Professional Distributor - 10

COVER STORY
Photo from Associated Equipment.

Essentially, when the battery does not
require a charge, the alternator is not
engaged. This means there is no draw
on the engine, which helps with the
vehicle's fuel economy, Mackey explains.
However, if a technician replaces a
battery in a vehicle with a smart charging system, they must " tell " the vehicle
the battery has been replaced, otherwise
the vehicle will continue functioning as
though the old battery is still inside it
and cause premature damage to the
new battery.
Using a battery registration device
can prevent this. The device works similarly to a scan tool, where a technician
just hooks it up to the vehicle's diagnostic connector. Then, the technician
chooses the type of vehicle and selects
the battery reset. From there, the technician is asked some basic questions
about what kind of battery was placed
in the vehicle to ensure it was the correct battery type. Once the technician
has gone through this process, the
device will update the smart charging
system, and the system will automatically relearn the charging system so
that it will not damage the new battery,
Mackey says.
Though this process is not necessary on all vehicles, many do require
it, and the last thing a shop wants is
a customer returning upset that their
battery is acting up when it's just been
replaced because the smart charging
system wasn't updated.

DIGITAL BATTERY TESTER/
CARBON PILE LOADER
Digital battery testers and carbon pile
loaders kind of go hand-in-hand
because the carbon pile loader was the
original battery tester before things
went digital.
Though many technicians prefer
the digital battery tester, there is still a
percentage of them out there who would
rather use their carbon pile loader to test
a battery.

Jim O'Hara, vice president of marketing for Clore Automotive, discusses
the dawning of the digital battery tester:
" When we launched our digital testers in
2008 we said, 'Throw all the rest of them
away.' We discontinued everything but
our old, what is affectionately referred
to as a " cheese grater " ... our old [load
tester]. We got rid of everything else, and
what we found was, well, maybe we had
jumped on the bandwagon a little too
hard ... so by 2012, we introduced three
new traditional load testers. "
The biggest difference between a
digital battery tester and a load tester is
that when using a load tester the battery
being tested must be above an 85 percent state of charge, O'Hara explains. If
it's not, then the technician isn't going
to get an accurate result. The question
then becomes, does the technician take
the time to charge up the battery and
then test it, potentially wasting their
time on a battery that's no good anyway?

10 Professional Distributor I February 2021 I VehicleServicePros.com

Before hooking up a battery to a charger,
technicians need to know the battery type
and voltage charge to prevent potentially
damaging the battery.

Especially when a digital tester takes a
matter of seconds to test a battery.
Additionally, " The speed and convenience of a digital tester is central to the
idea of testing [vehicle batteries] every
day, " O'Hara says. If a shop tests every
battery that comes in not only does it
give customers peace of mind, but also
provides the potential for extra revenue
for the shop with battery replacements
and other repairs.

HYBRID AND ELECTRIC
VEHICLE TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
In addition to the tools mentioned
above, when a technician is working on
a hybrid or electric vehicle, they need a
special set of insulated tools. The tools
should be insulated up to 1,000V. This


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Professional Distributor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Professional Distributor

The Past, Present, and Future of Battery Maintenance
Show Me Your Truck - Stocked to Sell
In Focus Products
Driving Sales - Safety Equipment & Personal Gear
Editor's Note - The Virtues of Mentoring
Most Wanted
Sneak Peek
Go Sell Something - Customer Relationship Marketing for the Mobile Jobber
Diagnostic Tech: Diagnostic Corner - Climate Control Systems
Tales From the Road - Ruler of the Rural Route
Professional Distributor - 1
Professional Distributor - 2
Professional Distributor - 3
Professional Distributor - Editor's Note - The Virtues of Mentoring
Professional Distributor - 5
Professional Distributor - The Past, Present, and Future of Battery Maintenance
Professional Distributor - 7
Professional Distributor - 8
Professional Distributor - 9
Professional Distributor - 10
Professional Distributor - 11
Professional Distributor - Show Me Your Truck - Stocked to Sell
Professional Distributor - 13
Professional Distributor - Most Wanted
Professional Distributor - 15
Professional Distributor - Sneak Peek
Professional Distributor - 17
Professional Distributor - 18
Professional Distributor - 19
Professional Distributor - 20
Professional Distributor - 21
Professional Distributor - Go Sell Something - Customer Relationship Marketing for the Mobile Jobber
Professional Distributor - 23
Professional Distributor - In Focus Products
Professional Distributor - 25
Professional Distributor - 26
Professional Distributor - 27
Professional Distributor - Diagnostic Tech: Diagnostic Corner - Climate Control Systems
Professional Distributor - 29
Professional Distributor - 30
Professional Distributor - 31
Professional Distributor - Driving Sales - Safety Equipment & Personal Gear
Professional Distributor - 33
Professional Distributor - 34
Professional Distributor - 35
Professional Distributor - 36
Professional Distributor - 37
Professional Distributor - Tales From the Road - Ruler of the Rural Route
Professional Distributor - 39
Professional Distributor - 40
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