Battery tester.

jono2912, May 22, 11:57pm
With winter coming up, thought it might be time to invest in a new battery tester.

What do you guys recommend these days!
m16d, May 23, 4:27am
Just buy a new battery.
mrfxit, May 23, 7:16am
LOL . numnuts .

Maintaining your vehicle is a better idea.
elect70, May 23, 9:31am
Onlytest is a load testerwhich uses a variable carbon pilebank . Too expensive for home use. If car is getting harder to start & battery is over 3 years old then its only about 60% efficiency.
bigfatmat1, May 23, 9:54am
a hydrometer a good quality digital tester and some common sense goes a long way.sometimes ya just need that carbon pile tester though. I find them to big an unpractical an awkward to fit in some places.
anarky, May 23, 2:24pm
A carbon pile draw tester is a wee bit old skool nowaday you can get very good electronic ones that pretty much tell you yay or nay :) but saying that they are not cheap :)
use a multitester and put it across the terminals set on 12 volts, watch the display while some one cranks the car, anything less than 10 volts = battery screwed
gunhand, May 23, 2:32pm
Starts car easy, battery good. Sluggish but starts, battery dieing. Dosnt start car, battery dead.Goes flat after a week sitting, also dead. Who needs a tester lol.
m16d, May 23, 5:14pm
Yer dont "maintain" a battery.
When it's getting stuffed you bif it out and get a new one.
jmma, May 23, 5:23pm
You don't maintain your vehicle
When its getting stuffed you biff it out and get a new one.(o:
mrfxit, May 23, 5:24pm
LOL, & how do you KNOW it's the battery thats stuffed without charging & or testing it.

Oh yea thats right . you do some "maintenance" by testing & or charging it & testing again.
Oh & THEN you do some more "maintenance" by checking everything thats connected to the battery to find the real fault, (presuming of course that the battery TESTED ok)

Even "maintenance free" batterys can be topped up with water if they are a bit low. ;-)
gunhand, May 23, 5:24pm
Naaaya just send it to NZ
mrfxit, May 23, 5:27pm
Crunch time for a big purchase or not, I would trust the old tester combined with a new tester but NOT just the new tester on it's own.
Of course most small car batterys are cheap enough to replace at a whim, but a bit nasty for 4x4 & truck batterys
m16d, May 23, 6:39pm
Ha. struck a bit of a nerve here.
Still maintain that if the battery's getting dodgie, then biff it out and put a new one in.
Ever figured the cost of the Cummins or the PT6 not starting in the morning when you want to go to work.
richard198, May 23, 7:00pm
A lot of batterries are sealed now.
Nothing to do but change it over when it croaks!
elect70, May 24, 11:36am
^^+1esp with my disco V8 auto , if battery isnt up to itthen I just go to my local auto sparky who does load test for me , & if not up to mark just get a new 1.Wouldnt want to get caught outon the beach with tide coming in & wont start .
bigfatmat1, Mar 28, 5:00pm
btw poster 1 is looking for a battery tester for his business. Not for personal use. I use a digital load tester to test most batteries. I however also use a hydrometer where possible. As this is the best way to determine the state of charge. The digital load tester is often very accurate but you need knowledge and common sense.I.e determining whether the battery has a surface charge and is giving me false readings or if the battery is charged but has a dead cell and its saying recharge ect. I find the digital tester good on the likes of kenworths when I can just put it on one battery and test all four at once without having to disconnect the batteries and test them individually. also good for testing motorcycle and small batteries.If in the wrong hands a digital battery tester is as hopeless as the moron at repco using it