As well as promoting its extensive range of batteries from leading brands such as Numax, Lucas and Varta, ECOBAT Battery Technologies (EBT) used the Automechanika Birmingham show to introduce its ‘Connect + Reset’ battery validation tool.

ECOBAT Battery Technologies (EBT), formally Manbat, has always worked closely with stockists and battery fitters to promote new opportunities in the fast changing battery market. For example in recent years it has been highlighting the impact that the increase in the number of vehicles fitted with a Start-Stop system, will have on the aftermarket. The new ‘Connect + Reset’ battery validation tool, allows technicians to put the company’s advice into practice, correctly install batteries and capitalise on new business potential.

The battery in a vehicle fitted with a Start-Stop function, is central to its electrical systems and is therefore constantly governed by a battery management module, which monitors its voltage, current, temperature and operating time. This information is processed to determine the battery’s state of charge, starting capacity, electrical consumption, energy reserve and optimum charging voltage, to ensure the system applies the correct charging regime and keeps it in the best possible condition.

Fitting the battery for which the system was designed is therefore crucial, but so also is the process of ‘validation’ to ensure the battery and battery management module are diagnostically ‘connected’ and able to communicate with one another correctly. Failure to validate the battery can cause issues with the Start-Stop functionality, the shutdown of non-essential electrical systems and the premature failure of the replacement because the system can ‘assume’ the new battery is in the same derogated condition as the old battery it replaced.

The EBT ‘Connect + Reset’ battery validation tool provides technicians with a simple, effective and inexpensive way to allow them to install a Start-Stop battery with confidence. When connected to the vehicle’s j1962 diagnostic socket, the handheld tool will go through the validation and fault code reset process, so that the battery is introduced and assimilated into the vehicle’s electronic systems and integrated with the battery management module, to ensure the installation is performed correctly and the vehicle/battery combination is able to operate to its intended capability.