Five Signs You’re Following A Bad Battery Tutorial

1. No Mention of Safety Gear

No tutorial about car batteries that ignores safety and jumps straight into a task is a big red flag.

Your car’s battery is designed to hold onto its dangerous chemical contents.Batteries, especially lithium-ion, can catch fire, leak harmful chemicals, or even explode under the wrong conditions.

Any tutorial should remind you to wear gloves and eye protection and to work in a well-ventilated area. Most of our current battery range is Sealed Maintenance-Free (SMF), so you don’t need to open them.

Also, every battery tutorial should mention warnings like “Never short battery terminals” or explain how to safely discharge a battery before working on it.

 

2. Vague or Missing Specs

Details matter when following any tutorial, especially when looking through a battery tutorial. Specifics matter, so tutorials need to state what type of 12-volt battery you need, as it could mean one of the following:

• An Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery,
• Classic lead-acid
• Or a lithium-ion setting

 

It can be dangerous to use the wrong type of 12-volt battery.

Each battery has its own chemistry and has different voltage ranges, discharge rates, charging needs, and wiring requirements.

Using the wrong setup can overheat components, damage electronics, or reduce battery lifespan drastically.

Details you want a tutorial to mention are:

• Detailed voltage and amp-hour ratings
• Battery chemistry type (e.g., LiFePO₄ vs Li-ion)
• Proper charger specs and BMS (Battery Management System) compatibility

 

3. Sketchy or Missing Diagrams

A good battery tutorial should include some visual wiring diagram that labels every connection and component.After all, batteries need precision, and if you accidentally reverse the polarity or skip a fuse, it can fry/break components or start a fire.

The quality of the diagram also matters, as you don’t want to follow instructions that are hard to understand or lack detail.

 

4. Dubious Sourcing Advice

No matter what industry you’re in taking advice from a dubious source can mean entering a world of misinformation and pain.

A clue that your guide is using bad sources is if it suggests buying random batteries from auction sites or units from an unknown brand.Batteries degrade over time, and used cells from unknown sources can be unbalanced, unsafe, or near end-of-life.

A good tutorial emphasises quality, testing, and reliability.

Indications that you’re reading a blog offering bad information include:

• “AliExpress special” batteries with no brand/testing
• No mention of testing internal resistance or matching cell voltages
• Using reclaimed cells with no verification

 

5. No Final Testing or Troubleshooting

If the tutorial ends with “and now it should work!” and doesn’t explain how to test output voltage, check cell balance, or safely troubleshoot problems, it is an incomplete article.

Even if everything looks right, batteries must be measured and monitored to confirm their safe operation. You should never hook a pack into a system without verifying performance.

A complete article will mention:

• Multimeter testing (voltage, continuity)
• Balance checking for multi-cell packs
• First-charge instructions and caution signs to watch for (e.g., heat buildup)

 

If you need additional information or help troubleshooting, we suggest visiting a Willard battery stockist or your nearest Willard Xpress outlet.