I said: one can not rely entirely on the test done at a battery shop to determine the end of life of a battery.

You said (paraphasing): "if you own your own tester that does the proper tests you can eliminate the not entirely reliable battery store test"

Not exactly sure how that's not the same thing. We are both saying that the test done at the store is not entirely reliable. (That is the ONLY common point I was saying we are saying the same thing)

I specifically did NOT say there aren't tools you can buy that can do a better job. I did not say we were in lock step agreement, I just said the store/mechanic load test can give you inaccurate results regarding battery end of life.

I didn't say you "had to do" any particular thing, I pointed out just that a typical test can say a battery is fine and can't be trusted 100%.

That if you, like me get a battery tested, they send you home with a clean bill of health, you may have a capacity, not a current capability problem.

I offer real world simple methods that can be done without buying a tool that costs as much as the battery somebody wants to test. I'm quite sure if it happened to me it will happen to other people.

The average person that has a couple times they need a jump will assume battery. They go get it load tested and if it passes they will be very confused.

There are a couple reasons that can happen and one that recently happened to me, so I'm sharing a real world actually happened not theoretical story so when somebody else in the future has the same symptoms they can maybe track down the actual problem.

Is there a chance my old battery could have just had surface charge interfering with capacity and could have been bright back to life with the 7002? Yup.

Did I make a judgement call to upgrade to the AGM Battery because the old battery was 4-6 years old and I didn't want the unknown? Yup.

Not exactly sure what the "argument" is here. Coming from a standpoint of the 99% of folk that will not have a conditioning battery charger at home; their option is to take the battery to a store with a load tester. Some non-zero % of the time that test will report the battery is fine when it's not. It happened to me, that's why I'm sharing so when it happens to somebody else they can do a free test to double-check it is the battery before they start replacing their alternator or starter when it was just a battery that had plenty of current capability but no capacity.

FYI n>1, it was tested a few times, different stores, different testers, different operators, also with an "old school" pure resistive tester, they all reported battery was OK. If it happened to me it'll happen to somebody else.

I agree with the idea every DIY'r should have something like the 7002, it's in my Amazon wish list I'm going to get one, but it's not for everybody. The average Joe that needs to replace a battery every 5-8 years or every 3-4 years when you factor a couple cars, the $ is better spent paying for 3/4 of a new AGM battery.

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)