How to Test Car Battery Charge Using a Multimeter

The lifespan of a car battery is usually one to three years. If your car battery lasts until the third year, significantly it looks like you usually use the car only when necessary. However, you can inspect your car battery’s health using a multimeter.

 

Maybe many people don’t know that every 6 months you have to check the car battery’s health condition. So that, you know the car battery is still good or even just a little bit more. If you go to a car battery store, usually to check the car battery’s health condition they will use this one tool which is called a multimeter.

 

 

There are two types of multimeters that you can use. It is analog and digital. If you want to easily know the reading of the car’s battery, we would recommend using a digital multimeter since it is easier to read.

 

How To Test Car Battery Using a Multimeter

 

 

1. Set the multimeter to 20 DC voltage (direct current).
2. Touch the negative color (black) battery terminal with the negative (black) needle of the multimeter.
3. Touch the positive (red) battery terminal with the positive (red) needle of the multimeter.
4. Turn on the car’s spotlight to provide power to the car’s battery.
5. Check the multimeter reading, if the reading is:

• A reading of 12.5v or above means the car battery is in good condition.
• A reading of about 12.3v means the battery power is 75 percent charged.
• The condition of the car battery is not good and needs to be changed, if the reading on the multimeter is 11.8v and below.

6. If you get a low reading, you can try charging the car battery to improve the battery’s chemical reaction. If the reading is not high, you need to change the battery.