Midtronics - 12V Advanced Automotive Battery Diagnostic Tool Electrical System Tester, PBT-300 - 100-1400 CCA Battery Load Tester Cranking and Charging System-Conductance Testing-Service Diagnostics

The Snap-On of battery testers. Period!

This model is simple and easy to get accurate results. The concepts are easy to understand, without going into too much interpretation. Pretty much go or no go. Important to make solid connections. The battery measuring can be greatly effected, if connections are not well made. For example, a bolt loosely threaded into a side post battery showed the battery to be junk. Adding a nut and tightening it gave a good result. It is that sensitive! It gives an actual value of cold cranking amps, along with the go/no go indicator. Alternator and starter testing are a simple test and yields voltage readings which can be used to determine if a component is "on the edge" of good/bad or defective. The price is reasonable and even a novice can save money by not replacing parts that may or may not be defective. It will pay for itself quickly.

This tester is expensive for what it does, but I trust it and it is simple to use. It is almost unchanged in the twelve years since I bought my last one, which only broke when it got run over.

Please be aware that there is a kit version and a non kit version of this item. The Midtronics Web site ([...]) displays the kit version with terminal adapters needed for side terminal batteries and a storage pouch. You will not get the side terminal adapters or the storage pouch with this item from Amazon.com, or at least I didn't. I found out this information by emails from Midtronics. The shown accessories lead partly to my decision to purchase the more expensive PBT300 model. The impression that I got from Midtronics email communications is that they didn't seem to care whether or not I got the accessories. They stopped communicating. It's sort of a "They gotcha" thing.The unit seems to work O.K.I don't normally write reviews, but I was a bit ticked about the accessories shown under the PBT-300 specifications tab on the Midtronics web site that were not supplied. Item only rated 4 stars because of the deception. The Midtronics web site offers no distinction between "kit" and "non kit" versions as of 11/30/2009.

A commercial version of this unit is used by the Telecomm industry to test large Central Office batteries. This PBT300 works great for testing auto batteries. It seems to be very accurate. The Start-Voltage-Drop test function works well and is perfect for testing battery condition and could also test battery cables if attached to the starting motor and engine block. It can also determine the condition of the Alternator charging system. Use of this tester is a great way to determine when your battery is nearing it's end of life. You can replace the battery BEFORE it fails and leaves you stranded.

Press the button, green means good, red means bad.Unless you are trying to diagnose phantom draining issues, it does it's job.

I purchased this in August of 2019 I used it to service batteries on a mountain where we have a internet broadcasting tower. It has had to be used three times on a system that contains 7 D29 deep cycle batteries. The meter failed and only reads CONN on the display. I called customer support and was informed that I need to send it in for a cost of 109. and change. The company would not even tell me how to open it so I could replace the failed component myself. This is a known problem with this meter. It's true Do not made in America electronics if you want it to last.

Use it everyday at work. Very happy with it