An automotive battery is mainly used to crank a vehicle. While load testers and conductance testers are commonly used, neither actually indicates the cranking effectiveness of the battery. Nor do they predict when the battery will fail to crank a vehicle.

Designed for both out-of-vehicle and in-vehicle use, both Digital Battery Analyzer models address the weakness of these conventional testers with its cranking power measurements. Simply connect the analyzer to the battery in the vehicle and start the engine!

Figure (A) above shows the voltage profile of a healthy battery during the cranking of an engine. The graph starts off at the battery's nominal voltage, and a voltage drop is detected when the vehicle is cranked. The voltage recovers to the battery's nominal voltage and eventually rises to approximately 14.4 V when the alternator starts charging the battery.

Note the difference in the voltage drop in Figure (B) where a typical 2 year-old battery is weaker but still usable. Figure (C) represents a very weak battery that can barely crank a car and is due to fail in the very near future.

The Digital Battery Analyzers utilizes this voltage profile to determine the cranking power of the tested batteries and will display it either as a fan graph (DBA-12-P) or cranking voltage (DBA-12-P).  Voltage profiles indicate the relative ability of the installed battery in starting an engine, so there is no need for knowledge of the motor requirement or the battery's rating and size.