I find these on the street sometimes and I need a simple way to test if they are duds without carrying a multi-meter with me all the time. Would just storing them with a wire be a good indicator? Like if I get a big spark it's probably got some life in it and if nothing happens it's a dud. The problem is I don't know when I'm going to find one and I can't carry a multi-meter with me 24/7 on the off chance I find one
>storing
I meant shorting
>he's never shorted a good battery so he has plenty of fingers to spare
Just carry a multimeter.
They actually sell super small battery testers. And you can get very small voltmeters if that’s all you want, but voltage =/= load testing.
Pretty sure basically every state has a core charge for batteries, and you can recycle them for a few bucks. Even if they’re dead, bring them to Walmart when you go next and get $10-$20 refunded for the core charge. Or stack up a few and go down to the recycling place in the hood. Some junkies I knew back in the day used to raid the little cages behind Sears and Walmart for dead batteries and bring them to the recycling place, they said they got $25-$30 each for the larger truck batteries and like $10-$15 for car batteries. They always wanted me to drive them and I’m glad I didn’t because they made the news a couple months later when they went on a 150mi police chase with a truck full of dead batteries until they got spike stripped when they crossed state lines.
Also if you want an even more reliable test, pic related is the size of a small meter and was like $25 on Amazon. It will tell you a lot more than trying to read the voltage of a battery that hasn’t been charged in weeks or months.
those types of tester can give erroneous readings if you do not give them the right information.
an old school load tester is better.
I have both, the digital one gives you more info. Double check the digital one with a meter or carbon pile tester if you’re concerned. The only thing you need to input is the CCA rating of the battery, and even then you can probably guess based on the size. You need that same info for the old school carbon pile load tester as well because a 100A load is going to give you much different voltage readings depending on whether it’s a 900CCA pickup truck battery or 400CCA econobox battery.
See
My advice was to grab them either way and return them for the core charge or recycling dollhairs after you test them properly at home.
You’re not going to be able to tell the difference between a dead battery with 12.3V but no capacity to put out current and a battery with some life sitting at <11V because it hasn’t been charged in months by shorting some nichrome wire across it.
>those types of tester can give erroneous readings if you do not give them the right information
So put the right information in you fricking spastic, it's there on the label
>So put the right information in you fricking spastic, it's there on the label
BUT moron if the label is missing (dipshit) how can you put the correct info in (moron).
Yes but you’re moronic because you need to know the cranking amp rating of the battery with old school carbon pile load testers as well, as I mentioned before.
Have you used a battery tester before?
yes, but without the label you still don't know what the battery is supposed to be. that will just tell you what it currently is. if you put what that shows in to the other one it will probably tell you the battery passes, but if that info is wrong then the results will be wrong. idiot.
and yes I have both, and the old school works better than the modern ones.
moronic.
Those ranges vary quite a bit, the reading on an old school carbon pile tester will very much matter if you think you’re testing a 400CCA battery with a missing sticker that came off of a 700CCA battery.
Why are you trying to argue facts? And the instructions on the machine? The results will be off with the wrong info on both of them. And you have some dumb strawman argument as if it’s worth testing batteries with zero info on them because they have been out in the rain and snow for 10 years.
you seem angry. maybe you should take a break. have mommy get you some tendies and do some research.
Mom already made me corndogs. And then she read the instructions on the carbon pile load tester and said “Wow, I need to know the CCA rating of the battery to get the proper results!”
My mom was like “The difference between a good battery and a weak battery is so small, only a fraction of a volt! If you think you have a 1000CCA battery and get 11.0V with a load, it’s probably on its way out. But that same reading on an 800CCA battery is quite healthy!”
I love my mom, she makes great corn dogs in the microwave and she’s not totally moronic like Anon.
So for moron anon this would have been fine because anything in the 'weak' range would have been worth taking home to investigate while anything that dipped into bad would be bad.
And this isn't the same as just testing the voltage with a multimeter because the pile is actually a load that will pull the voltage down
I still say OP should grab all of them and recycle the shit ones if he’s really tripping over discarded batteries multiple times a week. Run them to the recycler when a dozen or two pile up and collect a few hundred buckaroos.
tossing corndogs in a microwave and slipping them under the door, does not count as making corndogs.
your theory is wrong, you cannot determine the correct cranking amps from a non labeled battery (that is not new) by testing with an old style tester.
if you fully charge it and then test it you will find out what the CA are but that will not tell you what it is supposed to be.
either way if you feed the manufacturers CA in to a modern tester it will be accurate, but if the battery is rated at 800 (label is missing) and you test it at 600 then put that in to the modern tester it will test the battery and pass it.
but if you give it the correct CA of 800 and it tests at 600 it will fail it (as it should).
you must know the correct original CA or CCA to get an accurate reading from a modern tester.
I have used modern testers on ever type of lead acid battery there is: gel, SLA, Flooded etc. they work fine but only if you give them correct info.
OP wants to test rando batteries he finds on the street. he can't do it in any meaningful way because OP doesn't understand that batteries can appear to be good but be bad because of sulfation, dead cells, electrolyte imbalance, low water, etc.
you don't test batteries that are not fully charged.
I'm not carrying all that shit every day, what the frick man? Do you misunderstand my question or something? The scenario is I'm going about my normal day and spot a battery on the street. I'm not carrying a fricking lab with me so I want a quick, simple way to test if it's a dud before lugging the bastard back home.
>I'm not carrying a fricking lab with me so I want a quick, simple way to test if it's a dud before lugging the bastard back home.
and you're not understanding that there is NO way to tell if a battery is bad (quickly and easily) except.... SOMEONE THREW IT AWAY!
Okay let me re-phrase; I want to test if the battery is a total dud ie less than 10v or whatever before dragging it home. I'm aware it might still be bad at 12v but I want to rule out the totally dead ones so I don't waste my time and effort on them
>Okay let me re-phrase I want to test if the battery is a total dud ie less than 10v or whatever
ok let ME rephrase.
you can't
if someone threw a battery out there is a 95% chance it is junk.
also if someone threw a battery out it could have been stolen.
either way in order to have an inkling of wether it is bad or not you need a volt meter.
you cannot tell the state of a battery by shorting a terminal or hooking a light to it.
also if you can carry around a wire or a light you can carry a small volt meter.
just because you want something a certain way does not mean you can have it that way.
you could get a spark from a battery take it home do all the things I said earlier and the battery won't hold a charge.
a battery left on the curb is a sign of stupidity if they tossed it they certainly did not properly maintain it. it has a scrap value only.
Okay, let me rephrase AGAIN. I've been picking up batteries on the street for years. Many are complete duds at like 5v or whatever. Some are maybe good at ~12v. I only want to bring back the maybe good ones, so I need a simple way to differentiate between the dead ones and the maybe good ones.
I am fully aware that a maybe good battery might still be a dud when I get it back and charge it. The point is I want to rule out the totally junk ones without having to drag them back home. Something as simple as shorting the battery to see if it sparks is all I am looking for. Something that does not require me to carry anything as I can just grab a shopping cart and use that to short it.
>if you can carry around a wire or a light you can carry a small volt meter.
No I cannot. I only carry my phone and a condom. Nothing dries up a girls pussy like seeing a man pull out a multimeter
carry a volt meter
Saying "carry a meter" when I specifically asked about ways to test WITHOUT a meter is like answering "install linux" when someone asks about a Windows issue. Only buttholes do that
yes and when you get the answer that will work and you continue to ignore it is what an butthole also does.
CARRY
A
VOLT
METER
nothing else will work.
>nothing else will work
Well I'm feeling pretty good about the shorting idea; big spark of it's got juice, no spark if it's dead. I was hoping for something better but it looks like my original idea was the best and the great minds of PrepHole can't top it. No kids, telling me to entirely change the paradigm is not a better idea.
>big spark of it's got juice, no spark if it's dead
big spark, it's on it's last legs, no spark, it may just need a maintenance charge.
you still don't get it, all a spark means is that some of the cell have a full charge. a battery can be shit and still give off a big spark.
the only way to find out is take it home and test it properly. but once again. if it's laying around randomly in some alley then it is almost certainly garbage. people do not throw out good batteries, also what shithole do you live in where batteries get left outside randomly?
the only time I ever see that is on curbside trash day when I leave out dead batteries for scrappers.
I've had batteries that register a full charge but have zero capacity. the moment a load is applied they drop way below their rated cranking amps, yet they will take and hold a charge.
a quick spark test tells you nothing.
Smallest DC Voltmeters are quite small.
https://www.amazon.com/bayite-Digital-Voltmeter-Display-Motorcycle/dp/B00YALUXH0
>my original idea was the best and the great minds of PrepHole can't top it
or maybe (you little shit) they told you what is what, but you refused to listen because no one told you what you wanted to hear.
another reason why I am reluctant to help the shit stains that come here.
Bye bye fingeronis!
carry a volt meter
carry a shopping cart
get a nice tender and you can get the 5v back up to 11v
Carry a small DC motor. Plug it in to a known good 12 volt DC supply and listen to how it spins. Then hook it up to your mystery curbside battery. If the sound of the motor spinning is noticeably lower in pitch than when it was plugged to 12 volt DC, that means it's spinning more slowly, which indicates a lower supply voltage. Then the battery will be no good to you.
Now this is the kind of answer I was looking for. Thank you
That’s not going to give you good results.
You’re going to find batteries close to 11V with a dead cell that have no problem spinning up a small DC motor. And batteries that are worn but still hold a charge, so they will spin the motor with >12V, but as soon as you put a real load on there, it drops significantly.
I have some tiny voltmeter boards, made a little 12V lighter plug voltage reader with an old USB charger. Those boards are like 1” x 1/2” x 1/4” with a couple short wires sticking out of them. That would be smaller and more accurate than the small DC motor, but still won’t tell you the whole story.
>but still won’t tell you the whole story
I don't need to know the whole story, for fricks sake. I just wanted a simple test which can rule out some of the totally junk ones. I don't need to know whether they are perfect or not, I just need to know which ones are garbage so I don't bother carrying them home. Once I get them home further tests will be done.
>I don't need to know whether they are perfect or not, I just need to know which ones are garbage so I don't bother carrying them home. Once I get them home further tests will be done.
THEN JUST TAKE IT HOME IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU STUPID MONGLOID WHO DOESNT WANT TO LISTEN TO ANY GODDAMN ADVICE! thereis no way to tell if the battery is good by any shitty means of measuring voltage or a spark. no matter what you do. it needs to be properly tested there is no easy 5 second test to determine if its good or not. goddamn you are one stubborn motherfricker who doesnt understand how a fricking battery works and why the advice given trumps what YOU think is the best advice when clearly your method wont tell you shit.
i think its about time we all stop responding to OP and let him figure the shit out on his own and let this stupid piece of shit thread die already because its clear OP is gonna do what he wants regardless of the many people who have told him what to do.
frick you OP go suck a dick you moron
>there is no easy 5 second test to determine if its good or not
Holy shit are you a legitimate moron or something? I'm not asking to test if they are GOOD I'm testing if they are BAD. I want to rule out the obviously bad ones. Whether they are actually good or not can be determined when I get them home, I'm just trying to reduce the number of total duds I have to drag home.
>I'm not asking to test if they are GOOD I'm testing if they are BAD
and... you need to do proper testing to determine this. sticking a meter on it or checking a spark doesnt tell you shit. you have been told many fricking times you cannot tell if the battery is good or bad without doing a load test to determine if it can hold that charge and deliver the amperage you need. there is no way to tell this from any 5 second test method. they will all give false positives unless a proper test is done.
just take it home and test it and shut the frick up already. you are a stubborn butthole who wont listen to anything thats been said many times already
Are you intentionally missing the point or just stupid? I'm not asking how to fully test if they are good or not. I don't give a shit at this point whether they can hold a charge and deliver the amperage. That's not the point of my question AT ALL. I'm just asking for a simple way to rule out the completely dead ones, using a method that requires minimal tools or preparation. There's no point lugging a battery at 1v back because nothing will revive it. I want to rule these ones out BEFORE bring them home, you dense double frick.
Hold one battery terminal with wet hand and lick the other. if it zaps you it has voltage. if it doesnt its dead
the battery having a charge does not determine if its bad or not. you are as stupid as the idiot OP who wont listen to anything
>still doesnt understand anything anyone has told him about all these scenarios and still wont listen to any advice given
battery can have 2 volts and appear bad but could probably be charged fully and HOLD that charge. you need to do proper testing. you cant tell if it can be "revived" by measuring voltage. you have been told this many times you dense motherfricker
>battery can have 2 volts and appear bad but could probably be charged fully and HOLD that charge
Bullshit.
if its been dead maybe a very short period, say a few hours, sure it will. people jump dead car batteries all the time. if its been longer the battery can sulfate and the battery will be no good. but in the long term if the batter was completely dead its best to replace it as it probably already suffered damage.
the moronic OP doesnt understand this that those roadside batteries are not gonna be any good and theres no way to test them on the side of the road without proper testing tools.
now, you and OP can go frick each other up the ass and KYS.
>I'm just asking for a simple way to rule out the completely dead ones
VOLT METER moron! VOLT METER
>moron METER moron METER
voltage doesnt determine if its bad. I swear why are there so many stupid people on this board? nobody listens to the 98% of the people who have given the same advice. they always listen to that 2% who dont know what the frick they are talking about. I dont get it
>Telling people a lead acid battery below 9v isn't bad
>Criticizing others for giving bad advice
dunning kruger in full effect
You can drop them pretty low and recover them, like car with a bad alternator will go pretty damn low and somebody could easily replace the battery and then 3 days later realize it’s the alternator and replace that. So now let’s say you have two batteries at ~10V, one of them was run down once on a car with a bad alternator and the other one has a shot cell. One is worth keeping and one is trash even though they look the same when reading voltage.
I don’t know how many batteries you’re going to find at 2V. The things would have to be sitting around for a long damn time for that to happen or have catastrophic failure. A Mexican is going to grab the thing before it has time to discharge that low. Most of the time car batteries get replaced >10V because they’re too weak to start the car.
This is what I said. Buy a $25 load tester. Throw the bad ones into the recycling pile and collect gas money for a month when you bring them in, and charge up the good ones.
OP was told many times how to check these batteries but he refuses to accept the advice given. its best to stop spoonfeeding this homosexual, and let this stupid thread die already.
OP is a moron, and refuses to carry a volt meter, there is no quick test to determine if a battery is bad, BUT if the battery is over 11volts then it might, could, possibly (but not likely) be still good.
I mean it was thrown out so it was almost certainly bad but OP is a moron and just wants someone to tell him something that does not exist.
This happened in Olympia, WA, about 5 mins from my house.
homeless morons?
>I'm not asking to test if they are GOOD I'm testing if they are BAD
doesn't matter no simple quick test exists for that.
Then listen to what everybody but the one dumb DC motor guy is telling you. There’s no good way to load test a 12V car battery with something basic and smaller than a stick of gum that anybody here can come up with.
If you want to read voltage, these little boards
are probably the most compact and accurate thing, but that doesn’t tell you if the battery is good or not. A dying 12V car battery is going to have plenty of juice left to light up whatever gadget is in your pocket while being useless once you try to start a car with it.
Even if you try a big fuse, you’re still going to miss out on batteries that are healthy but haven’t been charged in a long time.
>batteries that are healthy but haven’t been charged in a long time
No such thing. Depleted batteries rapidly sulfate.
>I just wanted a simple test which can rule out some of the totally junk ones.
you dense mother fricker. NO SUCH TEST EXISTS.
>I just need to know which ones are garbage
They are all garbage, that's why you're finding them abandoned on the street, dumbass.
But the totally junk ones are still worth $15 a piece so why not get then?
My homie doesn't e-stim girls with his aliexpress multimeter
>I've been picking up batteries on the street for years.
>I only carry my phone and a condom. Nothing dries up a girls pussy like seeing a man pull out a multimeter
>baby girl come back to my place and I'll frick you ontop of my battery collection
Kek.
Fwiw, good women start dripping when they see a manly man fix shit. My little brother has this new girlfriend he’s been with for a few months, some skinny blonde b***h, and I was checking some stuff on his car while he was at the house and both my brother and my wife weren’t excited at how into it his girl was.
I make sure my gf knows when I’m doing DIY stuff for this exact reason so she doesn’t leave my soft handed attorney ass
>I'm aware it might still be bad at 12v but I want to rule out the totally dead ones so I don't waste my time and effort on them
batteries cannot be revived for any useful length of time regardless of what someone shows on youtube. there are no magic battery tbhlfators. the way modern batteries are made once they are badly sulfated they are garbage.
>The scenario is I'm going about my normal day and spot a battery on the street
where the hell do you live that there's car batteries just fricking littering the street?
He must live near the ocean
You could lick the terminals, ya frickin moron.
Throw them in the ocean. If they float they still have charge
>I need a simple way to test if they are duds
simple
check the water level
test the state of charge with a hygrometer
give them a full maintenance charge for 16 hours at 15 volts dc.
monitor the temperature
if one or more cells gets hot you have shorted cells (battery bad).
then when fully charged use an old school load tester.
if it test in the good range it's a good battery.
anything you don't understand must be easy.
>I can't carry a multi-meter with me 24/7
https://www.amazon.com/allsun-Multimeter-Functions-Voltmeter-Continuity/dp/B07BRFN9FY/ref=sr_1_11?tag=ganker-20&crid=22ZEA825Y331Q&keywords=mini+multimeter&qid=1676902095&sprefix=mini%2520multi%2520meter%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-11
Pick it up and if it doesn't work sell it to a recycler. I got $15-20 for my old car batteries.
>inb4 not a poorgay
Yes you are if you consider picking up street batteries.
This is only correct answer in this thread. OP, where do you live that is so wealthy that people throw away perfectly scrappable batteries and nobody picks them up? Those things would be dissapear so fast where I live that throwing them out the window may as well count as recycling. I want to come be illegal alien and pick up sidewalk gold in your prosperous land.
take them all you can easily restore any battery with just a 200 amp stick welder.
check water levels fix if not enough then run the stick welder at 200 amps through the battery backwards this will knock all the oxide off the plates. top the water back off because your going to boil some off. it will then take full charge again
>boomer alchemy
I’m keeping my eye on you…
This is how real men refurbish batteries
If it's varta no need to test, it's dead.
yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MI36zDBC8s&t=13s
Thank you anon, this idea totally works and your video proves it. Thank you
If you smear poop on the plus pole it will sizzle if the battery is good
Classic ghana trick
Was she sucking a whiskey bottle
Do the ole poop test op
>OP: "Help me. I need Help. Please somebody help me!"
>Multiple direct genuine helpful replies" "Here's a big box of help"
>OP: "No. frick you!"
op is a turd wrangler again
What epic shithole do you live in that you find so many batteries in the road that it warranted this shitty ass thread?
Is that you?
Why would a white man hang out with Black folk?
Now that is a VERY fricking good question that i ask the world every day
The smell of gasoline.
Jesus christ this entire fricking thread.
OP: There is no 'simple' way to test them. You either carry a multimeter (which is not ideal for a variety of reasons, but the quickest you can hope for) or if they're still accessible wet batteries, then you get a Hydrometer. Then test each cell. Then you charge it, and get an actual battery tester and check the fricking thing. Its going to give you a shit reading every time if its flat, and you won't be able to tell if its good or not. Secondly, the electronic testers are... okay... at best. Yes, they give you a nice little printout, frick that, get yourself a proper carbon pile load tester.
None of this matters because nobody throws away batteries that are still good and OP isn't even owning up to the fact that he's to poor to buy a decent one and a decent charger.
t. Ten years as a battery tech.
yes, thank you for summarizing this thread.... AGAIN!
>Ten years as a battery tech.
keep lifting those heavy batteries wagie! bossman needs his dollar for every cent you make
keep shit posting on diy mommy will bring you tendies.
she sure does
once these batteries are fricked they are fricked.I haven't been able to bring back batteries that even had 12 volts. capacity gets fricked and they are worth fricking with. when they are old they start leaking and shit. frick em'
You wont be able to test it well with just a multimeter. battery tester is better. a multimeter can read 12V, but the thing is dead. Inside, its able to hold that 12V only for a moment, when an actual laod is applied it will fail. Whats better still is pH test strips meant for acid battery rebuilds. You have to pop the case open, but a test strip will tell you how dead it is, even more than a battery tester will.
It works!
What is this free battery on the road magic and how do i learn it?
Try wandering around in behind walmart or costco and on the south side of town.
>not the Africa edit.
I'm disappointed.
appears to test as garbage.
I too can pull the battery out of my car and short it.
how fricking moronic
sparks literally mean nothing
Brother
If someone threw a battery away it's probably not because it was perfectly good