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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / April 2006

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battery charge question

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KOS - 11 Apr 2006 22:29 GMT
I have a 12volt battery for my car. I just bought a small charger. The
battery appears to be dead. I set the charger to 2amps- approximately
how long does it take to charge? is this better to set it to 2amps or
should I go to 10? Thank you very much KOS
nospampls2002@yahoo.com - 11 Apr 2006 22:54 GMT
It takes a long time, and letting the battery discharge completely can
allow sulfation to begin with means the plates are less likely to
accept a full charge.
Supposedly you can calculate "amp hours" against the cold cranking
capacity of the battery, but I would just check it periodically with a
hydrometer. You can get the really inexpensive kind with floating
colored plastic pellets, or quite a nice, accurate, temperature
compensated hydrometer from EZ Red for around $20
HLS@nospam.nix - 12 Apr 2006 00:31 GMT
> I have a 12volt battery for my car. I just bought a small charger. The
> battery appears to be dead. I set the charger to 2amps- approximately
> how long does it take to charge? is this better to set it to 2amps or
> should I go to 10? Thank you very much KOS

When I let one go completely dead, it takes 12 -18 hours, usually, at
6-10 amperes.

At 2 amperes, it will take, more or less, proportionately longer.

This is very rough, but may help you.
Al Bundy - 12 Apr 2006 14:08 GMT
Turn your charger up to the max, which you say is 10 amps. If you have
a charger with a meter you might notice that the needle goes above 10
as it starts to charge and tapers off as it continues to charge. At
full charge it tapers off to almost nothing, less than an amp in many
cases. You need an independent means of testing the charge. You could
measure the voltage and stop when it gets to 14-15V with the charger
still on. Or you could disconnect the charger, drain the top charge off
the battery by turning the lights on for 30 seconds, turning the lights
off, and then checking the battery voltage. It should be about 12.6V.
In a case like this with a suspected bad battery, various things can
happen. It might sit on the charger forever and not come up to the
standard I proposeed above. The charge rate might never come up. The
voltage may never come up. It could appear to be fully charged and then
when you hit it with a big load like cranking the car, the capacity
might not be there. So be aware and don't run off and start looking for
other car repairs until you make sure the battery is up to the job.
HLS@nospam.nix - 12 Apr 2006 15:08 GMT
It should be about 12.6V.
> In a case like this with a suspected bad battery, various things can
> happen. It might sit on the charger forever and not come up to the
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> might not be there. So be aware and don't run off and start looking for
> other car repairs until you make sure the battery is up to the job.

All good points, Al..
Neither of us mentioned, as perhaps we should have done, that he should
check the electrolyte level before he starts any of this.  Many people don't
realize that most batteries today can still be opened and checked for
electrolyte
level.

Family member had a battery go down completely recently. Apparently left
the door open on the car.  The battery cables were extremely corroded, so
I took care of those.  The battery also turned out to be low on water.

I tried to charge it on the 12 ampere scale, but it kept knocking the
internal current protection offline.  Seemed almost like a dead short.

After about a half day, it started taking a charge and finally came on up.
I was
very leery about this one but it has been working perfectly for a week or so
now, and may be okay.
 
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