BT50

If you are reading this you probably have concerns over the health of your battery. Maybe you have had trouble starting your vehicle or maybe you just want to be sure your battery isn’t likely to fail and leave you stranded. You want it checked but don’t want to go to a garage and pay inflated diagnostic fees or and have them tell you that you need a new battery or alternator. This device is simple to operate. Just connect to the battery terminals, red to red and black to black, and it switches on. As it switches on the Bluetooth symbol lights up (more later) and then the battery voltage appears. If you are not sure what a good voltage is there are 3 leds under “Voltage", these are “Full”, “Medium” and “Low”. So within 10 seconds you know if your battery is fully charged. Now, even a “Full” battery can have issues so you can do a “Health” test. This puts a load on the battery and checks how it performs. Hold the “Test” button for a few seconds and one of the “Health” leds will light. So within 20 seconds, with no automotive knowledge, you can get a reliable indication of your battery voltage and health. Saving you anxiety and a visit to a garage or worse, a call to the breakdown service. Now, I mentioned earlier that this also has Bluetooth capability. It can connect to an app that you download on your phone that allows you to do more testing and even lets you monitor your battery over time. If you want to check your alternator there are options in the app to do cranking tests. These are explained as you go through them. You can see from the video how easy it is to do the tests from your phone. Download the app and then connect the tester to your battery. It will then pair and you can run the tests. I did it on a Samsung 23+, so it even works on the newest phones. So, if you want an simple to use, inexpensive, battery tester, that has sufficient features to test the basic functions of your car battery, then this is a good choice. But it also has some features that allow you to do more advanced testing via a free-to-download app and an inbuilt Bluetooth connection. At this price, with these features, it makes it a great choice.

I have been wanting to try a battery tester for a while now, with four cars at home - three of which are used infrequently and on/off trickle chargers, I decided to give the BT200 a try and see how the various batteries were doing, what kind of condition they were in, and how the results compared before and after trickle charging. First up was our "daily" fitted with a Stop-Start EFB battery. This is a few years old so was interested to see what sort of health it was in. I hooked up the BT200 and it sprang to life. CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) is the test of choice so I chose to do the battery test, CCA, set the amps value (which can be found on the battery itself) and away the test went, coming back at 95% healthy and 100% charged. Not bad. Interesting as the Stop-Start function no longer works in the car and I always assumed it was because the battery was getting old...not so it would seem! A new EFB battery is around £150 so I won't be forking out for one any more knowing the battery is still in fine fettle! Onto the next car. The battery is tucked deep into the side of the boot space and very difficult to access the terminals with limited space. The croc clips on the BT200 are pretty chunky so the problem was exacerbated somewhat. I struggled to get a good connection onto the battery, and as a result the first report came back with very strange voltage readings and a 4% rating for the battery health. After fiddling with the connections a bit more I got the correct reading - 36% healthy with 0% charge - which seemed about right as the car hasn't been used for a few days and hasn't been hooked up to the trickle charger. At this point I hooked up the car to my CTEK trickle charger to test the result the next day, which I did - and the result came back with a 100% charged, 100% healthy battery! Excellent and interesting to see the change after charging. The last car to try has a relatively new battery (3-4 months old, however the car has not been driven at all in this time, and sits on a trickle charger). I was expecting this to give a perfect result - and was surprised to see just 63% health and 0% charged! Confused, I checked the charger only to find it was disconnected at the plug, I have no idea how long for! So I plugged it back in, and ran the test again the following day to find it back to 100%/100% health, excellent and again very interesting to see the change. Again though, the battery on this car is in a deep well with limited space and as before I struggled to get the chunky clips in place, having to do several tests and re-attachments before I got the correct reading. So in summary, a very neat, compact device that works well when properly attached. If you get poor results from a battery that you think is ok, do check the connections and runs additional tests just to make sure you are getting the correct results. I should stress this wasn't an issue on my main car as the battery was easy to get to with plenty of room around the clips to attach them properly. The manual does also specify that the connection should be good and the terminals clean to ensure you get accurate results. I guess I was just a little surprised at how sensitive the device was. My only disappointment is that the manual - although it looks pretty big - is only small (with multiple languages) and doesn't really go into any details of the other tests - what they are for and how they work etc. I will mainly use this for the more common CCA test, but it would be interesting to find out what the other tests are for and how I can use them. Other than that a great piece of kit, well made, nice clear backlit LCD display, and simple responsive menus. Highly recommended if you are after simple-to-use tester that doesn't cost a fortune.

A good battery tester, just a bit more expensive than other models which is why I scored a 4 but generally pretty happy with it.

Everyone who works on their own cars should buy one of these. Great value for money and peace of mind. The unit is well built and sturdy and just feels well made and durable. It is literally just plug and play and is very easy to use. You do have to input some of the battery details which is a bit of a pain if the battery is in the vehicle and you are unable to see the details on the battery or if the stickers have been removed or worn away. It does mean that you may just need to remove the battery just to confirm details but this isn't the end of the world and once removed once you will know them for the future. The instructions and ease of use is clear and simple and it returns the results straight away. I have 4 vehicles in my household and a motorbike and I have checked all the batteries and since had to replace one that we thought was going bad due to start stop not working and this machine confirmed it was the battery that was the problem. It's a good size and could be kept in a vehicle or workshop. The only downside I would say is the lack of case or bag. The unit just comes in a box and could do with a case or something to keep it in. Would definitely recommend.

This is a good bit of kit, if you put in the correct battery details you will get correct results. It not only checks the state of charge of the cars battery, it tests the voltage and cranking amps (the power of your battery) it tests the state of the alternator, not just what its generating, the health of the alternator. Also the starter motor also gets a check up. The results a clear and easy to understand, it will let you know if there are any expected issues too. This tester takes all the guess work out of the systems mentioned.

This tester is top quality and can be used to diagnose and monitor battery issues. Used correctly this tester can be combined with a desulphating charger or stand alone desulphator can repair car batteries that would otherwise need replaced. Note: Good contact with either the battery terminal or the charging points is crucial! If the connection isn’t good you will get an incorrect measurement. This tester allowed me to accurately measure how much of my battery I managed to restore by using the repair mode on my NOCO Genius 5 charger. Note: a fully charged battery has voltage of 12.72v BEFORE desulphating in repair mode: Battery Health: *34% Cold Cranking Amps* (CCA) 429 Internal resistance: 6.99 *Note* internal resistance is caused by sulphation and prevents charging. Rated: 7400 CCA Advice: REPLACE AFTER Desulphating in repair mode: Battery Health: *52% Cold Cranking Amps* (CCA) Internal resistance: 5.61 *Note* internal resistance is caused by sulphation and prevents charging. Rated: 7400 CCA Advice: GOOD CHARGING This was the results after one attempt at desulphating my battery. I’m hoping to get this battery back to a least 85% capacity over time. *Please Note* Charging and checking batteries can be dangerous if you don’t follow the manufacture instructions. I highly recommend you read the instructions on how to use this tester before attempting to test your battery. This also applies to charging your battery and especially when attempting to desulphating a battery. I also highly recommend this tester as it will show how much sulphation has affected your battery and allow you to slow down further sulphation. Tips for slowing down sulphation: 1. Try to ensure your car battery has a full charge if it is going to be left sitting for more than a couple of days. Sulphation happens when a battery discharges. 2. Don’t let your battery drop below 50% charge. Sulphation will be worse and harder to repair should the battery fail. 3. If the car has been sitting try to ensure the battery gets a full charge. Partially charging without fully charging will increase the speed of sulfphation. 4. Be aware that flooded lead car batteries discharge rapidly in extreme heat. If your car is going to be sitting in prolonged heat it is the perfect combination to drain the battery and cause sulphation. I would try to park the car with the battery in shade or consider using a solar trickle charger. 5. Consider a way of trickle charging if you need to leave the car parked for long periods of time. You can get an electric trickle charger or a solar charger if it’s more convenient. *Note* Some solar trickle chargers don’t shut off during nighttime causing the battery to drain during darkness. I recommend you ensure solar chargers have a bypass diode to prevent the solar panel draining the battery during the hours of darkness. Other things a solar charger must have is overcharge protection, overheating and enough wattage to ensure the battery is trickle charged even on cloudy days. I opted for a 20w solar charger with MPPT charge control. Lastly, should your battery require restoration, you should consider desulphating. This should only be done with the correct charger or using a desulphator. Two high quality desulphation chargers in Amazon: CTEK MXS 5.0 https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Battery-Automatic-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B00FC42HAA/ NOCO GENIUS5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/NOCO-GENIUS5UK-Fully-Automatic-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B0828HLDZC/ ***If you found this review helpful then please take the time to leave truthful, constructive reviews on items you buy here as that is how we pay it back.***

NIce easy to use battery tester. Quick and easy with clear results. Takes alot of the guess work out of checking batteries with multi meters. Easy to read screen.

I did a lot of research before purchasing this battery tester and was not disappointed with it when it arrived. It feels study and has very good quality cables and clips ... unlikely many other cheaper versions. The instructions are clear and when using the downloaded app, it shows a whole variety of output for battery health and charging voltage etc. It even automatically screenshots the outputs so you don't have to make a note of them. Overall, very impressed. Only given a 4 Star rating as there could be more explanations on what each reading means and what is good / bad etc.