Chorehorse charging question

[rob love]

I have seen two people reference the hydrometers in this thread. There are now smart chargers, pulse chargers, the portable load bank testers (aka the toaster), inductive ammeters, and a host of other testing and charging devices. In my opinion, there is nothing that gives you an immediate condition report on a battery like the hydrometer. It will also tell you, with the first test, if a battery is worthwhile even trying to charge. Pulse chargers can remove a certain amount of sulphation in a battery, but when you have 5 cells in the green/yellow, and one way down in the red with black/brown electrolyte, it aint coming back.



When I was in Afghanistan the first time, I had a great team of civilian heavy duty mechanics. I remember having to show some of them how a hydrometer worked.