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Radio Shack Battery Tester

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I recently purchased an Enercell Model 22-143 battery tester from Radio Shack. The package listed that it was compatible with button cells and hearing aid batteries.

To test a battery, you lift a right angle lever and then place the battery on a ledge at the lower left, moving the lever back in place. It is very cumbersome to do, even with two hands.

The contacts to not make proper contact with button cells. Small hearing aid batteries are impossible to test correctly. When I did make correct contact with a button cell, the reading on a brand new cell was ambiguous. It is a very poor design for anything less than a battery.

This thing cost about $12. It is not suitable or worth the money.

Jeff

All you need is a DC VoltMeter. Place the red electrode on + and the black on - and if you have the voltage set properly in DC, it will say something like 1.3 (which would be remaining volts, for a 1.4V or 1.5V battery).

There is a certain percentage at which time you throw away the battery, I believe when it has lost 30% of its rated power (a 1.5V DC battery should have at least 1.05V remaining at 30% loss – a 1.5VDC battery should have at least 1.2VDC remaining for a 20% loss).

I may be out in left field with this as it has been a long time since I have calculated for electricity and electonics.

Feel free to correct any mistakes in the above. :confused:

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Hearing aid batteries don’t lose a whole lot of power over their lifetime like say an alkaline battery that you put in a flashlight. If they did then hearing aids would become pretty much useless for many once a battery was a few days old. Because of this battery testers are pretty much a waste of money.

Edited

The hearing aid itself is a battery tester. It beeps when low and quits working when the battery is dead.
When one of my aids starts beeping, I have about an hour to change the battery. If I’m out someplace and don’t bring extra batteries, it’s not such a big issue as the other aid usually lasts around 8 hours longer.

Don

Does anyone have experience with the Activair hearing aid battery tester, model HC-Aud070?

@jlgreer1 said:

I recently purchased an Enercell Model 22-143 battery tester from Radio Shack. The package listed that it was compatible with button cells and hearing aid batteries.

To test a battery, you lift a right angle lever and then place the battery on a ledge at the lower left, moving the lever back in place. It is very cumbersome to do, even with two hands.

The contacts to not make proper contact with button cells. Small hearing aid batteries are impossible to test correctly. When I did make correct contact with a button cell, the reading on a brand new cell was ambiguous. It is a very poor design for anything less than a AAA battery.

This thing cost about $12. It is not suitable or worth the money.

Jeff

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