Winter is upon us and a few weeks ago i woke to a freezing cold morning and my car would not start , i had not used it much over the previous week and figured the battery had ran down , i borrowed a power pack , attached it to the battery terminals and the car fired up first time , it got me thinking that i could hard wire a battery voltage meter into the car just to keep an eye on things , unfortunately what i know about electrics you could write on a pin head so ditched that idea , i had a search on the web and purchased this little gadget which plugs straight into the cigarette lighter , it tells you the voltage of your car battery before you start the car up , and then after the car is started tells you the amount of voltage going into the battery from the alternator so you know your alternator is doing exactly what it should , at least if your car wont start , you can plug this gadget in and tell if its your battery that,s at fault or not , it also has a USB port to charge a phone.
Before starting the car the battery voltage is showing at 12.2 volts
After starting the car showing alternator input to battery is 14.4 volts
The above reading ranges show that the battery is healthy
and the alternator is charging the battery correctly.
Cool product!
For people interested, you can get them here on amazon:
https://amzn.to/2Bans72