E Z Red SP101 Battery Hydrometer Review

The product appears to be well made to withstand everyday use and abuse. If you're just using it to get a rough idea of the state of charge of individual battery cells, it works great. This is probably sufficient for troubleshooting the car battery. However, if you need to know the state of charge of a battery cell with an accuracy of 5%, the scale will most likely not be incremental enough - there are large jumps, especially in the upper part of the range. Hydrovolt might be the best choice…

I live in a single-family house with solar energy. My solar power plant has 12 large flooded batteries. As part of maintenance, I check each cell's specific gravity every three months to ensure all batteries are properly charged. I know what the specific gravity of a properly charged full cell lead-acid battery should be. The EZ Red SP101 Battery Hydrometer is accurate and indicates that all cells in my battery setup are healthy. The gauge is easy to read. To take a reading from a battery cell,

I will compare with a bigger competitor bought from local auto parts. The EZ RED is easy to read and uses less battery acid to fill the device. The "other guy" needs at least a pump and a half to get enough acid to float the needle. It only takes one tap on the bulb to fill it to the line. With the EZ RED, the pump bulb is smaller and the rubber is much stronger and thicker. This device also "creates fewer bubbles" because the acid is drawn into the tube and sticks to the needle. As a result…

I'm officially blind so reading 48 cells in my battery backup system to see if I need to balance each month is a real must. I would buy a digital meter if they were available. Sigh. This meter is very easy to read. However, it is very important that you develop a little skill to get reproducible readings (this also applies to all other hydrometers, by the way). What I've found is that I have to charge/discharge 2-3 times (to make sure I've mixed the battery fluid), gently hold it upright, maybe

The inscription on the front informing about the testimony is falling off. This is clearly crap. I hope the company offers printed clear labels to fix them! I've had mine for about 3 years now and almost half the pressure is gone. The body can be made of polycarbonate. Strong but brittle plastic if that makes sense. IOW as long as you don't crush it or leave it in the sun it will last a long time. The only "difficulty" in using it is that the bubbles sometimes like to stick to the disc, thereby

I once had a hydrometer with floating balls. That's pretty much useless. I threw it away and relied on the voltage chart to see how well the battery was charged. I recently bought a float hydrometer to check if a cell in my five year old battery had failed. The cells were fine, but this showed me how charging with the smart charger temporarily causes the hydrometer to go low. During charging, water forms which rises and dilutes the electrolyte at the top, where it is sampled by an areometer. A…