A method of testing an electric discharge stun device includes the steps of identifying a stun device to be tested and absorbing a discharge from the stun device into a tester. The discharge is characterized by a discharge characteristic that is then compared automatically to information such as (a) a previous corresponding characteristic associated with a previous discharge of the stun device or (b) a corresponding characteristic associated with a prior discharge of at least one other stun device. The characteristic can be a waveform, a peak voltage, duration, current, joule, and temperature.