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Using brakes on a car may seem like a straightforward and simple mechanism – after all, all you are doing is pressing the brake pedal on your car which causes the car to pull the brakes and stop it suddenly. However, the real reason why you are able to successfully pull the brakes on your car in time is because of your brake fluids.

Brake fluid is arguably one of the most important components in a car and one that needs constant checking from time to time to ensure they are working as optimally as they should be. If your brake fluids get too much moisture from the environment, it can cause them to get vapor locked and stop your brakes from working entirely which can result in fatal accidents.

According to Auto-Secret, one of the leading suppliers for car servicing parts, it is necessary that you check the condition and moisture levels of your brake fluids from time to time. The best way of doing this is by purchasing dedicated brake fluid testers that are known to accurately test the moisture content inside your brake fluid.

However, there are many people out there who doubt the integrity of these testers and if they are really accurate because of past reports of incorrect readings. If you too are one of these people, then you are in the right place. In this article we will be extensively talking about what brake fluid testers are, why they are important, how they work and if they really are accurate in their readings. Read the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on crucial details.

What are brake fluid testers and why are they important?

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Brake fluid testers, as the name suggests, are dedicated devices manufactured and created solely for the purpose of testing the moisture content inside a brake fluid and to see if they are still in a good condition for your car. Brake fluid testers are extremely easy to use and can be used by any average car owner and mechanic.

Brake fluid testers are crucial because they are the only reliable way of telling if a brake fluid is still in its original condition or not. If a brake fluid is not tested from time to time and is allowed to retain its moisture content while driving, it can have extremely fatal results that no car owner would want to happen.

The moisture in a brake fluid can evaporate and then vapor lock the braking system of a car. This disables your braking system from functioning and disallows you to pull the brakes in your car. If this happens while you are driving, it can stop you from braking in time before you hit another car or object, resulting in a major accident or even death.

That’s why brake fluid testers play an important role in determining if your brake fluids are in working condition or not. If you want to ensure that your brakes keep working as usual, you need to necessarily get a brake fluid tester for yourself or go to a mechanic who has one from time to time.

How do they work?

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Now that you know what brake fluid testers are and how important they are for the normal functioning of your car, let us find out how these brake fluid testers work. Before we do that, however, you need to know that brake fluid testers come in two different types and both of them have unique ways of working.

The first type of brake fluid testers are mostly called brake fluid test pens, and these pens determine the moisture content in your brake fluid by checking the electrical conductivity the fluid has. Once the amount of electrical conductivity is calculated, it is then converted into moisture content and a set figure is determined that explicitly tells you if your brake fluid has too much moisture content.

The second type of brake fluid testers are usually called boiling point devices. These devices simply measure the boiling point of a liquid and on the basis of those calculations, determine how much moisture content your fluid has. Usually, brake fluids that are fresh out of manufacturing usually have a higher boiling point. But if you keep adding more and more moisture to it, the boiling point of the brake fluid decreases.

This anomaly is easily catched by a brake fluid tester and then converted into calculations to determine how much exactly the water content is. Boiling point devices are considered to be the most standard brake fluid testers out there and there is one very big reason why that we will talk about in the next section.

So, are brake fluid testers really accurate?

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In theory, brake fluid test pens should work without any problem or inconsistencies. Yet, many studies have shown that brake fluid test pens are one of the worst types of brake fluid testers out there and have an infamous record of consistently showing inconsistent results.

These brake fluid test pens do not measure any moisture addition even if the moisture is added in large quantities and gives different readings for the same type of brake fluid. This is because the chemical composition of each brake fluid is different and unique which causes the electrical conductivity of said fluid to vary widely as well.

However, that doesn’t mean that all brake fluid testers are inaccurate. Boiling point devices have been, and always will be, one of the best devices for measuring the moisture content in brake fluids. They are always extremely accurate and measure even the smallest of moisture content changes by showing a decreasing amount of boiling point for the fluid.

So to answer the original question in short, yes, brake fluid testers are accurate. The long answer is that yes, brake fluid testers are accurate but only if you choose the right one, which is the boiling point device brake fluid tester.

Conclusion.

Brake fluid testers are accurate but it is crucial that you choose the right one for your car. We hope this article was insightful for you and if it was, please consider following our article for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.