While its nice to get your input, your final statement makes it all completely meaningless as it seems to be a dig at me for asking a question...if that's the case then you know what you can do with your answer. Im here to learn from peoples experiences, not to be patronized.

On top of that you've failed to address the full question that I asked, but bed time stops me expanding on it. I will on Monday, because I think my theory might be correct in that I'm looking for a justification to purchase any battery tester in the first place, and concluding that I probably don't need one

 

wsn03, you've probably noticed by now that, 99+% of the time, members of this forum take your questions as far and answer them fairly, without judging why you asked or whether you should have. Now and again, though, a responder focuses on you, not the issue. As you point out, that doesn't help anyone.

I've learned the hard way that it's best to take a deep breath and ignore the ad hominem comments. If you find something valuable in a response, great - if not or worse if it's a dig, move on.

 

Thanks Bill, I hear you. I don't follow your approach, because I don't have your patience - my single biggest issue is comments that are uncalled for, preventing readers from joining up. The best post on here so far was that massive engine build post recently, and the first thing the guy said was he was reluctant to do it because of the bitching he normally sees on forums - we could have lost out there big time. We don't have anyone to help us moving forward but ourselves, we need all the input and questions we can get, because in the not too very distant future JLR mechanics won't remember our cars, and some of us will be on our own. Anything that trips that up needs to be called out in my opinion

 

Not expecting many people to be following this thread particularly, so I've posed a question on pistonheads - the UKs largest petrol head forum.

Here is the question for anyone interested, and CLICK THIS LINK to follow any responses:




"Hello, electronics has never been my strong point, so I've got a question for anyone who can satisfy my curiosity.


Background

I bought a battery tester that turned out to be a bit bogus, giving me readings that were useless (e.g. a brand new fully charged battery it said to replace, a 5 yr old battery past its best it said had 100% life). Despite some very clever tricks the cheating little bwastiards who sold it to me ended up having to give a full refund...and now they have negative reviews on top as well. I looked at other makes but have started to wonder if I even need one?



My Set Up

I have 4 old motorbikes on battery tenders / optimisers - some lead acid vented, one sealed.
I have a 2007 XKR on a CTEK 10A - these cars use a battery the size of a power station, and they seem to run an entire eco-system off these batteries. Here there be monsters, and the whole thing has made me get more clued up electrically than I ever imagined was possible.




Battery Testing

I know I can test a battery in 3 modes - stand alone after a couple of days (is it holding charge?); firing up (does it have enough juice to start the engine?), and running (does it have enough in house to run the car?).
I can test this with a volt meter.




When its goosed

The car battery situation is a new phenomenon for me, I'm a biker in the main. What I do know from general knowledge and experience is that between 5 and 10 years the debris from the cell plates screws them, a cell stops performing, and nothing is going to stop the quick decline - its a bit like a human whose organs are packing up - there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
When this happens I change the battery for a new one - because no amount of charging, love, psychology will make things better, without taking the battery apart I can't do anything to reverse the situation.




My question

So as I have a voltmeter and good battery tenders / maintainers or whatever they are called (which shout when a battery has had it anyway) - what could a battery tester do for me? Do I actually need one?
The only benefit I think one could give to me is to tell me I'm wrong, that my battery isn't on its way out, that there is something I can do to reverse this situation - but I'm struggling to see what / how?

Any informed answers appreciated, thanks."

 

Just found this which I thought was very useful:

https://haynes.com/en-us/tips-tutori...ery-multimeter

 

Interesting reviews. I’ve not seen any of those issues with mine. It does exactly what it should every time. I had it recommended to me by someone who I expect research it to the extreme.

 

My Autool was very impressive when I used it, up until the point I started putting it on other batteries.
The 1 star reviews on yours cite the same problem - might be an idea to try it out on some other batteries, or it might be a case of some good, some not good - always hard to know with Chinese goods

 

Sorry I can't edit my comments now, apologies for getting the wrong end of the stick

 

I've used it on 2 different vehicles now and it's worked fine so far. I've got my rv to try it on and will see how it does there. All I can say is my experience so far, as well as the person's experiences who recommended it to me have been much better than what those review indicate. I'll agree it's tough to really know with much of this stuff.