How can you test your AA batteries ?

goodguy · Mar 10, 2016

While doing a shoot I found my flash was no working right, thought its caput but I fount my freshly charged AA NIMH were completely drained.
This is not the first time my batteries play tricks on me so I would like to go through my entire battery collection and find the bead ones but I am not sure how.

Any good advice on how to do that ?

astroNikon · Mar 10, 2016

My battery charger tells me the amount of juice in the batteries.
You may want to get a charger that gives that information.

Derrel · Mar 10, 2016

THIS IS A GREAT site for batteries and battery chargers: Battery Testers | thomasdistributing.com

Designer · Mar 10, 2016

I have one from Radio Shack that will test multiple types of batteries. It has flexible leads, which is not exactly handy, but with some practice, it is no big deal to hold everything.

I used to have the little rectangular thing with an "arm" that made the second contact, but it failed after about 20 years.

Warhorse · Mar 10, 2016

An electrical multi-tester can be found relatively inexpensive, and is quite handy a lot of times.

Gardner Bender 4-Func 14-Range Manual Digital Multimeter-GDT-3190 - The Home Depot

goodguy · Mar 10, 2016

Warhorse said:
An electrical multi-tester can be found relatively inexpensive, and is quite handy a lot of times.

Gardner Bender 4-Func 14-Range Manual Digital Multimeter-GDT-3190 - The Home Depot

I have a professional electric meter at work so I dont need to buy one.
How do I use it to find the life of my batteries ?

Designer · Mar 10, 2016

I see now what you want. I don't know of any tester for the life, but one of those battery chargers that "reconditions" batteries by cycling them should also show the remaining useful life.

SCraig · Mar 10, 2016

The best way to "Test" a battery is to charge it fully, then discharge it through a load to a fixed voltage and see how long it takes. My charger will cycle the batteries in that manner and display the mAh when finished.

You can use something as simple as a flashlight bulb for the load and your multimeter to monitor the voltage. Discharge it down to about 1 volt and see how long it takes. It won't tell you the mAh (since the voltage is always dropping so is the current) but it will give you an idea of which batteries are better than others.

goodguy · Mar 10, 2016

Thank you all for the very helpful and informative feedback.

I spent a bigger part of the morning doing research and I have learned a lot of new stuff.
One is that the chargers we are getting with out NIMH batteries is rubbish and actually shorten the battery life.
I found to get the max out of my batteries I will need a good battery charger that will also show me the life of my battery (as few have mentioned here)

So I found a La Crosse BC1000 which looks like is the charger I am looking for, will wait few days to get my paycheck and will order it online.

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2016

goodguy said:
Warhorse said:

An electrical multi-tester can be found relatively inexpensive, and is quite handy a lot of times.

Gardner Bender 4-Func 14-Range Manual Digital Multimeter-GDT-3190 - The Home Depot

Click to expand...

I have a professional electric meter at work so I dont need to buy one.
How do I use it to find the life of my batteries ?

You won't be able to check "life" persee. For a AA battery when it is fully charged you should be getting a reading of 1.5v, but the only way to check the "life" of hte battery is to put it under load and see how long it can maintain 1.5v.

goodguy · Mar 10, 2016

robbins.photo said:
goodguy said:

Warhorse said:

An electrical multi-tester can be found relatively inexpensive, and is quite handy a lot of times.

Gardner Bender 4-Func 14-Range Manual Digital Multimeter-GDT-3190 - The Home Depot

Click to expand...

I have a professional electric meter at work so I dont need to buy one.
How do I use it to find the life of my batteries ?

Click to expand...

You won't be able to check "life" persee. For a AA battery when it is fully charged you should be getting a reading of 1.5v, but the only way to check the "life" of hte battery is to put it under load and see how long it can maintain 1.5v.

Yes, so I have learned so what I believe the battery charger does is it charges the battery then drains it and then charges again and then he gives me the diagnostics so I know how much life I still have in the battery

table1349 · Mar 10, 2016

Another good choice to look at. Maha MH-C808M AA - AAA - C - D Battery Charger | Thomas Distributing

goodguy · Mar 10, 2016

gryphonslair99 said:
Another good choice to look at. Maha MH-C808M AA - AAA - C - D Battery Charger | Thomas Distributing

Looks interesting, will check it out, thanks for the link.

DarkShadow · Mar 10, 2016

I use to have a really nice Fluke multimeter but didn't buy it for battery testing but it sure worked great on just about everything but it was not cheap either, it is one of the best meters the market.

beachrat · Mar 10, 2016

I use a Lacrosse and it works great. But, one thing you should know is that if the battery reads "null" when it's in the charger,it probably means that the battery is depleted below .9v.
The charger won't work on it until you put it in one of those cheap fast chargers for a minute or 2 to bring the charge up a bit.
Took me a while to find that info in the manual.