Would a Battery Load Tester Be Any Use to Your Typical Car Owner?

By Geoffrey Wagner

If you have any equipment that is powered by an internal combustion engine, and if it isn't hand cranked like a lawn mower is, starting the engine is something you depend on a healthy battery for. Starting an engine in freezing cold weather especially, needs a battery that has plenty of juice. It can't be easy knowing that you need your vehicle to start smoothly in the morning when you have to get to work and to not know that the component that you depend on to help power that start is in good shape. That's where a battery load tester comes in. If that sounds like a complicated piece of equipment, the
utility it brings you is straightforward enough. It tells you how much more life your battery has left in it. It tells you how well your battery can respond to charging anymore.

A battery load tester is a device you basically use to test how healthy your batteries are. With a standard a lead acid battery, what you want is to test it for the kind of load that it is capable of handling. The battery load tester that you use needs to make it possible for you to change settings so that you only apply the right kind of load to a battery to test it. Go any higher than the kind of power your batteries can handle, and you could get into trouble with false positive readings. Look for tester that can apply a precisely calibrated load to a battery, that can make allowances for how hot or cool the battery is, and that can make accurate readings, without damaging your battery. What happens when you get a basic battery load tester that doesn't have any of these features? Some of the rudimentary models will only test a battery for the level of voltage it puts out - they don't even test for the kind of load the batteries are capable of taking. They'll go and give a pass rating to batteries that are just about ready to give up the ghost.

Most units that you get to buy today are tough enough for everyday use. Make sure that you get a battery load tester with plenty of range, and that it gives you the tools you need to make adjustments for the right kind of load, temperature and amperage levels. Try not to pick one that gives you a mere "Okay" or "Not Okay" reading, and leaves you with no choice but to trust what it says. You need readouts, and usually, an analog unit tends to be far more accurate party than a digital one.