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Battery Tester Recommendation

PGlaves said:
Sure. But you knew what you were doing and had a real protocol. Not the same thing as the shelf stocker, floor sweeper at your local auto parts store who hooks up the load and walks away to ogle the girl that just walked in looking for a wiper blade.
Click to expand...

Paul, I was wondering if you yourself had one overheat or explode. Sure it can happen, just like motorcycle accidents happen, but I have a better chance of the latter happening.

Batteries can explode when they give off hydrogen gas if they are defective or overcharged. Never happened to me in over 50 years of battery handling.
 
36654 said:
Trying to catch-up here, is the Harbor Freight tester a conductance tester or a carbon pile unit?
Click to expand...

This is what a carbon-pile tester looks like. Same one except mine is blue. They are about $50 when on sale.

There is nothing high-tech about it. It contains a "shunt" (a resistance) that the D.C. Amps meter is connected to and a "voltmeter" connected to the cables.

You turn the knob till it reads 1/2 the CCA of the battery and look at the voltmeter. It should hold it for 15 seconds. Immediately turn the knob back down for a no-load condition. The unit does not have a fan.

On my friends car, he had issues starting. I connected the tester, turned up the load to 1/2 the CCA and his voltage dropped down to under 6 volts within seconds. His battery had no capacity.

Cen-Tech 500 Amp Carbon Pile Load Tester.jpg
 
GlobalRider said:
This is what a carbon-pile tester looks like. Same one except mine is blue. They are about $50 when on sale.

There is nothing high-tech about it. It contains a "shunt" (a resistance) that the D.C. Amps meter is connected to and a "voltmeter" connected to the cables.

You turn the knob till it reads 1/2 the CCA of the battery and look at the voltmeter. It should hold it for 15 seconds. Immediately turn the knob back down for a no-load condition. The unit does not have a fan.

On my friends car, he had issues starting. I connected the tester, turned up the load to 1/2 the CCA and his voltage dropped down to under 6 volts within seconds. His battery had no capacity.

View attachment 77510
Click to expand...

Isn't the https://www.harborfreight.com/100-amp-612v-battery-load-tester-61747.html just a fixed amperage (100A) version of the variable unit you show?
 
GlobalRider said:
Yes it is and what I first started out with ages ago. I still have it. To do a motorcycle battery, it is fine. But I wanted the fully adjustable carbon-pile unit to test batteries of various CCA found in cars. Therefore, it does it all.

Hey, I am a tool junkie. Tools don't cost you money; they save you money.
Click to expand...

Just trying make sure which tools we're talking about. It seems, the $19 HF unit might be just fine for our MC batteries (200~240CCA).
 
GlobalRider said:
This is what a carbon-pile tester looks like. Same one except mine is blue. They are about $50 when on sale.

There is nothing high-tech about it. It contains a "shunt" (a resistance) that the D.C. Amps meter is connected to and a "voltmeter" connected to the cables.

You turn the knob till it reads 1/2 the CCA of the battery and look at the voltmeter. It should hold it for 15 seconds. Immediately turn the knob back down for a no-load condition. The unit does not have a fan.

On my friends car, he had issues starting. I connected the tester, turned up the load to 1/2 the CCA and his voltage dropped down to under 6 volts within seconds. His battery had no capacity.

View attachment 77510
Click to expand...

Like this?

https://www.amazon.com/VCT-Battery-...ttery+load+tester&qid=1584230468&sr=8-2-fkmr3

Harry
 
PGlaves said:
Not me. But one did "burst" at a auto parts store in Topeka when we lived there. In the news when a customer was almost burned with some acid.
Click to expand...

I question the person doing the testing. One of the problems with Lead acid batteries is if they get a lot of short term use they can get warm. This can be from cranking the engine or placing on charger. Once they are warm the acid can explode with a good spark. I have seen several car batteries explode after cranking the battery dead and then hooking the cables to the dead battery last instead of first.
Running car with cables attached creates a good spark when applied to a dead battery.
Most testers will tell you start with a fully charged battery after 30 minutes of rest.
Gator
 
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