Battery Chargers

[Kirsten Jordaan]

Hi Eric

My car battery died after I was repairing a broken piston ring and a couple of other things. In other words I replaced half the motor because I used the mentality of:”Since I’m here I might as well…..”. Anyway, I’ve got a small trickle charger which I think is more for motorcycle baby batteries. It charges the car battery but it takes so long the apocalypse might be upon us before the battery is full. After reading up on battery chargers, it seems like the regular chargers work fine but is not that great for your battery. My question is, what is better? Trickle or regular chargers? And if you do get a regular charger, what stats do I look for? 4Amp, 6Amp?

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

To begin with,
Trickle ( slow ) charging a battery is always better for the battery than fast charging.
Many modern ( smart ) chargers monitor the battery state and automatically adjust the charge current accordingly.
There draw back is a batteries voltage has to be high enough in order for the charger to operate.
Meaning say you have a brand new battery but forgot your lights on over night and it was stone cold dead.
Many smart chargers will not function to charge the battery.
Now the old fashion, simple dumb chargers do not care how low the battery voltage is.
You basically hook them to the battery posts, set the charge current and go.
There draw back is that they run continually at there set charge current until you switch them off.
Some are equipped with timers, that will switch them off after a period.

One other item to note is AGM batteries.
According to MFG, they require a slightly different type of charging requirement and use a special AGM charging routine programmed into to some chargers.

As to your question….
First, what type of budget are you working with.
Second, what is the typical battery type you work with… wet cell or AGM?

In general terms, as I mentioned, trickle charging is always better in the long run for a battery.
For myself, I tend to stay with the old school (dumb) chargers.
They are simple, work on completely dead batteries, have select-able charging rates ( trickle to medium ) and are cost effective.
You just need to check on there progress.
Here is an example…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009IBJBM/ref=s9_acsd_zgift_hd_bw_b13u7h_c_x_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-8&pf_rd_r=XA0XNC7JPF3DB6HH3GRR&pf_rd_r=XA0XNC7JPF3DB6HH3GRR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=9b6b3f87-8be0-5022-9028-efd0220815c6&pf_rd_p=9b6b3f87-8be0-5022-9028-efd0220815c6&pf_rd_i=15707061

Now if your looking for something with a bit more punch..
https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SE-1275A-Automatic-Onboard-Battery/dp/B000BO8TTY/ref=sr_1_96?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1538568302&sr=1-96

Again, you need to determine your specific requirements and needs.
Weather you want a smart or dumb charger.

[Kirsten Jordaan]

Thanks for the advice. I think for the uses I have a dumb charger should work fine. I do have a small trickle charger which I will use if the battery will be standing for a while ie when we go on holiday or the car is not in use for a lengthy time. Does that make any sense? lol

[Richard Kirshy]

It does and good luck.

[Author]

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