Thexton THE115 Battery Tester, Neutral

Update: I still have and use the same one I bought in 2017, and it still seems to be accurate. Please note, this checks specific gravity, which only shows the state of charge for each cell. While it’s important and very useful for servicing and maintaining batteries, the state of charge does not reflect the actual amp-hour capacity or cold cranking amps that are checked with a conductance or load tester. These little hydrometer testers are getting harder and harder to find. I was happy to have found one that was reliable. I recently just bought a car and found it needing some battery maintenance, after having the battery go dead. I had a tester similar to this that was always reliable, but I haven't used it in easily 12-15 years. I found it and, immediately on trying to use it, the rubber bulb disintegrated from dry rot from sitting in the tool box for so long. I checked nearly every auto parts store in the area, and ultimately found one at a hardware store, but it was inaccurate and claimed all cells were overcharged, which I knew was false. It was only a dollar or two and you get what you pay for! This had good reviews, so I promptly ordered it. I checked it and it is accurate as compared to my full size glass hydrometer. It doesn't come with the nice yellow envelope to store it in, but it does come in a plastic storage bag and does have the red protective cover. Made in USA. The bulb is also a plastic material, so it's less likely to dry rot when I dig it out of my tool box in the next decade! This is worth the couple extra bucks for a good reliable tool. Indispensable for anyone who maintains serviceable car batteries. You don't always need to know the actual specific gravity, this gives you the charge of the cell in a percentage. Enough to know if the battery needs attention or not. It's made out of a clear solid plastic, no glass to break like the larger glass hydrometers with the float. Would definitely buy another.

We use these at a golf course where we have about 40 carts, which have 6 batteries, with 4 cells each. That's 960 cells that need checking periodically. Other hydrometers are big bulky things with a gauge and a big bulb and a tube. This guy is quick, bam bam bam. It's also nice how it temperature compensates. Really, I don't need to know the numeric specific gravity. I need to know the relative state of each cell. You drop this thing in, squeeze two or three times to ensure you get fluid only from that cell and look at the beads, if one floats, it's 25% charged, if two floats, it's 50%, on up until 3 or 4 float. It literally takes 2 seconds to test a cell. It's also glass and comes with a nice sleeve to fit it in. And for those who care, it's made in the USA.

If you have the old style motorcycle batteries that require you to fill them with acid and top off with distilled water every so often this is the tool you need. The tool won't fit as is, you will need to get 1/8" ID x 1/4" OD fuel line from the hardware store. Cut off about 2 inches, then use a heat gun to heat up one end to get it to fit on the tool. After this slight modification it works great. Hard to find these any more, and at a reasonable price too!

Good battery checker for wet batteries. Works good and is surprisingly accurate for being so small and compact. Easy to use and easy to read. Well built and durable. Good value for this kit. kit. Really like it. So easy to use and convenient. No leakage and bulb works good to go. Highly recommend for ease of use and excellent battery checker. Very durable.

I mainly picked this because it was the only USA made one. Simply, tiny and nice. It should last for years.

This is a nice little tool. Good for small batteries. Lawnmower, motorcycle etc.

I use this tester on my motor home batteries. These batteries are buried under the chassis with no access door. The floor of the motor home is about 10 inches above the batteries, making it impossible to use the standard glass tube type tester. I have used the "swing" type tester with great difficulty and always end up with electrolyte all over the place from moving the tester from cell to cell. This tester will tell me all I need to know and there is enough electrolyte in the cylinder to see the condition of the electrolyte, ie, is it dark or clear? It also avoids spilling and takes much less electrolyte per test.

I read reviews about golf cart battery testers and someone said to just use this one it worked the best so I did and they were correct. Simple to use, comes with a handy chart to tell what might be the issue with your battery according to the balls floating or not. We were having trouble with our golf cart and even though our batteries are only a year old someone suggested checking the batteries. Used this tester and found out that just one of our batteries is dead according to the tester, we have a order in for a replacement and hopefully that fixes the problem.