show us your battery testers and rate them

[toplessHO]

Many years ago I broke my rule of paying list price for a tool at Harbor Freight.
IIRC it was around $70 for this one.
It seems to work well,the state of charge is a bar at top
the rest of the measurements are Voltage,CCA,internal resistance.
The last I consider the most important in determining health of battery.
show us yours and convince me why I need to upgrade.

 

[engineer2]

I've got one of those cheap capacitance testers. Photo attachment didn't work, but they are all over Amazon. Does good on bad batteries and on good batteries. Has a bit of trouble on marginal batteries or ones that were just charged up. Love the convenience though.

I also have my engine analyzer which has a proper load tester with diagnostics.

 

[toplessHO]

dot matrix printer
thats showing its age

 

[DrinkMan]

We have 2. My favorite is our Foxwell BT705 (Foxwell Battery Tester). It does a great job helping diagnosis the electrical system. Our F150 was having difficulty starting and because we were near an auto parts store when it happened, I pulled in and had them do a test of the system. Their test set up said our battery was good and that we needed a new alternator. They happened to be out of stock right then and told us they could get an alternator later that day for us. So, we took the truck home and I hooked up the Foxwell. It ran through a lot more tests loading the electrical system. It said our battery had a surface charge and was giving false readings. I replaced the battery instead of the alternator (cheaper and a lot easier) and it has been working great for a couple of years.

Before we got the Foxwell, I used to use the cheap $20 Harbor Freight Load tester. It did okay to tell us when a battery that was obviously bad was bad but that is about it.

 

[zendriver]

I have the Viking from HF.

Like it just fine. It gives "health". Not sure what else I should expect a battery tester do. Used it on a garden tractor that had been sitting for several months. Gave some good reading, but told me I needed to "recharge" did that and the 5 year old batter passed with flying colors.

Check the features and see if it does something your current unit does not do.

12V Digital Battery and System Tester

Amazing deals on this 12V Digital Battery And System Tester at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[theoldwizard1]

Not just a battery test, but a whole electrical power tester. Sun VAT26 or VAT28. You don't need the the VAT32 or VAT40.

 

[AJHD]

I've been using this Launch unit since March '22. It seems to do everything I need it to.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095WJ3N4S/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This TopDon was really popular on YouTube awhile back. It's only $30, but I don't really have a need to buy it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DDDDSK9/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Duker]

I have a Topdon BT200, it is a simple tester but has held up well and seems to be fairly accurate. Try this... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGZQ2N7/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[WWheeler]

I have this one, the KONNWEI KW208 12V Car Battery Tester.

It's one of the cheapest on Amazon, but had good ratings. I bought it because I had a few slow to turn over cranks on cold mornings, even though the battery wasn't that old and after putting the charger on it that said it was full. The tester has a Battery Test (in vehicle or out of vehicle), a Cranking test (for the starter), and a Charging test (for the Alternator) and it will prompt you to enter whatever info it needs, like CCA, and what to do.

It works pretty good IMHO. It identified my alternator was going bad even though it said it was charging at ~14.2V unloaded and ~12.3v loaded, which was the same as I got with a multimeter so I blew it off since it's a cheap tester, and a couple weeks later I started hearing my alternator whine and knew then that little tester knew beforehand somehow. I couldn't find an OEM Denso locally, and I don't trust anything else, so I ordered one and of course my truck left me stranded at 4:30 am on my way to work a couple days later before the alternator got here. It only went about 2 miles after the battery dummy light came on before it cut off on me and I had to coast for a place to park it.

I'll trust that little tester next time.

My only gripe is that the leads aren't long enough to take it to the driver's seat while connected to the battery which would be nice because it'll tell you to start the vehicle and turn stuff on and off and whatnot. I'd like to **** splice in some longer same gauge cables but not sure if the added resistance might throw it off or not.

 

[Wrench97]

I've been using this OTC unit for 20+ years, it's a bit obsolete now as I don't believe it's as accurate on AGM batteries as the newer ones.

 

[nadogail]

I am using the Harbor Freight 100 Amp Analog tester, it is also an 100 Amp Load. It was cheap and also meets my needs.

 

[turner66]

I have had a Topdon BT600 for 6 months and it has been accurate and reliable. I especially like the built-in printer functionality, so I don't have to find where i laid my pencil down when i need to make a note during my testing

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B45FZLRX/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[ronkz650]

I have the OTC one pictured a couple posts back. It was a $250 tool back when I got mine 20yrs ago or so. I still like it and think it works as good as any. You can actually do a load test. I think a lot of the new low priced units more or less only do the conductance test. Maybe that is good enough, don't know.

 

[Outahere]

I like my $150 Viking 1000A carbon pile battery tester from Harbor Freight. Both meters are accurate, and the cables and clamps are beefy. I trust this analog tester more than a digital tester.

 

[dnschmidt]

I have the Foxwell BT705 too and it seems to work well.