Patent ID: 8395390

Claim:
A method of testing a battery comprising: (a) applying a heavy load to the battery; (b) measuring the voltage V 1 between the positive and negative terminals of the battery after a first time period under which the battery is subjected to the heavy load; (c) removing the heavy load; (d) waiting for a second length of time; (e) reading the voltage across the positive and negative terminals after the second length of time V 2 ; (f) performing a cold cranking amps CCA test if the CCA test indicates a CCA value above a first threshold, then consider V 2 , if V 2 is below the second threshold than skip to step g but if V 2 is above a second threshold than determine if the V 2 is above a third threshold, if V 2 is above a third threshold than determine that the battery is good and skip steps g-h; but if V 2 is below the third threshold then if a battery charge flag has been set, determine that the battery is bad and skip steps g and h, if the battery charge flag has not been set, determine that the battery is good but needs additional charging and skip steps g-h; if the CCA test indicates a CCA valve below the first threshold then move to step g; (g) determine if the battery charge flag has been set, if the battery charge flag has been set, then determine that the battery is bad, if the battery charge flag has not been set then move to step h; and (h) applying a charging current to the battery if the charging current is less than a fourth threshold amount then stop charging the battery and return to step a, if the charging current is greater than the fourth threshold amount, then charge the battery for a third length of time then stop charging the battery and return to step a.