed up against the wall and we used the top as a writing desk.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Sounds like managements attempt to update one of the auto centers primary tools without fully understanding what made the old tool so damn useful.....but they meant well.