Battery testing

[HappyCamperCanada]

When testing two 12 volt batteries in parallel, where do I place the multimeter pos and neg test leads...on the pos and neg posts of each battery separately (take two separate readings) or across both batteries (pos of one battery and neg of the other battery)?

[ScottBrownstein]

If they are hooked together in parallel it won't matter. Should read the same no matter what.

[jeff64]

you should test each battery individually. No mistakes , no misconceptions. An optical battery hydrometer is something (amazon) you should consider owning, they aren't real expensive, but real accurate evaluation of a shot battery

[ScottBrownstein]

Originally Posted by jeff64

you should test each battery individually. No mistakes , no misconceptions. An optical battery hydrometer is something (amazon) you should consider owning, they aren't real expensive, but real accurate evaluation of a shot battery

agree on the hydrometer, if they are in parallel you can't measure voltage independently without disconnecting at least one lead on each battery.