3 types of Automotive Battery Testers Explained and demonstrated
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- Опубликовано: 21 фев 2015
- In this video I will talk about the 3 most common types of automotive battery testers. I will show and demonstrate how 2 of them can conflict in what data they give back to the user. The battery being tested is a brand new battery in a brand new car...will it show the battery as good, bad or dying????
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The old “toaster “ load test showed both internal resistance and capacity of a battery. In the first moment after closing the test switch, the voltage drop is proportional to internal resistance. Less than 1V drop is considered acceptable regarding internal resistance (sulfatiion of plates). The rate the needle drops afterwards corresponds to reduced battery capacity. A needle might read 11.8V initially, drop quickly to the bottom of the yellow and very slowly drop to the red in thirty seconds. That is a battery I know : 1. Needs to be charged fully, 2. has large capacity and the acid and plates are in good condition, 3. suffers sulfation which might be corrected, 4. Will work fine in most weather and won’t die if I leave the headlights on for a minute or the door open for half an hour. Farmers rely on these tools still for good reason
Very clear video, many thanks
I like when this guy says at 7:30 that Honda's don't require a lot of torque.
I like the honesty. lol
It is really helpful for me. thanks.
I really like the description of the different types of testers and the focus on internal resistance as an indictor of health, or at least a hint as to what to expect. That's why they don't need to actually perform a load test I suppose. The sophistication is to be able to detect a weak battery that otherwise shows "good" voltage. These are the batteries that show over 12v but can't deliver meaningful current with a load (and so the voltage drop is huge and so on.)
I'm further supposing that since this "conductance" type is newer, it wasn't possible or practical to manufacture prior to being able to stuff a cheap computer into a box _that can also measure milliohms_.
Good & Clear explanation. Thank you. You are good.
What exactly does a battery desulfator really do to the battery internally ??? Thanks
Excellent.
Was/Is there a follow up on the status of this "2015" (2014?) battery? Did it get down to a healthy level with a few more reconditioning cycles?
As 2019 is just hours away as I write this... If it's still in service and wasn't replaced under Warranty that battery is now 4 years old. Would be interested in seeing what condition it's in now. With access to a battery tester that can monitor its health and a charger that can "top off" and reconditon as needed... Seeing if it has remained stable or not would be interesting.
I've usually gotten around 5-8 years on a battery. (If I don't let it drain down and freeze from leaving my plug-in XM Radio run overnight in -15F weather.) Which raises a question. If I'd realized quick enough and had that tester... I could probably have gauged the salvageability of that battery after it thawed. Didn't realize till later that day (after a couple jumps) I'd been driving on a Frozen Battery... The damage was probably beyond repair but still if I'd had the time/interest/need... Good to know there are tests to see how bad a battery might be even if it shows good voltage and load test numbers.
Hi which desulfator you're using. thx
Great explanation! Do all trickle chargers provide the desulfation you mention? (I have a trickle charger from Harbor Freight that I've never used.) Does desulfation from a trickle charger prolong the life of a battery? Can desulfation restore the CCA when a battery is otherwise condemned for replacement?
Great video, the best I've seen on the subject. If I may, I have two questions: A) Is it necessary for the battery to be fully charged for conductance testers to give reliable data, or just being above 12V is enough? I understand that these testers also give a "state of charge" of the battery, as a percentage, so I assume that it would not be necessary for the battery to be fully charged, am I correct? B) For vehicles that have the battery in a place of difficult access (for example, under a seat), is it possible to use a conductance tester on the easily accessible jump start terminals that these vehicles typically have, or is it always necessary to connect the tester directly to the battery terminals?Thank you in advance for your time and, again, for a great explanation.
Ideally the battery should be at or close to fully charged. That said, the reading should not be done until several hours after the battery has been charged. Straight after a full charge conductance testers will be incorrect, actually I've found usually reading lower than they should Alternatively you could get the battery to a full charge, or very close to fully charged, then put put the headlights on, or a 5-10 amp load for about 10 seconds, to remove the surface charge. Some testers do have a before/after charge test function. if the battery is not fully charged then the testers will still give a pretty good idea, as long as the battery is not below about 12.4 volts open- circuit after it's been allowed to stabilize, with no load having been applied for some minutes prior to the voltage reading. Good tester clamp connections to lead battery posts is the way for accurate readings. Clamps going onto steel or copper interferes with the ac signal from the testers & can really effect the readings badly, possibly even reducing the shown CCA readings by up to 30% or more, so a perfect or a brand new battery could be failed on test.
BTW, I believe some tester manufacturers state you can connect the tester clamps to the jump start terminals if a tester has that specific facility on it, but the readings won't be as accurate as if you put the tester right on the lead posts. You can't do it with the Cen -Tech I'd only go so far as to say that if the tester is connected to the jump terminals & the tester says the battery is OK, then the battery should probably be acceptable, but if the battery is failed, I'd want to repeat the test with the conductance tester clamps directly on the lead posts of the battery thought suspect, before condemning it. You'd need to take out the old battery if you are supplying the new one, anyway. They do lead screw on adapters for side post or steel battery terminals to test them by conductance.
It is possible to test flat or near flat batteries by conductance testing if you're in a hurry, & that's a big difference between it & load testing. It just won't be quite so accurate, though it may be good enough, unless the battery is on the border of pass/fail, & you're relying on that indication from the meter used as to whether to condemn a battery.
Good summary of these things. The reason the surface charge results in a lower result is because it uses the loaded and unloaded voltage swings it sees as it applies a small pulsed load current of about 1.5A.
The surface charge results in an artificially high unloaded voltage during the off times and the bigger delta results in it calculating a higher internal resistance, and lower current rating.
Excellent educational Video. Many thanks to you. Where to buy the conductance meter and how much?
Thanks
Sincerely Babur
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I think you got that backwards at 2:03. Lower temperature leads to a higher voltage reading, not lower. At least for a battery without a load on it like you're describing. With a load on it, like during load testing or starting an engine, the voltage drops down more at colder temperature. But at rest it reads higher.
Lower temperature effectively corresponds to lower voltage from the lower cranking current, since it only matters when loaded.
You say Ohms, but I Think You mean milliohms...
Aren't the CCA and the resistance two ways of saying the same thing?
Batteries only suffer from sulfation if they undercharged all the time, it’s not a end of life cause . Batteries eventually fail because of positive plate corrosion.
I will like to know why an ordinary multimeter can not be used to measure conductance or ohms to figure out the internal health of a automotive battery?
an ordinary multimeter would "burn out" if analog, or show an error if digital when trying to measure conductance. A multimeter measures conductance / resistance across a "load". A battery is not a "load", but more a like a "pump", so you can't measure resistance that way.
The conductance calculated is actually based on the CA or CCA of the battery you have selected. This special meter has a known resistance internally, so the calculation of the "external resistance" in your battery can be calculated.
Thanks for your help and guidance. please
You actually could do it by measuring the open circuit voltage, then applying a load for a specific current, and measuring the voltage drop as the load is applied.
If you apply a 10A load, and the battery voltage drops by 50 mV, that indicates an internal battery resistance of 5 milliohms.
If you then take 3.0V and divide it by the 0.005 ohms, you get 600A, which is what these testers will display in the CCA figure.
The tester basically does that, using a smaller load current of about 1.5A.
Easier and quicker than doing it manually, though you could do it if you were forced to-😉
You just need to be precise with the applied load current and the voltage measurement to get the right numbers out of it.
How accurate is that harbor freight battery analyzer to you ? I bought it and get a 50-100 cca difference each time I test my optima battery
These testers need good connections to lead posts to work properly. If you put them on stainless steel or other connectors the readings can be way out. Wiggle them even on lead.
To add to my last response: the readings from conductance testers will vary by a fair bit depending on the state of charge of the battery. Don't test just after a battery has been charged, or if the battery is partly charged. The readings shouldn't vary by more than about 10 CCA if the readings are just one straight after the other on the same battery. If they vary by 50CCA, then the tester must be faulty if the clamps are on lead posts & tight.I have a Cen Tech & it is not quite so accurate as my Midtronics tester, usually about 5 -10% higher.
For AGM batteries the reading on a Cen Tech (or any other tester without an AGM setting) will be up to 100 CCA higher. Midtronics suggest either adding 100 CCA to the input spec. if you are using the pass/fail function. You could just reduce the shown reading on the Cen-Tech by up to 100 CCA on a large AGM car battery to get a nearer idea of what the true CCA reading should be.
All conductance testers can be 'fooled' & say a useless battery is OK on occasions. There is no relationship between the CCA rating of an older battery & the amp hour capacity it will give. EG I've tested 850 CCA 95 amp hour batteries that read say, 700 CCA, so you'd think not too bad, but if I do a discharge test at the C/20 rate, they could really have less than 20 amp hours available, so nowhere near 95 AH. A load test at 100 amps or more is good to double check, although heavy current load testing at several hundred amps (1/2 CA rating) for up to 15 seconds is not reckoned to be good for AGM car batteries, so I go with the 100 Amp test to get a further idea, or ideally a C/20 test.
I have a tester that I usually set to cut out at 11.4 volts, but if you do it using car headlights to see how many hours they'll be on for, then be careful not to go below about 11.4 v on load, or the test itself is not good for the battery. To be exact, the drain is to 10.5 volts on load, but disconnecting the headlight load at around 11.4 v & assuming a few more amp hours would be available, is a safer way. Recharge the battery immediately after a C/20 discharge, to prevent sulfation forming on the battery plates.
Best to attach directly to the battery posts when you do the testing. The tester clamps should have a 4 wire configuration. Not sure how the ones from years ago were designed, but the ones in 2022 have an isolated contact in each clamp used for separate load and measurement paths.
Hello, I have a question. I have seen some batteries that have 11.90V or around that measurement and still can turn the engine over fine, Why is that possible? I dont fine a reason for it. I would thank your answer.
Don't seem to have too much handy?
You said a good battery would read two or three ohms.. Then you tested the battery and said with the reading of 5 milli ohms it was too high.. I suppose you realize this by now but I’m just saying.
My tester says 7 mOhms is 100% healthy. On another very old battery 11 mOhms is 15% healthy.
I think you was over thinking it till your 36 month warranty was over!!
Guess you are not qualified,and never test a battery for at least two hours of charging in any way