Initial comments on Solar BA7 battery tester

[Donald]

Solar BA7

I bought this one to help diagnose batteries that are not fully charged. I think this was around $60 on Amazon. It can test the starter and alt. also. The Midtronics that can do all of those tests is around $300 I believe.

I punched in the variables and in a few seconds it said 650 CCA on an older 750 CCA battery. Green light saying still good.

Have not tested the other functions.

Does a surface charge have any effect on this type of tester?

 

[eljefino]

No, it's one of those send-AC-current-through-it deals. Also (probably) works on batteries on any reasonable state of charge.

Suppose, though, that you could test your own theory by leaving the high beams on for 20 minutes.

 

[kb27]

I sell car batteries for a living.

I have BA7, Midtronics PBT300 and a Schumacher which died after applying a wrong polarity.

BA7 is not very accurate and reading changes and fluctuates with temperature.

PBT300 is always spot-on, I used this mostly with customers.

My BA7 would not read alternator reading at 14V and above, I think, it goes blank.

PBT300 can read alternator and crank voltage, although the CCA reading will not be accurate when the alternator is running.

Surface charge normally does not affect the readings.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: kb27
I sell car batteries for a living.

I have BA7, Midtronics PBT300 and a Schumacher which died after applying a wrong polarity.

BA7 is not very accurate and reading changes and fluctuates with temperature.

PBT300 is always spot-on, I used this mostly with customers.

My BA7 would not read alternator reading at 14V and above, I think, it goes blank.

PBT300 can read alternator and crank voltage, although the CCA reading will not be accurate when the alternator is running.

Surface charge normally does not affect the readings.


Thanks for the feedback. The PBT300 is 4x the cost.

Maybe I will see if a garage has a Midtronics I can compare my Solar to.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: kb27
BA7 is not very accurate and reading changes and fluctuates with temperature.


batteries are a chemical reaction that has an Arrhenius dependence upon temperature. Impedance drops with temperature as a result.

So there should be fluctuation (within reason) with temperature, just like 0-100% SOC voltage varies with temperature.

 

[Donald]

I clicked the BA7 several times on the 850 CCA battery in my Jeep. Got several readings of 780 and a couple of 820.

 

[JHZR2]

need to make sure the connections are very tight and consistent. Lots of measurements (and MANY battery casualties) have occurred due to a bad connection on a tester or DAQ/controller.

 

[kb27]

Originally Posted By: Donald
I clicked the BA7 several times on the 850 CCA battery in my Jeep. Got several readings of 780 and a couple of 820.

Unfortunately, that's the reason why Midtronics is 4x more expensive.

I've used a couple of cheap analysers vs two Midtronics to check the readings on a same battery multiple times.

The two Midtronics always give the exact same reading every time.

With a cheaper analyser, I guess you have to take a few readings and average it out.

 

[Donald]

Talked to the tech people are Solar today and they mentioned 2 things to consider for an accurate measurement:

1) get rid of any surface charge
2) the clamps must go to lead, on the posts or the connectors. Not to steel connectors.

 

[Donald]

I tried this analyzer on both the batteries in my pickup and one was weak (verified on load tester), but the primary showed more CCA than listed on the label. Is that because this is a Solar charger vs a Midtronics or ??

Could the battery have more than labeled? Label was 750 and it came on the tester as 825.

The negative terminal of one battery was removed for this test. That should isolate them both.

 

[Donald]

I think the Solar used cheap clamps on the tester. They make a difference. I have some nice clamps from a now defunct HF jump-pack.