Best automotive battery tester7/31/2023 ![]() The meter is now connected in parallel with the car battery and will display a reading automatically. With the red lead plugged into the voltage (main) terminal of the multimeter and the black lead plugged into the common (COM) terminal of the multimeter: position the red lead onto the positive (+, usually red) terminal of the battery and the black lead to the negative (–, usually black) terminal. ![]() The 20V range means it will measure between 0V and 20V. Most of the manual ranging meters have a 20V range, which is what you would need to test a car battery. The wavy line after a V is AC (alternating current) voltage and is for checking the mains voltage in your house. DC voltage is usually marked as a V followed by a short line with a dotted line beneath it. Select the DC volts position on your multimeter (or the 12V setting if you have a dedicated car battery test range). If you don’t know how to use a multimeter to test a car battery, read the procedure below:Įnsure the ignition, lights and radio are off. And even a cheap, category I (CAT-I) multimeter is fine as you are merely testing voltage, not amperage. ![]() Digital multimeters are the best option for this since they give a more accurate reading, although you could also use an analog one. Other than trying to start the engine to see if there’s charge, the best way to decipher a car battery’s status is to test it using a multimeter. If you are looking to test for amperage draw (parasitic draw) – testing amps in series – we cover that process in this guide. This is achieved by measuring the DC voltage of the battery in parallel with the multimeter. Here, we check the charge, or voltage, of your car battery.
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