Quote: Wordspace wrote in post #2

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I'm probably going to be shot down in flames, because to tell the truth I rarely know what I'm talking about. However, in your position I'd buy neither of them.

If you're plugging the Eriba in every month you're charging it anyway, so no need for the charger.

If your battery is fairly new, then it almost certainly has a little porthole in the top with a colour-coded dot to give you an idea of the battery's condition (green =ok). So no need for the tester.

You can test the battery with a multimeter if you really want to, but usually you only need to do this when something goes wrong.

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I'd go along with that mostly, except that I reckon a multimeter (aka multitester) is worth having anyway. You may well only use it to help diagnose problems, but likely as not it'll repay the small investment it requires the first time you use it.

There are advantages to knowing more precisely what the battery's state of charge is than just peering at the little plastic yea or nay sight glass on the top, and a multitester will provide you with that.

One of its best uses (and this alone will justify the expense) is to check for continuity; i.e. whether or not juice is reaching a component or if the component itself has failed, be it something as basic as a light bulb or something like the element in a fridge. And more often than not using it to check if a component itself has failed doesn't require a live supply to that component, so you can use it with everything turned off, and there is no danger of blowing yourself to smithereens.

Even if you know (or think you know) next-to-nothing about basic caravan electrics - and for the most part they are very basic - I would heartily recommend getting one and learning how to use it. A tester which does all the things you're ever likely to require of it won't cost any more than ten or twelve quid.

They are very straightforward things, and YouTube and the Internet are awash with help and tutorials on how to use one.

You'll never look back, and you'll almost certainly save yourself a lot of money into the bargain.

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