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I am a professional auto technician for a german auto dealer. I was looking for a battery tester to keep within reach to quickly test customer batteries during scheduled services. I was close to purchasing a $400 Snap On battery tester, but when held in hand felt very cheaply built in comparison to the price tag. I found this battery tester for a fraction of the price and decided to give it a try. The tester came as pictured, with an included orange silicone bumper cover around the device (edges). The quality of this product is great, the feel of the buttons and build is very nice. The unit is very small which is an added bonus, fits easily in any drawer of your tool box. Testing of batteries literally takes 1 second. And it tests DIN rating!! It is very accurate. Another great feature, the tester remembers the last options you chose (ex: type of battery tested, test rating CCA, DIN, etc). For the price this product is amazing. The LED read out display does have an orange plastic cover over it which can make it a little harder to read in sunlight. But, a razor blade can easily take care of this issue. ;) Two words: Do It!
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It does seem to do the test I want, reserve capacity, which is harder to test than a basic load test or state of charge. A car battery can be fully charged, pass the load test, and still be old and sulfated enough to have very little reserve capacity.One major verification I got was when I tested some smaller lead acid batteries I use in my uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The new battery passed with a reading of over 100 cranking amps. The bad ones showed a reading of about 5 amps, even though a voltmeter showed nearly 13v (full charge) on one of them. The 13v bad one passed the test that the UPS does when you turn it on (!), but it failed to keep a computer going at all when I cut the power to it. So this Solar tester beats the UPS's own test.
I'm also planning to use this to see if my desulfating battery charger can revive some old or junked car batteries.
**See Comments below for an update the Solar BA5 got "fooled" by a failed car battery with low capacity.
Best Deals for SOLAR BA5 100-1200 Cold Cranking Amps Electronic Battery Tester
We had a 3 year old battery die in the middle of the summer on one of our cars. The dealer warned me that the battery was weak when it was in for service. I assume they tested it with some kind of meter like this, so I started looking for a way to test the batteries in the other cars before winter. One of our foreign cars has a battery that is 5 years old that costs $320 installed, so I really wanted to avoid replacing it unless necessary.I used the tester to check the Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) on all of the cars. The new battery tested above the rated CCA and the most of the others were also close to the rated CCA. But the 5 year old foreign car battery tested at 50% of the rated CCA, so according to the meter, I SHOULD have replaced it. But I didn't, because the car needed new rotors and pads on all 4 wheels for around $1400, so the battery got put on hold.
So every cold morning, I go out and start it and hold my breath. The car with battery with 50% of the rated CCA has started with minimal cranking at temperatures down to 0 deg F, which is as cold as it gets around here. So I am a little suspect about the validity of this meter. I probably should replace a 5 year old battery, but I suspect this battery meter would have caused me to replace it earlier than I needed to. The problem is I don't know of any other place to have the battery tested that I really trust. Seems like they all want to sell you a battery. So the jury is still out on whether or not you can use this meter to decide if you should replace your battery.
Honest reviews on SOLAR BA5 100-1200 Cold Cranking Amps Electronic Battery Tester
I test hundreds of batteries a year as I'm a yacht electrician and diesel mech. Many boats have anywhere from 6 to 24 batteries. I own a Matco 3184 (made by KAL or OTC...can't recall) tester, have used numerous Midtronics battery testers, a Snap-On battery tester and the old-fashioned carbon pile load testers. I bought this on a whim as it was on a Lightening Deal for thirty seven dollars. Some "pro" features this doesn't have are testing batteries below 32F, testing above 1200 CCAs (like 8D start batteries are 1450 CCAs) and testing 6V or other voltages. But you pay a lot more for that stuff which most people don't need.It's made in China and has that cheap feel. The orange protective cover is not well fitted but does offer some drop protection. The display is easy to read (bright red LEDs) and I was able to figure this unit out without having to read the manual (although the manual is helpful). The cables are kind of short but adequate. I suspect this unit will not last through professional use. The keys are the plastic covered bumps that eventually wear through. Also, the cables are not robust and will eventually stop working as the wiring at the strain relief will break inside. I have seen this happen on many units...even good ones. My Matco unit has cables that attach to the body through a connector and can be replaced (I'm on my second set of cables in 11 years of owning it).
Using this device is very easy. You select SLI (wet-cell) or SEAL (sealed...AGM, gel, etc). Then you select the CCA rating and you get results quickly. Comparing this to my $400 Matco unit, results are within 10% of each other. I have been using this side by side with my Matco unit for two weeks and can say that both give consistent results and the Solar BA-5 does a better job with AGM batteries which my more expensive unit doesn't do well with (it wasn't designed for AGMs and was made before AGMs became mainstream).
So, overall, for the price...this is a great piece of equipment. It wasn't designed for professional use and isn't priced to compete with professional units. But it does give professional results. The only downside is that it probably won't last (I may be wrong, of course). Time will tell how well this holds up and I will update this review if anything interesting happens. But even if you are a pro, you can buy 10 of these for the price of a pro unit and be set for life. And many pro units don't last that long either...I have seen more problems with $600 Midtronics battery testers than any other brand. So, this little piece-of-made-in-China-junk may be a super deal after all. Four stars.
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