Got mutimeter with battery test function. Is the load strong enough?

I picked up a mutimeter from Home Depot yesterday to do some battery testing. It has two options for a battery test. 1.5v and 9v. In the instruction manual it says that the 1.5v option has a 200mA load, and the 9V option has only a 6mA load.

Here's how it puts it.

"Place the range selector switch into the 1.5V or 9V battery test range. The load current it (yes, the manual says 'it' instead of 'is') approximately 200mA at 1.5Vdc and 6mA at 9Vdc"

So I am wondering a few things.

1. Why would the load current be lower for a higher voltage application?

2. Is 6mA even enough to provide a appropriate load to accurately test a 3V+ batteries real voltage? Cause I've been reading that the load needs to be at least half of what the battery output is. And if my battery is pushing 800mAh I think 6mA is falling pretty short of that mark.

3. A typo on the products part? Maybe they meant 600mA? Whats the normal load for these multimeters that test batteries?

4. When testing batteries with 1.5V+ I should switch my selection to 9V right?

Any help is appreciated, as I want to test these batteries fairly accurately. I am testing mostly 3.6/3.7V Li-Ions. And the make/model of the multimeter is Sperry Instruments, model DM-4100A.

The battery test function on a multimeter is for testing alkaline or zinc carbon batteries. It is not really suited for other battery types.

The 1.5 V setting is for AA, C and D size batteries, and the 9 V setting is for 9 V batteries. Standard 9 V batteries have a much smaller capacity than 1.5 V batteries, so the test current is correspondingly less.

For testing lithium ion cells you can just use the DC volts range and check the voltage. Lithium ions do not need a special battery test function.

Mr Happy said:

The battery test function on a multimeter is for testing alkaline or zinc carbon batteries. It is not really suited for other battery types.

The 1.5 V setting is for AA, C and D size batteries, and the 9 V setting is for 9 V batteries. Standard 9 V batteries have a much smaller capacity than 1.5 V batteries, so the test current is correspondingly less.

For testing lithium ion cells you can just use the DC volts range and check the voltage. Lithium ions do not need a special battery test function.

Click to expand...

Ok, so that explains why my readings were identical to standard DC volt testing and when I was doing the load testing.

Thanks for your help! Glad to hear that I am good to go with regular voltage testing on my Li-Ions. :twothumbs