Guru
Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: AustraliaPosts: 6602
| Posted: 09:41pm 15 Aug 2024 |
A drain of 200mA will draw 67 amp hours out of the battery in 2 weeks.
You are looking for something less than that so a multimeter on 10 amp setting will be rather low resolution but still 'adequate'.
Bleep is right, there will be a sizable surge current when you first connect the meter so using a low range meter setting is not advisable. This is where clamp meters are useful.
Most battery sales people will have battery testers which will quickly tell if the battery is stuffed. Once a battery gets run that flat, it's life is reduced but by how much depends on the battery composition.
Since getting the EV, I have to charge the battery on the gas guzzler every 4-6 weeks if it hasn't had a decent run.
Jim