OTC3181 130 Amp Heavy-Duty Battery Load Tester Black

I have several 12 volt batteries at home. One good one that I use to jump start my lawn tractor when need be. A spare lawn tractor battery. and an old 12 volt battery with a hole in the case that allowed one cell to leak and dry up. I have all these batteries on a maintainer in my garage. So they all read over 13 volts with my meter. I have a quality Fluke multi-meter I used to first test the accuracy of the Battery load tester. The tester was right on, no need to try and zero the needle at all. I then load tested the known good battery and with the multi-meter also taking readings. Again the tester worked perfectly delivering a 130 amp load to the battery and reading an accurate voltage drop and a "good" result on the display for the battery. Waited for the tester to cool down. Can not test multiple batteries, or retest a battery too quickly or you will over heat the tester. My small tractor battery tested "good" with the load. I then tested the battery with the dry cell. I do keep this battery charged and with a multi-meter it reads and maintains 13 volts. This is the good part, under the load test the needle dropped to where the "known good" batteries did in the first several seconds, but as I counted off the 10 second test the needle dropped steadily to the "bad" range on the display. This to me was a perfect controlled experiment with an accurate result showing this Load Tester works perfectly. I feel that I can trust the results that it will give me in the future. I bought this because my power boat has 4 batteries. I noticed at the very end of last season I was having some issues with at least one of them. These batteries cost almost $200 to replace. I can now feel confident about testing each one of them and only replacing the one/ones that fail. This alone will more than pay for itself because I was prepared to replace them all just to be safe on the water. Will be testing them this weekend as I get my boat ready for the summer season.

Easy to use, clamps are first class! As advertised!

Great portable carbon pile tester not accurate than my electronic one does a great job of load testing battery

Durable and sturdy. I use this at work and it gets dropped and kicked across the floor.

If you don't know what this tester does or how to use it, you probably won't be i the market for one. If you want to know how to use one, there are some You Tube videos that do a good job explaining how to use this tester.I have several battery applications - tractors, vehicles, and an RV - so testing & maintaining battery condition is an ongoing task for me. I use this tester in conjunction with a voltmeter, and the two readings together quickly show which batteries are good, which are bad, and which are marginal-- e.g. in process of going bad.I've only used my tester unit a few times, so I can't speak to its longer term durability. However, the build quality seems good. The readout is easy to see and read. My only quibble with the device--and reason for four stars rather than five--is that it would have been nice if the cords had been a bit longer. Also, it would be nice if you didn't have to hold the load switch and count down seconds until you release it, but for the very reasonable point of this tester, that is probably too much to ask.Summing up, I like this unit and it's doing the job that I purchased it to do.

Awesome

I use a Digital Multi Meter to check the DC voltage (typical 12.6 volts at rest before starting), because the readout is more accurate than the OTC test analog needle, but the OTC is close enough to get and idea where voltage is at.The true purpose of the load tester comes AFTER holding the test switch down for ten seconds. The internal resistor loads the battery at 130 amps, similar to a heavy start cycle. This test, at the ten second mark, you can clearly see if your battery is holding up under the strain. Green is good!! It's neat to see the resistor glow bright orange as it heats up!! Remember to let it cool down before storing it in the box. After testing, my battery reads 12.5 volts. But comes back to 12.6 in a minute.I bought mine for testing my camper batteries, but I also have used it many times for testing my car battery. Also lend it out to friends who need to determine if their battery is sulfated or just not up to snuff for the winter. So far my VARTA OE battery in the SUV is 7+ years old, counting the actual car build date (07/2012). Still kicks over easily,even last winter. Nothing wrong with the charging system or the battery. 90K + miles.

Para mí se veía de buena calidad pero no pude conservarla Lo recomiendo