GS Yuasa’s James Douglas, Marketing and Product Manager, and Peter Whittaker, Technical Services Manager, discuss the launch of its new battery and electrical system tester, the GYT250.
Q. You’ve recently launched the new GYT250 battery tester, can you tell us more about it?
Peter Whittaker (PW): It’s a multiple function tester that covers starter batteries in various technologies. It specialises in commercial vehicle battery applications that currently no other tester on the market can match. The tester also benefits from the inclusion of starter, alternator, and earth tests for an all-round testing package for CV workshops and distributors. A feature that is new to the market, and not seen on any other tester, is a larger than average LCD colour display screen, with a clear, picture-based menu structure.
James Douglas (JD): The key point to note is the GYT250 is a battery analyser and tester that has been developed by a battery company. We’ve worked with our technicians and scientists in our labs to make sure that this is the most accurate tester that’s available for warranty in vehicle health check and stock check.
We know that garages want something easy and simple to use. So, as well as making it dead accurate, we’ve also worked to make the GYT250 the most user friendly and fastest tester available. The user interface is intuitive, it incorporates colour, and it’s easy to use. As its developed by us and has the most up-to-date algorithms (produced by GS Yuasa), it is going to be the most accurate tester workshops can get.
Q. Why have you developed this tester and how will it benefit CV mechanics?
JD: We know how important it is for our customers to be able to check every battery, for them to be able to understand failure modes, and for them to test for returns properly. One of the main reasons for developing the GYT250 is that businesses need to be able to test battery warranties effectively in order to make sure they are not only honouring genuine warranty returns, they need to understand the failure. This helps the customer as well because, if they are doing something detrimental to their battery, they would like to know how to prevent this for the future.
A battery that has failed due to reduced usage is not covered under warranty, so the GYT250 will be able to help users identify that too. The GYT250 also allows distributors and workshops to test their stock batteries, so they can handle their stock correctly. This is to make sure that, when they are selling batteries, they are being stored and sold in the best possible condition.
The battery is just part of an electrical system of a vehicle, so this tester can accurately test the battery, and also check the starter system, alternator, and earth. So, it will not only give a really accurate diagnosis of the battery, but also an entire overview of the specific commercial vehicle’s electrical charging system.
Q. How does it differ from general battery testers currently available on the market?
PW: The majority of tester manufacturers on the market are copying each other, to some degree. The benefit of a battery manufacturer producing this type of tester is that we verify the CCA results in alignment with real world cold cranking test data at -18°C. This is something that other manufacturers generally don’t have access to because of the costs involved. Overall, the tester is not just designed for testing GS Yuasa batteries, it has algorithms for general health checks of any manufacturer’s battery coming into a workshop.
JD: The GYT250 has algorithms for AGM and EFB CV batteries as well. We have refined the CV battery test algorithm to better suit the large plate surface area of Commercial vehicle batteries.
