Good battery tester for DIY mechanics Top Don BT-200 

I've got one of these BT-200s and use it muliple times a week, and sometimes multiple times a day when reconditioning batteries. It's a nice tester and seems to be fairly accurate. I agree with your assesment 100%, especially on the cables. I just always take extra care with them and hang them on a handle of my tool cart when not in use. Not hanging it by the clamps but by dropping the meter between the handle and the cart to about halfway up the cables then let the clamp side fall to the outside of the cart handle. it slides in place better than the clamp side does and when removing, the meter doesn't hang up on the handle like the clamps would. The lack of printing capability is a pain but has been taken care of by using my phone to take a picture of the screen and printing that if needed. So far, using it in conjunction with a NOCO G3500, I'm batting about .750 with reconditioning batteries. The best case was a 3 year old Toyota battery that initially tested consistantly at 12% health. 4 rounds of the "Repair" cycle and three weeks later, it tested at 99%, and after sitting/resting for another 4 weeks, it still tested 99% health with a 98% charge. (I don't follow NOCO's Instructions to do this. There is a "Way", and it doesn't work quite as well with the newer NOCO chargers that are limited to 4 hours in the conditioning cycle.) I get to do this for people quite often and, most times we win and sometimes we don't. Some batteries are just too sulfated to do anything with, or internally shorted and get really hot fairly early in the game. But the majority come through great and get put back into service with no problems. Having the BT-200 has really helped me improve my process and is also super handy for checking our personal vehicles battery and charging systems. I highly recommend it for DIY folks. Thanks for the video and the review. it was great!

Great DYI tool. I can tell you are passionate about auto care and helping people. Keep up the good work.

I like your helper. He doesn’t talk and you don’t even have to see his face.

Nice review. I just ordered this tester and cant wait to try it out. Its currently on sale at amazon.

Great videos. I just purchased the XTOOL D8 Scanner due to your review and just ordered this BT200. I’m just a DIY’er. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

You don't need to know if it shows you BAD, GOOD, RECHARGE or REPLACE that simply is for amateurs. The most important thing is the internal resistance which tells you everything about the condition of the battery's plates and electrolyte. These types of conductive testers use internal resistance to calculate the State of Health(SOH) of the battery this is why it is smart enough to distinguish a good battery even if the battery is discharged.

Very good video , yes being able to to test battery,alternator and starter were always the items I used to have to guess at when replacing , sometimes spending money not needed .

I bought the bt100 model after your review. I'm taking the family van with 125 k miles, on a long trip. Original alternative and everything else . That was the excuse to add another tool I'm the box . The 3 tests checked out good for the trip.

I was a diesel mechanic as well as a NY city firefighter until I got hurt and retired a bit early so my brother in law wanted to go to school to become a diesel mechanic so he begged me to buy my snap on tools and my box so i tried to talk him out of this but he didn't listen so I sold it all to him now I got alot to put towards my next lexus or highlander.. I still have a full toolbox in my garage for home. It was great to get rid of that monstrosity sized tool box and all those over priced snap on tools now I can fit my truck in my garage

Seems like pretty nice tester. Thanks for bringing this to the channel. I just might go get one.

I appreciate your thoughts on various tools/products which DYI'ers can use without breaking the bank. Pros and cons from a professional greatly help in our buying decisions. I already have a cheaper model from this company which has served me well so I would expect your model to be even better. Having 4 vehicles, it has saved me tons of time having my batteries tested for free at an auto parts store and having their staff trying to convince me to purchase a new battery all the time. Keep 'em coming 👍😍👍

Hi AMD, I have a Topdon 101 that performs the same functions with one less button to work with. Great tool.

Thanks, nice to see an internet review I can trust. Full disclosure, honest expert opinion.

I just bought one of these as I was having some issues with my headlights dimming and wanted to get an idea if it was battery or alternator related. It's a decent bit of kit for the price, I think the 300 model is pretty much the same but with a printer if anyone needs that option but for me this is fine as I'm just using it for home use maintenance and don't need to show rests to anyone else. As said elsewhere you can always take a picture of the screen on your phone and print that if necessary.

Thanks for the video! I hope you do more reviews of products like this!

Interesting tester. I only have an old school brute force high current load tester. My understanding is these modern ones provide a much more accurate report. From personal experience I used the load tester on a fairly old battery and it tested fine. Then a short time later was unable to start the car, I assume due to a shorted cell. So I you do a lot of DIY work probably be a good investment. I have had the alternator fail on a Toyota a long time ago but but that was easy to diagnose - dead.

very well made, easy to understand and useful test !!!

Thank you so much for this video. I have the romondes branding of this same model and have watched several "review" videos that I considered worthless. I really appreciate your going the extra mile and now feel like I have some reasonable expectations with which to use this tool. I'm a home diy'er and think this will do what I need it to. Thanks again for sharing.

I should buy this. My '98 Honda CRV battery light comes on once in awhile. Maybe this would nail down the cause. Very intermittent problem though.

Hi AMD. I bought the bt100 a month ago. It is a lot better than just using a dvm. For diy I agree, good information for the price. Nice video.

i have the exact product, very good product, thanks AMD

Hey it's time for you to move to Long Island because I'm buying a used lexus rx 350 or a highlander so I need a good toyota master tech..get packing I'll help you move your tools😉

Great job and video like always

No way to overstate the importance of being convinced that one can trust what is presented on-line (especially RU-vid), and especially with a sign-off like this: "May the Lord bless you and keep you". Reminds me of Roy Rogers...not ashamed of the gospel.

Loved the instruction manual part, lol

Hi there, Thanks for your video. I understood that it does give SOH ("State Of Health") when doing a battery test. Trust that can be of help. Also, I tried to download a manual, but couldn't find one anywhere.

Great product review. Have a great one 👍 God bless

Great review!

I picked up one of these last week. Very easy to use. My only complaint is the clamps are way too small for a good connection, for some batteries. Note: one of your clamps popped off during your reverse polarity hookup for that very reason.

I got my car back from the dealership after they charged me double what it would normally cost in parts. They were actually going to charge me quadruple ($4,000 for a crankshaft pulley, a/c, and belts) until I pointed out that they were charging me quadruple. It wasn’t a repair I was comfortable with though - and their diagnosis appears legit (the car runs good now) - except for ONE thing: the battery! I suspected the battery was going for a long time - but they gave it passing grades in the green. Not even yellow - green. Sure enough the battery was completely dead after a little over a week of not being used (we got a new car - from a different dealership). $10 later I have a new battery - under warranty.

Good ol multimeter will do me, plain and simple. Still good video

Awesome review! Hve you ever tested / reviewed the FOXWELL BT705 Battery Analyzer? Would be nice to see you review that product, since your reviews are very informative, Thanks and God Bless!

I love this guy because he is a brother in the Lord and I am so thankful to know that I will know him for all Eternity, even though we may never meet each other here. What makes me happy is to know that this man will not intentionally deceive us. I believe that he is as honest as any human can be. Thank you, my friend, for having a RU-vid channel. It is nice that we don't have to second guess what you are saying.

Excellent educational videos

Thank you!!

Thanks @The Car Care Nut I went ahead and bought one of these through your store, hope it helps! Also wondering if you might have any guidance on a good DIY charger for these newer AGM batteries? This is for my wife's 2019 Acura RDX and the manual cautions you to get the correct battery charger as well or can cause damage to these batteries?

If the battery is dying it will give you a health determination in a percentage. I tested a battery that was still working but on its way out, It showed the health as 49% but indicated that it needed to be replaced. I also tested a good battery that wasn't 100% and the tester indicated 55% healthy, so it isn't all or nothing.

Thank you AMD for honest review. How that device applied for hybrid Toyotas? How often 12v batterie on hybrid goes south (regular usage)? Is 12v batterie check part of regular Toyota system check?

Here is my question though. I read a lot of comments about the hybrid car 12 volt battery being of poor quality and going bad early. Will this work on a hybrid battery and how do you get the engine to start on demand to check the running tests?

Glad I watched this. I was considering buying one of these, but now I will not, Great review

Great video.

I don't know how reliable this device is but when you perform a loaded vs unloaded alternator test, the device is measuring the DC voltage across the battery, however in the test at no point did you add a load such as turning on the high beams or turning on the heater blower to max setting. Simply increasing the engine speed to 2,000-2,500 rpm isn't a load, in fact that's considered as the unloaded test. This device is comparing idle DC voltage vs high engine speed DC voltage. It needs to compared high engine speed DC voltage to high engine speed plus load DC voltage to accurately compare those values. Second issue is the device is measuring the AC voltage across the battery as opposed to the alternator for the ripple test. Measuring ac voltage is very finicky and if you're not measuring it off the alternator, I don't know how accurate that it.

Thanks

Lithium battery test would be pretty important these days.

Does it come with something that states what the internal resistance should be or what is too high of a resistance

Good day, can I use a battery charger to charge my 12v battery from the jump start point in my fuse box area? My car is a 2016 Prius hybrid

Hi AMD, do you recommend using a memory saver when replacing car batteries? Read pros and cons about this and definitely wanted to get your opinion. Thanks!

Hi Mr. AMD, how can I test my 12V battery for my 2018 Camry Hybrid LE? Also kindly make a video on how to check the big Hybrid battery as well. Thanks 🙏

Hello Ahmed, I know you did this review a long time ago and I'm not even sure you watch the comments on this video or not but I will ask a question anyway. Does it make any difference whether you check the battery directly or not. My Jeep's battery is under the passenger seat and has posts under the hood for jump starting, can I use those posts instead of connecting the tester directly to the battery posts? The tester is showing the battery internal resistance at 6.5 ohms so I would think that it is also reading the resistance of the cables from the battery to the remote posts too. What do you think? Thanks

This would’ve been useful when my wife’s accord was killing its battery about once a year. Found out after the third one the alternator had a bad voltage regulator that was prematurely wearing the battery

I have a 2013 Camry hybrid and the 12v battery is original. It is rated at 355 CCA, mine is testing at 200CCA. I’m looking for a replacement but not finding any so far except from the Toyota dealer, for $291. Two questions, should it be preferably be an AGM? Also, with whatever I find, does this battery have to be “diagnostically registered” to the car or can I just make the swap?

Hi AMD, when are you gonna post up the video on how to retract the electronic brake caliper?

Do you perform the same tests on a rav4 hybrid or any other Lexus /Toyota hybrid?

I love your channel and have a battery question. My 2022 Corolla Cross with 345 miles on it wouldn't sit for a week without the battery going completely dead. The dealer towed it and said the battery had a dead/bad cell that was draining the charge. Hmmm? Does this sound possible? Is there no quality control in the battery industry or just bad luck on my part? Thanks so much.

Good review

Thank you for this video. I heard there is a test for Hybrid batteries 🔋 to know the porcentaje life for the hybrid battery using the car obd2 plug. Is it worth testing??

Very handy

Hi love your content!! QUESTION for YOU: Is there such a thing as a battery maintainer/trickle charger for a 2021 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid?

Great review. I have a question, can I replace my battery with an AGM one instead of the regular flooded? I have a 2015 corolla. I have read comments about AGM batteries are bad for regular non hybrid or no fancy equipment cars? Thanks in advance

Just wondering if the TT TOPDON AB101 Car Battery Tester 12v would as well for a 2019 Rav4 hybrid? The one you mentioned is not available in my area. Thanks

My TopDon 200 told me the original battery on my 2019 Highlander was healthy after it required a jump start earlier in the day. The next day, my Toyota dealer replaced the battery under warranty, after charging the old battery, doing a "load" test on it, and finding the battery was no good. Is there a battery load test that the dealer does that TopDon does not do, that would have told me that the battery was "bad"?

Nice video

Hi brother! Is it normal for a battery to leak chemicals? I’ve been noticing some wetness around the terminals. Thanks so much for this product review and your test results!

The battery health is given as a percentage under "Healthy" and your new battery showed as 100% @ 06:19. On an older battery, your battery health will be lower.

I gonna try your tester and will let you know how it works out...... But I have an critical question on oil changes in the 19 Highlander and others. Toyota changed the old oil changes to something like BWS would think of.. Well now there is an after market part that you can remove the current oil cartridge adapter and exchange it for this adapter for an canister oil filter type... Do you think it is safe to convert over the the after market part. You can google the item and see how it works. It would make oil changes sensible again.

Awesome 👏

Great video. But this tester has no option for AGM spiral so I won't be able to test optima batteries. It has no options for in/out of vehicle. Previous versions such as Topdon 100 and 101 do have such options. Why Topdon kind went backwards? I wonder

I will like to know the maximum limit of ripple voltage to discard the alternator? Thanks

Hi AMD. Thanks for another great DIY video. I value the pro's that can show me what tools work and don't work with complete objectivity. How did the results compare with your Midtronics tester? Thanks.

Hello, Car care nut, I have a question that I think you will be the one can give a correct answer; what is the normal reading voltage for the alternator output on Camry 2018? The reason I'm asking Is the other day I took the battery to be change, when came back home checking for readings the was 13.78v and when connecting the negative terminal a static like noise was coming the terminal, off course the engine was off and no load, lights, radio, a/c, nothing was on, I spoke to a toyota technician and he told me that is normal, static noise when installing battery terminal not suppose to be, right? Thank You for your time.

Can you recommend a break fluid tester? I looked online and there are so many makes and models some work for dot3 and others don't work on dot 4. I was wondering if you can provide any help so that I don't end up buying a bad one. My car uses Dot 3 but I would like to buy a break fluid tested that is good for if I buy another car with different type of break fluid. Thanks.

I have an older model TopDon battery tester, maybe 2 or 3 years old? I have a 7ish year old Toyota AGM battery in my hybrid. I have been tracking the state of health (SOH), and it seems to be all over the place. 2 years ago: 92%. A year and a half ago: 98%, a year ago 80%, over the winter 61, 54, 50, now 73%. I don't know if anyone has tracked state of health over time, but is this normal? Does SOH vary by temperature? How long does one of these Toyota/Panasonic 12v AGM batteries last? Thanks for the great review, it looks like they're improving the tester!

Is there any benefit to have a tester like this for hybrids if the tester is not able to give you a percentage of how good the battery is? Basically it won’t let me know if and when the battery needs changing. Thanks

I’m confused at 5:32. I have a brand new 100ah 12v deep cycle leisure gel battery (from Photonic Universe) and nowhere on the battery, the packaging or the instructions does it give any reference to the 10 options available in this screen. I’m clueless. I’ve googled it and found nothing. I bit the bullet and tried a few without changing the factory set initial values, and got ‘100% Charge’ but a battery health of less than 50% therefore REPLACE !!! It’s brand new? Any ideas what setting to select and what value to put in? My daughters hand in marriage to the one who can give me the answer.

Dear AMD: so is it true that a weak or failing 12V battery can cause poor fuel economy because the alternator will hopelessly try to recharge it, and possibly cause needless wear and tear on the alternator. Thank you very much in advance for your kind reply sir!

Yes! A vid from TCCN, love it. I have a question. Near me there is a 2020 RAV4 Prime XSE fully loaded with equipment and accessories with just under 9500 miles. The guy that bought it used it as BEV, plugging it all the time without engaging the engine for 5-6 months and drove roughly 50 miles per day for his daily commute, that caused the fuel to go stale which damaged the fuel pump in the fuel tank, rusted the fuel lines and damaged/clogged both injectors (direct and port) when one day the engine tried to turn on. Also the fuel tank will need a bit cleaning too. The car was totaled by the insurance and now is been sold for 1.200$. From your own experience and your dealer's is worth buying and replacing everything with genuine parts, is it going to cost more than 4000$ - 7000$ ? Because if it's going to cost less than 10.000$ to repair I believe I should go for it since it's "brand new" and undamaged in everything else. Thanks for your time.

I have one and it does tell you healthy 35% 220A for example. You just scroll down to review data after the test.

Ok my Topdon BT100 on the charging test shows NO-OUTPUT and about 9.4V with a brand new charged battery. Battery test passes at 700 CCA. Any ideas? The booklet does not show this reading NO-OUTPUT

My battery came back at 67% Health and 69% Charge. Its 2 years old. Is it time to replace the battery?

I agree with your slogan, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but what about the 12-volt battery in a Hybrid? I've heard horror stories of Prius' acting all crazy when they start going bad. My wife's 2017 Prius has the original 12-volt and my battery tester still says good and 100% which is better than my 2014 Tundra's O'Reillys Super Start 3-year old battery which is saying good but only at 75%? (The Tundra doesn't fit in the garage so gets our cold Colorado weather) Her car is mostly inside the garage and she's only putting about 6,000 miles a year on her. Okay to wait or should I go ahead and replace? What would The Car Care Nut do? (WWTCCND) :-)

Okay... now I wish I had a car with a starter or alternator.

How can I tell a battery is Flooded or agm.. and what’s the difference?

I suspect that Top Don pitched the BT-200 as a professional product because they have a viable and cheaper option for the DIYer: The Arti 101, which I picked up for $35, about a year ago. Unlike the BT-200, the Arti 101 does display "State of Health" (SOH) information, along with charge information, as well as the results of its alternator test. Like you, I can't always determine the absolute accuracy of the algorithms that produces those numbers. As a result, I run the test more than once. Even given that, the Arti 101 is the better of the two buys, IMHO.

I didn't get my notification today and the bell is rung WTH at least I spotted it

There is a Top Don BT300 that dose have the printer option.

Why is my brand new 2 week old battery showing health 81% and 100% charged while using this tester I just received?

Si there any tester battery for hybrid batteries?

Don't need a helper go to 2500 rpm it will sense it and test at that point in that 5 seconds. You can then get out of car and hit enter.

If you have a hybrid car with an AGM, does the crank test and load test work? I don't think they have starters or alternators.

I really like your video, But you didn't tell your viewers that CCA stands for cold cranking amps. I don't think the average DIY knows what that means. I would think you would explain everything in detail since the company ask you to review their product.

This did tell the battery health. It's the percentage.

I always assumed a Tradesman would take really good care of their equipment especially as their livelihood depends on their tools. why treat them bad and have to continuously buy replacements.

Are you real sure this instrument doesnt give the battery health in percentage, I went to your Amazon link and watched the video several times and then paused on the first part and yes "Replace" was at the top, but on down was a Label "Healthy" with a % value out from it.

Which other DIY battery tester you recommend?

1) it doesn't load test 2) it doesn't have an Amp Hour unit (for deep cycle batteries) It doesn't appear to really be a useful diagnostic tool for the condition of marine batteries. Someone pls correct me if I'm wrong.

It would be great even for DIY if it could bluetooth connect or wifi to send a text file or even a png file of the test data. For $85, it does too little for the DIY guy that has a decent multimeter, and know where the right wires are....ummm, I dont know all the right wires...lol..but I think I can test the alt and battery with a multimeter. Should be able to test under load with multimeter

Nice tester but like you say, it doesn't give percentages. Still it beats a DMM.

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It’s not consistent with result tried it on new battery it’s says replace battery

I've had this tester for about a month. I did read the instructions, is has some charts that are useful but not consistent with the tools software. Poorly translated into English. I'm an old school specific gravity and load test type technician, I'm skeptical of this tool in that it does not truly put a load on the battery, instead it's testing internal resistance by a capacitance test, which translates to a CCA number. The manual does not specify any temperature range that the battery needs to be at, so when I tested my battery at -30F, it failed... but once the battery warmed up to indoor temperatures, it faired better. On another vehicle, it tells me the battery is good, 100% healthy, but the voltage dropped too low on the starting test, so that was a fail. The starter is new and it's just a little 1zz 1.8L.. so I don't believe this battery is as healthy as the first test would have me believe... I would always do a legit load test on the battery before calling it good, no matter what this tester says.