johngooch Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 Staring at a bucket full of questionable voltage LI AAs... Curious to see how everybody tests these batteries under load... Looking at this https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1012277-REG/zts_mini_mbt_multi_battery_tester.html?sts=p ZTS tester. Is it worth the money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 I have a couple of ZTS testers and they're among the best of the reasonably-priced ones. Note that the model you listed doesn't do Lithium AAs. The larger and more expensive MBT-1 is the version you need: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=zts+mbt-1&ref=nb_sb_noss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Karlsson Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 FWIW, I put used AA Lithiums with questionable voltage in the slate. Usually works for quite some time. The problem with measuring lithium batteries is that they typically show good voltage level until suddenly dropping off drastically. So there’s no real way of telling how much time they have left, unless you timed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngooch Posted May 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 I've gotten not so hot batteries, right out of the packaging. So i am not necessarily looking just evaluate partially used batteries. j Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Karlsson Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 6 hours ago, johngooch said: I've gotten not so hot batteries, right out of the packaging. So i am not necessarily looking just evaluate partially used batteries. Aaaah ok. Copy that. Yes, I've had that before as well, and talked to someone else about this who had the same thing happen. Appears to have been some bad batch(es) of the Energizer Ultimate Lithiums. Transmitters would drop dead almost right away (literally within 30 min), even though the batteries were straight out of the packaging. I think this was about a year or two ago. I found no real solution, other than just swap the batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jozzafunk Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 Yep there’s some dodgy energiser lithiums around for sure. I’ve recently had a few brand new packs that are all or some NG almost straight away - cant trust em anymore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismedr Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 I use a VOLTCRAFT Charge Manager 2016 for checking my eneloops every few months: https://www.conrad.de/de/p/voltcraft-charge-manager-cm2016-rundzellen-ladegeraet-nicd-nimh-nizn-micro-aaa-mignon-aa-baby-c-mono-d-9-v-202016.html the advantage is that it doesn't just measure voltage, but rather the full discharge energy under a selected load. Doesn't help with non-rechargeables of course and it's not designed with Li chemistry, but really helps to find out when to replace rechargeables. chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 With the Energizer Lithium AAs we took to firing the TX up well in advance and letting it burn, to weed out the bad batts. There were quite a few awhile back, so it might be a good idea to get your batteries from a dealer that has high turnover, vs a local hardware store that might have had the bats for some time. I agree that measuring Lith battery voltage doesn't tell you much. For mission critical devices we dump old batts early and often to take no chances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngooch Posted May 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 Phil-- my current method is turn them on and let them burn... just looking for a better method. Was hoping ZTS analyzer would be the right way. I understand that does place battery under load ( they call it pulse load) .... I may try it. I am so bad at managing my battery usage. And in the end- i am wasting a bit of money... j Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek H Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 A few years back I emailed ZTS to see if they could make a mini tester that could test lithium AA. They just pointed me to the full size model that does it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnotsMedia Posted May 4, 2019 Report Share Posted May 4, 2019 Obviously not load tester, but I use this guy a good bit just to quickly check the levels on my Powerex AA’s... simple and works great. And...like you I get a pile of slightly used AA Li’s going and just want to know where they are at level wise, quickly determines what I feel comfortable using them in. D-FantiX Digital Battery Tester for AAA AA C D 9V 1.5V, Household Battery Checker Tester for Small Batteries Button Cell (Model: BT-168D) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014FEM21G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3mHZCbM5CBXQS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundpod Posted May 5, 2019 Report Share Posted May 5, 2019 With the zts units, if you look under the military section, there is one version of their tester that also tests 9v lithium. It’s more expensive, but worth knowing this version is available if you use those batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacysound Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 On 5/4/2019 at 1:56 PM, Derek H said: A few years back I emailed ZTS to see if they could make a mini tester that could test lithium AA. They just pointed me to the full size model that does it. I did this recently and they seemed responsive. Maybe if more of us reach out, they will make one. I requested AA and 9V all chemistries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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