Was thinking about adding a battery load tester to my tool box. Don’t want to spend a lot on this tool that won’t be used that often. Found this on Amazon. Any opinions whether this will be useful or is it a waste of $$?
I wondered the same thing too. Modern mystery electronics I suppose. Different subject but I bought a digital thermostat to control the 4400W heater in my garage. This device switches the heater on and off at 16.7A at 220V AC, without any relays. Another example of electronics being able to do things that I can’t understand.I don't get it. How do you load test a battery without dissipating heat. Does it come with a large power resistor the goes accross the battery?
I test batteries using a headlight bulb (about a 5 amp draw). So a 10ah battery should last 2 hours. I don't want to kill the battery, so if the bulb is still burning bright at 50% of time, I call it good.
SOH is state of health. It's the difference 'tween the battery being tested and what the tester has been told a new battery looks like. 100% means it's health is as good as a new battery.
SOC is state of charge.... the amount of charge the battery has vs what it's capable of being charged to.
Ripple is the amount of AC voltage it sees from the alternator. Alternators put out AC. That's rectified to DC. Rectification is never perfect and a slight amount of AC voltage gets passed on. Your test says 40MV of AC is passed on to the battery. That's very good... says the rectifier is working just fine.
In the end it worked out as a cheaper option to buy the gadget and be confident. If you ever suspect poor battery performance in future and the gadget says "Good" you know to look elsewhere for a fault.The unit cost about $40 and I didn’t buy a $150+ battery (for the Ducati) so I‘d say thus was a win.
Exactly what I was thinking. Would be good to test the gadget on a sick battery. I’ll stop by my friends repair shop to see if he has one.In the end it worked out as a cheaper option to buy the gadget and be confident. If you ever suspect poor battery performance in future and the gadget says "Good" you know to look elsewhere for a fault.
It will be nice to see what the gadget says about a known poor battery if you find one some time.