I was coming home one evening, down a hill and the next right was into my neighborhood. As I came down the hill, my car unexpectedly shut off and displayed absolutely nothing in terms of power. Luckily, I used my momentum to roll into my neighborhood and got out of the way of the fast, hilly two-way street.
Weird that the car just shut down like that. After I came to a safe stop, I pressed the Start/Stop button, and the engine and car roared back to life as if nothing happened. What could that have been I wondered.
Confused, I continued my route home. Weeks went by until I began to notice a slow starting car. My first thought was that the battery was on the way out. In today’s modern cars, the battery does a lot more than help start the engine. With so many new electrical gadgets in cars, your car’s battery is responsible powering those devices while the engine is off.
In the parking lot of an Advanced Auto Parts, I replaced the car battery in the hope that this would solve the problem. It turns out, that wasn’t the problem whatsoever. It was a failure within the engine that required a gear replacement on the BMW Dual-VANOS system.
While the VANOS gear repair was expensive in and of itself, I possibly bought a battery that I may have never needed. The question was, how was I supposed to know what was working and what was not?
Electrical gremlins are some of the worst problems a mechanic can deal with. They are virtually impossible to recreate and become challenging to locate as one electrical fault somewhere on some device may affect a totally different system.
As we grow as a society with technology, I should have known better and not have guessed that my battery may or may not have been dying and used technology to test it.
For years I have looked at Topdon’s interesting and unique products, and as they transition their products into vehicles, it’s time to take a look at their latest product.
Named the Artibattery101, this is a smart battery checker that turns even an everyday driver into a mechanic. Supporting all types of battery measurements and rated for small and large vehicles, the Artibattery101 helps you understand the life of your battery.
Welcome to my review of the Topdon Artibattery101.
Design
Since Artibattery101 isn’t a flattering product name nor is it fun to type, I’ll be calling the Artibattery101 the battery tester.
Made of plastic, the blue rectangular shaped battery tester fits well in the hand and contains large, clicky buttons that help navigate the black and white pixeled 2.4 TFT screen.
When the battery tester is held in the hand, it feels quite sturdy and durable. The plastic body makes for a lightweight feel, especially considering this unit is lacking an internal battery. Since its purpose is to be hooked up to a battery, it will take a little bit of the juice from the battery to power itself.
Alternatively, for standby mode or possible updating, the battery tester has a mini USB port on the bottom through which it can be powered.
On the front of the unit are four large tactile buttons that contain controls for OK, up, down, and back. Covered in rubber, the buttons feel great to use with one hand, and you know when you’ve pressed a button thanks to the tactile feedback.
Extending out of the top of the handheld unit is a single cable lead that terminates in positive and negative terminals.
The total cable length of the alligator clamps is about three feet. This is enough to reach batteries underneath the hood, but it is a little short for batteries in hard to reach places like the trunk. Since my battery is in the trunk, I often found myself bending over or crouching to have the battery tester connected.
The TFT screen is large and can be easily seen both indoors and outdoors with direct light shining on the screen. To help navigate the device, Topdon includes a well-documented and well laid out manual that explains everything. The English in the manual can be rough, but you get the point.
Functionality
Love it or hate it, Topdon is using a basic interface with their battery tester. There aren’t any complex menus and the questions it asks you are easy to answer. Hint: The answer to its questions are written on the battery itself.
As mentioned, the battery tester will leech power off of the battery it is testing, so the battery being tested will need a slight charge. There are two modes: with the battery in the vehicle and another for batteries not in a vehicle.
Cleverly, the Topdon battery tester can test all sorts of batteries, not just ones meant for cars. With a cold cranking amp range of 100 A to 2000 A, even smaller lawnmower batteries can be tested with this tester.
That said, the Topdon is universal in other regards. It supports batteries such as regular flooded, AGM flat plate, GEL, and AGM Spiral. Then, you can use practically any standard you wish, including Cold Cranking Amps, Battery Council International standard, Cranking Amps, Marine Cranking Amps, Japan Industrial Standard, German Auto Industry Committee Standard, Internal Electro-Technical Commission Standard, European Automobile Industry Association Standard, Society of Automotive Engineers Standards of America, and the China National Standard.
When connected to the battery, you will need to tell the battery tester which standard and its related rating you are using. For example, 650 CCA for Cold Cranking Amps. Again, this information will be written on a label on the battery being tested.
If the battery is outside of a vehicle, the battery tester will test its output readings and calculate voltage. If the battery is in a vehicle, it will ask you to increase the engine’s revolution.
Regardless of the selected mode, the battery tester will do its best to calculate whether or not the battery is in a working condition.
You will see a report containing a state-of-heath, state-of-charge, voltage output, and the recommended action to do with the battery, such as whether or not it needs replacing.
It may seem like it’s a complicated process, or that it may be hard to understand the outcome, but the user manual does an excellent job of outlining each screen that you may see. Even the language-selection screen has a description of what it does in the manual.
I tested the battery tester on two types of batteries. The first was a lawnmower battery where the battery tester has reported a bad state of health. Considering it was taking forever to charge, that made sense. When it came to testing my car’s battery, it was great to see it process the report and even ask me to increase the engine revolutions to get a stronger battery report.
It’s good to know that my newly bought battery is still in great, working health.
My Final Thoughts
Priced on Amazon at $55, it’s a little steep for what it does. Considering this unit could cost the same price as a new battery itself, only true car enthusiasts will find it to be a must-have. The strong positive here is that it does ease your worries on whether or not your battery is about to fail.
The TFT black and white display makes this product better than its competition, and it’s easy to navigate the menus with the help of the included user manual. With support for all sorts of batteries and battery standards, you would be hard-pressed to find a battery unsupported by this tester.
I enjoyed using the Topdon Artibattery101 and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a solid battery tester.
Buy it now:
© 2018 Justin Vendette