Ansmann 1900-0035 Button Cell Battery Tester.
Available on UK Amazon.
Reputable make, German I think.
Easy to use and reliable.
I’ve been using them for years.
Also Voltcraft 250455 Button Cell Tester- I Also have one of these, similar to the Ansmann but difficult to find now.
yes you are right about the voltage, I just missed off the extra 0.xxx lol. I was just making the point it still reads 12v when tested when useless.
Funny how you stumble across stuff…. when looking on other forums about the bmw drain V amount at parked, I came across what may have caused the battery to bottom out in the first place.
Recently, my drivers side lock won’t open, it will lock but it won’t open so I use the key. Normally I’d get it fixed, but last year was heavy on £’s for my beemer, the turbo went (£1200) along with a front shock and a few other things, so the repair must wait (the bits are cheap, fitting them isn’t lol).
Anyway, after looking on there some guy had exactly the same thing happen, just went to the car one morning and it was entirely dead - I mean nothing, like mine was, no alarm doors nothing. This is odd, in my experience dying batteries usually give some notice, and quickly get worse - but you do get warned. This just plain died - 1 year old. Like I say it seems to have righted itself - but I reckon it’s connected to that lock malfunctioning somehow on that night.
I recently got the 168 Pro and I’m pretty happy about it’s accuracy. Regarding it not testing under load: there is a lot of empty space inside and the device can easily be opened because it uses screws. I plan to add a few parallel resistors with switches so I can test batteries with and without a load. No idea about the values though, I have to do some thinking about that.
+1 regarding the tester pictured in post # 1. Either order more than one, or see if you can set up an automatic reorder every 3 months because that’s about how long the two I bought lasted. Not worth tearing it apart to fix.
Actually, I’d be okay (if I ever got around to it) with gutting it for the doodad and/or soldering in long wires with magnets to just be able to snap ’em on to test. The doodad itself works quite well.
Even silly magnet-wire could replace the hair-thin wire, coiled into a sort of spring, and adding a small blob of hotglue, “liquid electrical tape”, anything of the sort, to where it gets soldered to the tabs to eliminate the constant flexing.
