Is HOW TO TEST BATTERIES Worth [$] To You?

For the most part, you shouldn’t be too concerned about your vehicles battery life. But all of us have experienced the pain of getting stuck on the road because of our carelessness regarding proper car inspection and maintenance at least once. 

The reason behind this problem is usually a dead battery. We are here to show you a couple of ways on how to test batteries and determine whether or not you should get a new one.

Tools you need for testing your battery

There are around four tools you can use for this task, some of which include the all-mighty Multi-meter. As the name suggests you can do all kinds of measurements with it, but for this task, you’ll need to use it either as a Voltmeter or Ammeter. Of course, if you don’t have a Multi-meter, but instead one of the two alternatives mentioned earlier, you are good to go. 

Ideally, you should consider buying a digital device, as the readings are more accurate.

1) The Voltmeter/Multi-meter

First and foremost you should check your car before attempting anything else. Make sure that the lights and all of the features of the car are turned off for safety measures. You don’t want to get electrocuted. 

After that, you should remove the battery’s positive terminal cover, clean them and attach the red terminal of the Voltmeter to the red terminal of the battery. Same with the negative, which is usually the black one. 

Not the Voltmeter will show you the measurements based on your battery’s condition. 

• 12.66+ volts 100% charged
• 12.45 volts 75% charged
• 12.24 volts 50% charged
• 12.06 volts 25% charged
• 11.89 volts 0% charged

A battery in good condition will usually indicate around 12.4 to 12.7 volts. If you see that your results are less than 12.4 volts, you should charge it.

In case that the value is lower than 12.2 volts, give your battery a slow charge and check again. In the case of the battery not charging any more than this, you can consider replacing it with a new one.

However, if the voltage is 12.9 or higher, it means you need to remove the exes voltage by turning the high beams.

2) The Battery Health Indicator

Another method on how to test batteries is The Battery Health Indicator – Method. It comes usually pre-installed in a lot of the new vehicles on the market, if you don’t have one, don’t worry, it can be easily installed. You can find this indicator around your Battery near the engine. As you ignite the car, an arrow will show you one of three colors.

It’s a pretty self-explanatory system as the green color represents a good health condition of the battery and the red shows that you have to give your cell a proper charge to work like it used to.

However, if you see a grey or transparent color, you should replace it entirely.

3) Power Probe

This method is similar to the Voltmeter. You just connect the Probe terminal to the negative terminal of your battery and then the tip of the probe to the positive terminal. It will show you volts; thus you can use the graph above to determine your car battery’s health. 

4) The Battery Load Tester

On this method you only need to, once again, connect the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative. The tool will make a spark when attached to the car battery. This way you find out whether or not you should consider replacing or charging your battery. We recommend not using this method for it is easier to use one mentioned earlier.

Last Words

As you have found out today, there are a couple of methods out there on how to test batteries. Hopefully, this article was of some help for those who wonder if they should replace it or not. To avoid any problems and to keep your battery life as long as possible, check it regularly.