Topdon ArtiBattery 101 Lead Acid Battery Tester - 12v Solar Shed 

I just bought one. The Voltage reading seems accurate (tested with a multimeter also). However, the CCA reading was way off and said Replace Battery. I went to 2 different shops who would be delighted to sell me a battery but both came back with very good CCA results and no need to replace.

These testers used to cost a fair amount of money a few years ago they don't load the battery instead they send an AC signal through it and measure the response, I think that's why it uses 4 wires. Your old battery has a bit of a high internal resistance @ 7 milli-ohms. I think one or more of the cells is on the way out, it would still be good to power things that require less current so don't throw it out yet. As for actual " load testing"...I think that's why it asks you to start your engine

Huzzah! 😀😀 I was half expecting there to be virtually nothing inside to be honest, like one of those supposed plug in power savers, moderately impressed what you can get for 20quid. Cheers Adam!

Very nice video Adam, I am using a BM2 battery monitor Bluetooth module, works perfect.

Thank you for your video review. You did a great thorough job on it. It really looks like a pretty decent tester. I would have like to seen the resistance reading on the new battery as well. All of these conductance testers only test for two parameters, Voltage & Internal Resistance, everything else like CCA, SOH, SOC etc. are calculations derived from those two parameters. So if you have a questionable battery you really need to connect the test leads directly to the batteries lead post for the best possible connection before you can determine if the battery is truly at end of life. 7 mΩ is not at end of life for flooded lead acid battery, it is in the keep a close eye on it window. The cranking test showed me that the new battery was just marginally better than the old one, put a full absorption charge on the old battery and retest it.

What makes you doubt it's a TFT? Response time looked snappy enough to me for it to not be STN. Hard to tell without seeing the viewing angle range though.

Good review - after charge seems to be more accurate.

Nice item

Order off Amazon so if it doesn't work out for you then send it back. I ordered one and was actually impressed wirh this little tester. Tester works well.

7 mohm is good, this is a correct battery, for 4x0 Amp.I use a similar battery checker (exact same firmaware display) and it detected properly my batteries not holding AH anymore. All SOH and result as bad or good is based on the CCA selection.

thanks so much. I agree with you

These testers have to get well below 80% of the intended CCA before they'll shift from considering the battery "good". But it did tell you that it's at 80% and that's kind of well down for something that you rely on to start a vehicle. Someone else has already mentioned that these evaluate the battery by measuring internal resistance. They are not a "drop tester". Some of them hit the battery with their small load for a very defined period of time and actually analyse what the voltage did over that time too. Whether these cheap small ones do this I am not sure. But the pro versions of these that the garages use do. I have a Jaycar model and I find it incredibly handy for weeding out good second hand batteries from bad ones. Saves a lot of bother by eliminating the need of setting up dummy loads and taking timed voltage measurements in many cases.

Very wise to change that battery as one of these icy mornings and it will be dead! Good call if you ask me.

good tester i got a battery that was over 25 mohm, was nackerd big time not even worth charging

I suppose that with a 20 ohm load there will be a small drop of battery voltage. From that it should be possible to surmise what the battery internal resistance is and thus the maximum crank current. Not ideal, but it is something I guess

When it come to tools, especially diagnostic tools you get what you pay for. I never buy the cheapest scan tool.

I used to use a very good Battery tester for checking Fire and Security Alarm Batteries and it gave AmpHour Capacity rating and load testing but it cost a heck of a lot more almost £300 its could also be used for 6v to 72V batts at upto 1000AmpHr..I always found lead acid and gell cells had an average life of 6 years.

DID YOU TRY CHARGING YOUR BATTERY AND SEE IF IT TOOK THE FULL CHARGE AND THEN TEST IT AGAIN AND SEE IF IT KEEPS THE FULL CHARGE.

Hi Adam, nice bit of test gear. The tester proved that the new battery is better than the old battery, the old battery could still reliably start the car so it was OK, relatively speaking. As an aside, at 3:27 to 3:40, do you regularly get your arms that sunburnt? Do you use a sunscreen? Tom, a concerned Australian.

Those resistors will be marked with orange, white, black, gold, which is 39 Ohms, 5% tolerance. Two 39 Ohm resistors in parallel will give 19.5 Ohms, with 5% tolerance (+/- 0.975 Ohms) - 18.525 to 20.475 Ohms.

My Autool tester screen looks identical to yours, buttons are different. Told me SOH 80% for a brand new Bosch Battery just delivered today and charged at home on a CTEK charger

Look to be two 39Ω resistors in parallel - orange, white, black. Therefore 19.5Ω.

And we are missing the "out of vehicle" test. You could add a test with a power supply as a battery and check the spec. about internal resistant.

And the golden stripe on resistors indicates 5% tolerance. The white stripe has already been mentioned.

Maybe the car needs more than ~400 amps? The 410 amps the battery's supplying might be enough for a new car, but as it ages it might need more? Just a thought

look like the same of ANCEL 101, who copied who? which you think it is better? thanks

The old battery had internal resistance but the new didn't show anything. So when it reads 515CCA it's really 420.

Have you tried a capacitive battery charger

I think what your test proved is the battery at 420 CCA is not enough for your car. It worked fine when the battery actual produced >500 CCA but not when it produced near the 420.

Part of the lag in starting could be your starter motor having high resistance.

One cold start vs a warm start is not a valid test. This type of battery tester asks for the type of cell as they have very predictable properties. The 4 wires are for resistance measurement and cancel out the resistance of the leads and the device. Would love to see a side to side with one of the alarm battery type testers used industry wide......

now repeat the test with the 10 year old battery in -15 C conditions :D

Hey mate if your first battery that you had in the car would have not been sitting for two days it would have started exactly the same as the new one

Build and design your own Adam

Maybe you should fit the desulfator to a dodgy battery and leave it for a year like I have before you test it?😀

You really need a bigger load to test a lead acid battery so I doubt how good this tester can be, you already knew the battery was tired and the tester told you nothing that you didn't know already.

I have seen my car drop to 8.5v on cranking test.

Hi Adam, thanks for your review! I have a few observations. At 4:20 the 'display set' let's you see the cranking amps you enter and 'display R' shows the resistance. 5:05 Instead of CCA you should have picked CCA 'EN' and set it at 420A. You will find that the tester will fail the battery :)

Ya i dont trust those and wondered what they were supposed to do

Do a battery out the car test. Just use the old one.

For determining a vehicle battery's load handling capability, I prefer the testers that put a real load (100 amps) on the battery. They start around $27US on Ebay: www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-Load-Tester-100-Amp-12v-Car-6v-6-Volt-Schumacher-12-Mechanics-Truck-Type/152994030929 The meters are analog but there's no question about the battery's ability to handle that load. If I had some experience using both types of meters on the same batteries, I might put a little more trust in the electronic version. Actual starting current depends on engine size (cc/cu in), engine type (gas vs diesel), age (new vs 50000 km/mi), engine temperature and type/grade of oil. FYI, there's some good info on charging AGM batteries here: marinehowto.com/how-fast-can-an-agm-battery-be-charged/

it was a 420 en not a 420 cca

My battery is over 15 years, but I added a couple (6) of 500 Farad capacitors in series. No load balancing, just as is. Works like a charm. So why buy a new battery? (admitted: I don't leave my car with the radio or lights on for hours and hours). We all should use more super capacitors in our engines. It even prolongs the lifetime of your battery, since it is not having to deliver the full CCA's anymore. PS: about the tester. Perhaps the heavy load is done by shorting the wires. Why use a resistor? Perhaps the wires have a small bit of resistance? They could deal with the warmth as well (for a while). Example: 0.025 ohm? Calculation: I = U/R = 9.9/0.025 = 396 Amp. P=UxI = 3920 Watt. If this is tested for 0.1 second, the wires would probably not get hot.

Not "just a voltmeter" since it measures internal battery resistance, and that can't be done with "just a voltmeter". That's typically not an easily measured impedance. But there's also no way a ten year old battery, or a five year old one, would still have a rested voltage of 12.5 volts. All you found out, is that there's something queer about the cheap tester.

The problem with these testers they only measure how good power delivery is, they don’t measure capacity. That’s why your battery tested ok.