Battery Monitor & Tester?

[RAF_S7]

Like a lot of people, my car has spent most of the last year sitting in the garage, and has only added around 2000 miles since March 2020 till now. My normal annual mileage is anything between 12~15k

The car is now 5 years old, and on its original battery. I leave it hooked up to a CTEK charger and maintainer to try and keep the battery topped up, as the S7 has a lot of onboard electronics which draw power, even when the ignition is off.

I’d like to add a Battery Monitor and Tester to my garage and looking for some recommendations based on people’s experience. Ideally a monitoring tool that I can leave hooked up and access remotely, as the boot mounted battery on the S7 is not that easy to reach on a regular basis.

I know about the CTEK Battery Sense which is connected to a smart phone via Bluetooth, but feel that it’s too basic to be of much value, with its simple traffic light indicator.

I’d also like to get a digital battery tester, one that I can hook up every couple of months to test the battery.

So, over to you guys, any recommendations? Budget around £100 (for each)

Cheers,
John.

 

[rum4mo]

If you have VCDS you can keep a record of some battery stats like "capacity" and internal resistance - I bought a CTEK BATTERY ANALYZER 56-924 designed by Midtronics USA on behalf of CTEK Sweden , it cost £63 from Maplin over 4 years ago.
I have used it on a few batteries and it gives credible CCA EN values, it tend to use it once a year and charge the battery, or make sure that it has been fully charged by my CTEK MSX 5.0 and left with that disconnected for maybe 4 > 6 hours before using the battery analyser. Just remember that any battery analyser that measures CCA will need to be applied directly across the battery terminals, but at service time, I tend to check the space saver tyre pressure, so I've already got as far as lifting the boot floor covering.

Midtronics has been said to be one of the proper battery analyser designers/manufacturers so even this offering from CTEK should be good enough for DIYer use.

 

[RAF_S7]

If you have VCDS you can keep a record of some battery stats like "capacity" and internal resistance - I bought a CTEK BATTERY ANALYZER 56-924 designed by Midtronics USA on behalf of CTEK Sweden , it cost £63 from Maplin over 4 years ago.
I have used it on a few batteries and it gives credible CCA EN values, it tend to use it once a year and charge the battery, or make sure that it has been fully charged by my CTEK MSX 5.0 and left with that disconnected for maybe 4 > 6 hours before using the battery analyser. Just remember that any battery analyser that measures CCA will need to be applied directly across the battery terminals, but at service time, I tend to check the space saver tyre pressure, so I've already got as far as lifting the boot floor covering.

Midtronics has been said to be one of the proper battery analyser designers/manufacturers so even this offering from CTEK should be good enough for DIYer use.

I do have VCDS! I was looking for something a little easier to use....
I’ll take a look at the Midtronics unit you mentioned.

Cheers

 

[Andy Butcher]

I have used a battery conditioner/charger/trickle charger that I bought from Aldi for many years, used on my (then) service barge with a standard battery, rally cars with dry cell batteries and my Maserati Gransport which was a garage queen and only came out in the summer months.
Considerably cheaper than Ctek chargers, and not had an issue in 10 plus years.
Just so happens that Aldi currently have them in stock again (well Aldi in Gloucester has them), for less than £13!

 

[rum4mo]

I have used a battery conditioner/charger/trickle charger that I bought from Aldi for many years, used on my (then) service barge with a standard battery, rally cars with dry cell batteries and my Maserati Gransport which was a garage queen and only came out in the summer months.
Considerably cheaper than Ctek chargers, and not had an issue in 10 plus years.
Just so happens that Aldi currently have them in stock again (well Aldi in Gloucester has them), for less than £13!

I don't think that is the answer in this case, the OP has already got a CTEK charger-maintenance unit, it is a battery analyser/tester that he is looking for.

On that front, from my checking up on availability of CTEK battery analysers on ebay, I have ended up with a seller offering me a new one for £85.00 +£2.95 - or Best Offer.