Gardner Bender GBT-500A Analog 1.5 V Button Cell/22.5 Photo/AA/AAA/12 V/9 V/Lantern Cells & More, Leads Battery Tester,14 Battery Range, Black

My old tester finally fell apart and duct tape no longer held the leads, so after 50 some odd years I had to find a new one. I looked at all the digital ones and did not find anything suitable for my needs. And quite frankly, I’m tired of all the fancy ones out there. I’m old school and all I want is to see if a battery is good or not. I decided to try and find an analog model when this one came up. It’s perfect, does all the standard household batteries, button batteries and even the odd sized ones. If all you need is a simple tester without the bells and whistles, that actually works without a 10 page book of instructions, this is it. Not all new ideas are necessarily better. This one was inexpensive and does the job.

This unit is invaluable to have. to check the energy left in your batteries! Works on all types of batteries. It is basic, accurate and easy to read. I recommend getting one of these if you have batteries in your home.

Love the look. Huge fan of analog, not least in this case because it doesn't need batteries of its own. For size, unit is about the size of a soda can and the metal contacts on the front are spaced for 9v batteries, but the rotating dial is what ultimately determines the reading (and actual 9v batteries need to be at an angle to fit, as I've just learned, though the spacing looks correct at least). The marked panel around the dial has a matte finish. The red button is a neat thing for testing coin cells so you don't have to hold them in your mouth. The unnecessary kickstand on the back has 2 lugs at the bottom but only 1 engages to provide retention and a satisfying click. The wires are nice and pliable but lack any strain relief on either end. Notably, the probes are not quite long enough to reach all the way into a 1/4in jack, much to my chagrin, but they fit strangely well in XLR female plugs. The probes also appear too short to reach most internal organs. If you probe the battery backwards, the needle quietly crashes into the side, but mine has not taken any kind of set--if it does, I shall probe batteries in series to correct it. I have used this unit to test continuity for cables and it's obviously not the best but it worked for me. Can't do that with other testers I've seen unless you have some wire and a lot more patience than with this. Lots of settings but I use it mainly for 1.5v for rough matching. It's easy to use 1-handed by substituting a face contact for a probe, and even if you're not dextrous enough to 1-hand it, it cuts down on having to keep a battery from slipping between 2 probes. This also means the face contacts (allegedly for 9v batteries although they don't work perfectly for that) could fill in for a broken lead or 2 if you just attach wire to them. Otherwise the back is held in place by the imperative "DO NOT REMOVE THIS CABINET COVER" and 1 Phillips screw. For the record, I haven't done anything and don't know nothing about "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS". When I somehow break this I'll probably buy a new one or just use a multimeter and hopefully never see such a can on the road again.

It's a simple electronic device, so it works fine. The lettering is a bit small for my eyes, so I downgraded it to 4 stars

Edited 12/10/15 to fix some typos. Thanks for kind comments! Edited 12/12/20 as some reviewers claimed this doesn't test under load. It does! Turns out they posted to the wrong device! I also added a small information bit to help some readers better understand a few electrical terms I use. REVIEW This is a very nice analog tester. It has a quality feel, and test leads that appear likely to hold up to long use. I've bought 7 so far, 3 for me and the others as little gifts. (I dont accept payments for reviews). It handles a very wide range of batteries. I am very pleased with mine, especially at its low price. There are incredibly cheap testers available on Amazon, but they lack the ability to appropriately load the battery being tested. Here's what I mean. A battery tester works by putting a load on a battery and measuring the voltage at the battery terminals. The reason is that this voltage, measured with a good voltmeter that draws almost no current, changes little as the battery wears out. What does change is that the battery's internal resistance increases, which wastes energy, and the amount of chemicals available to generate current decreases. By putting a load on the battery, the meter can see whether the battery is still able to do its job. This tester has 9 switch positions which set it to select a reasonable load and voltage range for a battery type, giving you a much more reliable test than a plain voltmeter can. See the table below. Notice that there are 3 different current drain settings for 1.5 V batteries. These are chosen to roughly match their normal use; 1 mA for tiny button cells used for watches, 50 mA for AAA batteries, used for remote controls, and 150 mA for AA or bigger C and D batteries used for flashlights, etc. If a tester draws too much current, it can deplete the battery just by testing it, and a battery tested at too little load may test Good yet not work in your device. Understanding this, this tester is still very useful in sorting through batteries, even if your device uses an unusually high or low amount of current. Digital cameras, for example, draw a lot of current for a few seconds when they are recharging their flashes; the internal resistance of ordinary batteries wastes power, giving them short useful lives. Yet they can last for years in a low-drain steady application like a clock. So you need to use your judgement. If you find that batteries test good but only move the tester needle a little above the bottom of the green range will not work in your device, yet you might be able to use them in something else for a while. SPECIFICATIONS (from supplied manual) Range..............................Load Current.........Minimum Voltage for ......................................Drain...................GOOD Indication Button Cell 1.5V.................1 mA...................1.125V +/- 0.0W AAA-N-1.5V.......................50 mA.................1.125V +/- 0.09V AA-C-D-1.5V.....................150 mA................1.125V +/- 0.09V Lithium 3V..........................1 mA..................2.25V +/- 0.18V 6V...................................10 mA.................4.50V +/- 0.36V 9V...................................10 mA.................6.75V +/- 0.54V 12V.................................10 mA..................9.00V +/-0.72V 15V.................................10 mA..................11.25V +/- 0.90V 22.5V...............................10 mA.................16.875V +/- 1.35V Sorry about the formatting. Some Amazon doofus decided it would be nice to strip out all my tabs and extra spaces. Try landscape view if you can. On second thought, maybe I should not have called her a doofus. I am told Amazons are pretty tough ladies! Maybe they just wanted me to use up all my punctuation marks so I'd have to order a new box of periods! :-)

Although there are many great multimeters, there aren't many that do very well as a battery tester. That what this is--- a battery tester. And, it does great as that! Most multimeters simply show a battery's voltage. That's where this instrument is different. It places a load on the battery. Because of that, the results give a much better indication of how a battery is going to hold up in use. By placing the load on the battery, its results are as if the battery were being used when being tested. The results can be far more accurate that a more costly multimeter. For the most popular of batteries, the 1-1/2 volt variety, this battery tester lets you vary the load from a light load for a button battery, to a medium load for rechargeables, to a high load for a regular alkaline battery (like AA, C or D batteries). There are many other options for a wide variety of batteries. Generally, you need only to dial in the battery's voltage and place the leads on the battery. It's a fast and easy process. What's odd, is that even if you have an expensive multimeter around, you'll still do better to reach for this inexpensive tester when checking how much longer a battery is going to last. Because it places a load on the battery, the results will be more in line with what to expect from it. This is inexpensive accessory you are likely to hang on to forever.

This is a very nice little tester at a very low price. The main features, pros, and cons, have already been described very well by the two top reviewers DrBob and Kindle Customer, so I will limit my comments to what appealed to a tool nerd like me. The meter is plastic, but it seems well made and is pleasing to use. It is versatile, with 9 selectable battery types, voltage ranges from 1.5 to 22.5V, and three different current drain levels, shown in the 2-page manual available at gardnerbender.com. Electronic hobbyists will like having the schematic of the 9 selectable circuits shown in the manual, although it is difficult to tell which is which because the circuits are not identified in the schematic! I worked them out by measuring the total resistance of each circuit through the probes, but several of them did not match the resistances calculated from the schematic. At least two resistors are labelled incorrectly (typos perhaps): R6 and R8, listed as 15k Ohms and 135 Ohms, are probably 1.5k and 1.35k Ohms respectively. And R7 is probably closer to 1020 Ohms instead of the listed 900 Ohms. Using these new values the calculated circuit resistances matched the measured values pretty well. Calculated load currents were then nearly identical to the specifications in the manual. I wanted to share my spreadsheet so you could make these calculations for your own meter, but neither Amazon nor Gardner Bender would allow it. Instead, I can at least correctly identify the circuits for you in the instruction manual: Numbering the circuits on the meter dial starting with 1 at the top (Button Cell 1.5V) clockwise to 9 (Lithium 3V), the order of the circuits shown in the schematic diagram in the manual are, from top to bottom (positive terminals): 4 5 6 7 8 3 2 9 1 And finally, the manual gives an approximate voltage for the start of the GOOD region on the meter for each battery type, giving you an actual number besides the qualitative “GOOD.” It should be fairly easy to calibrate the voltage at these points more exactly – another fun project.

Works great.

As described works well bit pricey but worth it

Very useful for many types of batteries. Easy to use and read scale.

Cheap quality product, not sure about the accuracy of the reading it shows, It is not worth for this price

一般用のテスターは負荷を掛けて測る事が別装置を作り測るが本テスターは スィッチの切り替えで速く測る事が出来るので、お客様が納得してもらえる ので好評を得て使用してます。Dr、仲間にも好評です。

I got fed-up with the cheapo battery testers which read inconsistently and vary from tester to tester but couldn't justify buying the ZTS MBT-1 Multi Battery Tester (£44 plus an extortionate £21 delivery) despite the rave reviews! The Gb-gardner Bender seems well made and gives consistent readings. A little care is required when interpreting the reading, but that seems to be par for the course. Choose your supplier carefully - I paid £12.45 with FREE deliver (surprising, since it came from the USA) but it's also on Amazon at total costs of £31 & £34.