Optimate battery and alternator testers

I haven't used one of these 'new' units but I wouldn't spend any real money on one. I might buy one from a Car Boot sale for £1......They must work very similar to the present ones, in that they charge the battery in bursts, and when it thinks the battery is fully charged it goes over to discharge mode, fine if you have a decent battery in the first place which you have just run flat, all will be well but if you are trying to resurrect an old battery-save your electricity and money.
How are we testing our alternators??

Techmate are the outfit that sell the Optimate chargers.
Below is a copy of one of two e-mails that I sent to them asking for a reply as whether their smart chargers do what they say they do on the box.
Two weeks have passed, not received a word from them.
Reputable? You decide.

Hello.

          As yet I have not had an answer to the question posed in my previous e-mail. 

          The text below is from the Norton Owners Club forum outlining the idea that smart chargers do not condition batteries as described in the sales blurb, is this statement correct or not?

You response to this e-mail will be uploaded onto the NOC forum whether you care to respond to it or not. Your choice!

Rgds.

I have a selection of chargers that  are usefull in diferent ways. The old car chargers with 6/12 v settings and high /low rates are usefull to kick an otherwise dead battery into life when newer chargers  wont accept them. In conjunction with the old style units i connect up a marine de-sulphator unit that i leave on for several weeks . This is very effective in removing the sulphate off the plates and usually results in a 12v acid battery charging up to 14.4 v . and comming back to a usefull state ,probably 75% of its new capacity. Good enough for a kick start bike. The Optimate is usefull to finish off the treatment and top up the float charge and maintain a stored battery. I do find that a "maintained * battery requires  pretty regular acid level checks and a top up of distilled water. The HD desulphator bombards the battery with 400v but  very tiny current pulses that help the sulphate to convert back to something usefull.  Its not always sucessfull , but i do have some 10 year old (at least) batteries still in use and cant remember the last time i bought a battery.. Dont remember ever sucessfully "testing" an alternator !, My bikes generally have an ampmeter that tells me all i need to know.  If not, a voltage check on a running machine is enough for me.

Roberts comments above are about right. What we have to remember is that all batteries are different, with different levels of use/abuse, sulphation etc.
Alternator testing-was the heading for these posts, so where is it? I don't need to get THE BOOK for this, I did want to see what Julian had come up with? Car alternators and modern bikes with brushes and energised fields have their regulator/rectifiers built in. Which is a completely different system to our Lucas permanent magnet units. So what is this Alternator Tester you are on about Julian? Does it apply to our Lucas units?

As I thought this gadget, at a lot too much money, is aimed at the car owner and all it does is look at the battery charging voltage. As Robin says above this can all be done with a 'normal' multimeter-except that here you have to be careful. The very cheap digital multimeters will not measure charge voltage, they pick up ignition interference and read 'gobbled de gook' we had a Domie owner some years ago who was a bit disturbed in having 30V on his battery! No you haven't I said, if you had 30V on the battery you and the battery would be 'in orbit!'
So what is the answer with Multi meters? The older analogue (swinging pointer) do not suffer this ignition problem. Maybe they are less accurate, but accuracy is not your real concern, on charging the rise of 2V ish is what you need.
Or you can buy an Automotive digital meter which will do the jobs mentioned and a few more, they cost up to £40 so you pays your money and 'pop goes the weasel'
By purchasing a decent Automotive multimeter you will be able to do far more jobs than you thought, even jobs you don't understand! But as long as can do what you want this will do.
If you really want to check out Lucas permanent magnet alternators then the 'how to' is on aoservices.co.uk. Or get in touch direct.

I have a cheap alternator tester, a 12volt bulb with two fly leads.
Until the filament gives up the ghost it' ll fill my requirements.

I have a reply from the smart charger people, came this morning 16 days after I sent them the original question posted elsewhere amongst these topics by fellow NOC member Grant Tiller.
I have removed my e-mail to protect the innocent!!

OptiMate Battery Chargers

Yahoo/Inbox

• 

   

  Optimate Sales 

  From:sales@optimate.co.uk

  To:

  Thu, 26 Sept at 13:31

   

  Mr Griffiths,

   

  I have been forwarded your details as we are TecMate’s UK distributor. Unfortunately, we were only sent you details this morning, otherwise we would have responded sooner.

   

  “The Zener diode, or aftermarket reg/rec (if fitted) tend to prevent a smart charger from being able to condition a battery properly as the regulator setpoint won't let the battery charge fully". 

   

  No, this is not true. The success of the reconditioning programs are not reliant on the battery reaching a full state of charge. Please consider that this is performed during the initial part of the recharge process, not at the end.  The point of the process is  help break down the lead sulphate crystals that have formed when a battery is discharged. The deep discharge recovery program will only engage if certain conditions are met, it is not dependant upon the resting voltage alone, but rather how the battery reacts to being offered a small amount of current. If a battery is in a sulphated state then resultant reduction in the capacity charge interface will cause the terminal voltage of the battery to spike, triggering the full recovery program. If the battery is deep discharged, but not sulphate then a limited recovery program will engage. All of the recovery programs will allow the battery’s terminal voltage to increase above the normal levels, the maximum that it possible in the desulphation  programs is 22V. However, please be aware that the charger cannot engage this program if there are other electrical devices in circuit as their presence will prevent the terminal voltage from rising when the assement pulse is offered.

   

  There is also another issue to consider with the claim that the regulator/rectifier will prevent the battery from reaching full saturation. The regulator/rectifier is in parallel to the charger, and in series to the vehicle’s alternator as such it will not prevent the battery from reaching full saturation. There will be a small amount of reverse current drain through the reg/rec as there is no such thing as a perfect diode, however, amount of drain is normally sub-milliamp and at most a few milliamps. If it is greater than this then there is a fault with the regulator, and it should be replaced! With this in mind the small amount of loss through the reg/rec should be outpaced by the charger which is capable of offering a maximum of between 0.8A and 1.25A depending upon which model Optimate 4 you have. At most it will slightly lengthen the charge process rather than prevent it.

   

  Hope this helps,

   

  Regards

   

  Karl Dowden

   

  

  ProBike Ltd

  Unit 4, Sterling Business Park, Salthouse Rd

  Brackmills Ind Est, Northampton, NN4 7EX

  T: +44 (0) 1604 660777

  Email: Sales@OptiMate.co.uk