Battery Charger

[HowAboutThis]

Just bought a Nexpeak 10A charger off Amazon. Figured I should have a battery charger (didn't have one) and will probably rarely use it as our cars get driven often. But, you never know. Was looking at load testers/battery testers (I have a multimeter so can read volts) that are cheap but tell more than lights for "excellent, good, bad." But if there aren't decent cheap ones I'll just continue having them tested yearly at the dealer or auto stores for "free".

 

[bullwinkle]

The combination of a carbon pile load tester & electronic impedance battery tester seems to be the trick, along with keeping them charged, preferably with a Battery Minder or similar desulfating charger, along with solar maintainers. I've been getting pretty good lifespan out of the (non-JC/Clarios leaking) East Penn ones.

 

[twX]

You can always use your engine's starter as a load tester. Measure the battery voltage as you're cranking the engine. It will briefly dip very low, then should settle to between 10 and 11 volts while cranking. A battery with a cranking voltage of under ~10.2 V at room temperature is getting pretty weak.

 

[nobb]

Those Amazon cheapo China units are all pretty much the same. Foxsur appears to be slightly more legit, while the others are knock offs. They do a reasonably good job and the pulse repair feature is known to be quite potent.

However I would not trust leaving these plugged in for long durations unattended. There's a teardown video I saw on YT where some knock off brands omitted various filters and protection circuitry to save costs.