Battery hydrometer testing...

I bought a small cheap hydrometer today (the kind with the 4 floating balls) in the hopes of determining if I have a bad battery. I checked the electrolyte in all 6 cells after charging and only 1 ball would float indicating a 1/4 charge or bad battery.

Just to make sure I decided to check my new battery to see if I would get good results there. I ended up with the same results. Only one ball would float even on the new battery. Put the new battery on the charger and retested and still only got 1 ball to float. What gives? Did I buy a junk hydrometer or am I missing something?

Post edited by: savedrider, at: 2006/02/20 01:29

Have you put the new battery in the bike yet? Does it work better than the old battery? If so, then the hydrometer may be faulty. Here's a dumb question... did you buy the new battery dry? If so, you need to find/buy the electrolyte solution and add that (not just H2O). If you did all things correct, then the hydrometer is suspect and the only thing you are missing is the money for the hydrometer.

Yeah, I put the new battery in the bike...seems to work fine.

It was a dry charged cell and I added acid and charged it per the instructions.

I'm thinking I'm missing my money too...I'm going to take their piece of junk tester back.

to me the best way to check a battery is with a load tester, you get to see the whole battery under a hard load, will find bad cells not up to snuff

BSKZ650 wrote:

to me the best way to check a battery is with a load tester, you get to see the whole battery under a hard load, will find bad cells not up to snuff

I wanted the parts store to do this, but they get all wishy-washy about their Midtronics tester not being able to test motorcycle batteries.

Just curious,

Where did you buy your hydrometer? I've been looking for a place that sells small ones, but all I can find around here is the turkey baster variety. Dennis Kirk wants $2 for one, but $7 to ship, which is rediculous...

Chet I got mine at Kragen aka Checker aka Parts America.

I'll have to track one down. Thanks for the reply!

Never heard of a bad hydrometer. The balls didn't float? Hmmm Anyway, they sell them at just about every autoparts store. Get another. They are only about $2.

If you get one, get the smallest as these come with a little hose to fit on the tip so you can stick the hose in the hole in the battery cell. A car type is too big.

Never heard of a bad hydrometer. The balls didn't float? Hmmm Anyway, they sell them at just about every autoparts store. Get another. They are only about $2.

If you get one, get the smallest as these come with a little hose to fit on the tip so you can stick the hose in the hole in the battery cell. A car type is too big.

Doh! I'd forgotten -- out here they're called "Advance Auto Parts." There are some Parts America stores around, but it's mostly Advance.

And George, you aren't kidding! The big turkey baster variety needs about 3 times the fluid that one of my battery's little cells will provide.

wiredgeorge wrote:

Never heard of a bad hydrometer. The balls didn't float? Hmmm Anyway, they sell them at just about every autoparts store. Get another. They are only about $2.

If you get one, get the smallest as these come with a little hose to fit on the tip so you can stick the hose in the hole in the battery cell. A car type is too big.

I agree, didn't think one could be bad out of the box considering how simple a device they are. And I paid $3.50 for the silly thing, which I'm kinda miffed about. They will probably look at me funny when I try to return it too.