Gem99ultra
Elite Member
I have nothing to contribute to the OP's question - but I will say that the test your referenced absolutely told me that I know about 1/3 as much about batteries as I thought I did! Thanks for that link Shyhook.
Anybody know about battery load testers
- Thread starter Industrial Toys
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I have nothing to contribute to the OP's question - but I will say that the test your referenced absolutely told me that I know about 1/3 as much about batteries as I thought I did! Thanks for that link Shyhook.
Soundguy
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you can google charge voltage on a lead acid battery to find out how discharged a battery is. 6v on a 12v battery is not 50% discharged. 
dropping a couple volts is pretty much heavilly discharged state.
dropping a couple volts is pretty much heavilly discharged state.
OP
Industrial Toys
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That was a real eye opener for me. The only slight variation in battery voltage between full and half charged. I think I need a better charger, but don't care for the electronic ones. One I returned and the other Schumaker one, I threw to the ground in frustration a year or so ago.
Which brings me to a question. If you charge a battery for a short time, you can (apparently" get what they call a surface charge. The battery voltage shows a good charged battery, but the battery is not charged by any means. So how can a so called inteligent charger know the difference? It sees full voltage, no more curent flowing and ceases to charge or switches to trickle. A big old dumb charger would just keep charging that battery until it boils it dry!
Back to my Steiner battery. I see it's a TSC battery rated ar 550 CCA. I had my little schumaker charger on it for over a day. Checked the voltage, 13.2 Volts. Put my tester on 500 CCA and the voltage dropped to 10.8 volts and the tester showed Weak!
Now I am more confused then ever!
Which brings me to a question. If you charge a battery for a short time, you can (apparently" get what they call a surface charge. The battery voltage shows a good charged battery, but the battery is not charged by any means. So how can a so called inteligent charger know the difference? It sees full voltage, no more curent flowing and ceases to charge or switches to trickle. A big old dumb charger would just keep charging that battery until it boils it dry!
Back to my Steiner battery. I see it's a TSC battery rated ar 550 CCA. I had my little schumaker charger on it for over a day. Checked the voltage, 13.2 Volts. Put my tester on 500 CCA and the voltage dropped to 10.8 volts and the tester showed Weak!
Now I am more confused then ever!
newbury
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umm
Do you have a battery charger that is not electronic? Or did you mean intelligent?
k0ua
Epic Contributor
Let me ask you this.. What does CCA or Cold Cranking Amps mean? it means the amount of current in Amperes that the battery can deliver at 0 Degrees Farenheit while maintaining a per cell voltage of 1.2 volts per cell. or put another way 7.2 volts. Since there are 6 cells in a "12" volt battery which is actually a 12.6 volt battery when the battery is fully charged at 2.1 volts per cell.
Then when you a throw that kind of severe load on a battery like in your example of 550 amps at 0 degrees the voltage should not fall below 7.2 volts. CCA has become the battery marketers mantra over the years. It does and it doesn't have a lot of meaning. Obviously a battery that passes the test at 550 amps and maintains a voltage at 7.2 volts has more reserve capacity than one that was lets say 300 CCA.
But do you need that kind of current capacity? Does your starter pull even close to that much? Not normally, and 7.2 volts may not spin a starter as fast as the engine needs to "catch" and run. Especially a diesel where the heat of compression is what is firing it off.
For a given physical size of battery case, how does one battery have more CCA's than another. One way is by putting in scored plates. In other words plates with more surface area exposed to the electrolyte. I wonder what cutting grooves in the plates does for battery life.. Who cares? We get more CCA that way.
So I am not sure what kind of an actual load your tester is putting on these batteries and what it is really showing.
Then when you a throw that kind of severe load on a battery like in your example of 550 amps at 0 degrees the voltage should not fall below 7.2 volts. CCA has become the battery marketers mantra over the years. It does and it doesn't have a lot of meaning. Obviously a battery that passes the test at 550 amps and maintains a voltage at 7.2 volts has more reserve capacity than one that was lets say 300 CCA.
But do you need that kind of current capacity? Does your starter pull even close to that much? Not normally, and 7.2 volts may not spin a starter as fast as the engine needs to "catch" and run. Especially a diesel where the heat of compression is what is firing it off.
For a given physical size of battery case, how does one battery have more CCA's than another. One way is by putting in scored plates. In other words plates with more surface area exposed to the electrolyte. I wonder what cutting grooves in the plates does for battery life.. Who cares? We get more CCA that way.
So I am not sure what kind of an actual load your tester is putting on these batteries and what it is really showing.
OP
Industrial Toys
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Yeah I guess one semiconductor as in a bridge rectifier in a dumb old charger could be called electronic. But to me intelligent would mean it could think, and not just have several preprogrammed modes (that never seem to fit the circumstances). Or that it could ask me questions like a doctor would. lol
As for the other post, which wasn't there a minute ago. My tester puts a load of around 100 amps on the battery and does this for a time period in relation to the CCA setting. Then it measures the voltage and it must not fall below a certain level or it shows "WEAK". I am not convinced this is a really good approach to truly test the current delivering capacity of the battery making an assumption that if it can deliver 100 amps for thirty seconds it can deliver 500 amps for ten seconds. Didn't do any calculations there, just giving an example.
My "battery" friend was telling me last night, that a battery in their shop has to be able to deliver it's rated CCA for 11 seconds.
As for the other post, which wasn't there a minute ago. My tester puts a load of around 100 amps on the battery and does this for a time period in relation to the CCA setting. Then it measures the voltage and it must not fall below a certain level or it shows "WEAK". I am not convinced this is a really good approach to truly test the current delivering capacity of the battery making an assumption that if it can deliver 100 amps for thirty seconds it can deliver 500 amps for ten seconds. Didn't do any calculations there, just giving an example.
My "battery" friend was telling me last night, that a battery in their shop has to be able to deliver it's rated CCA for 11 seconds.
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I believe the actual CCA rating is for 30 seconds.
