Recommend me a battery tester?

[azc]

What do you use to test AA/AAA batteries? Most of the ones I've seen on Amazon have a number of good reviews, along with some reviews that says it's useless and inaccurate.

[robyholmes]

Multimeter?

[FishCustard]

Multimeter?

 

Yup, wouldn't use anything else tbh

 

Stick it on DC volts, check what it reads. If it's below it's rated voltage, chuck it out.

 

e.g. if it's a 1.5 V AA battery, if it reads about 1.4 V, bin it.

Edited April 5, 2019 by FishCustard

[crc-ict]

Multimeter is OK for a quick working/dead check on a battery, but limited use to assess remaining capacity of a battery.

 

A multimeter set to volts will measure the open circuit voltage of a battery, which doesn't give a true indication of the battery charge status - an almost dead battery might still meet the rated voltage open circuit. You need to measure the voltage under load to determine state of charge. Even a simple tester like this (about £2 on CPC) will apply a load to the battery whilst reading and give a charge indication on the meter.