Car battery charger question

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christin, Sep 28, 9:32pm
I have a car that doesn't get used much. Now and then the battery used to get flat and I'd charge it overnight on a charger.

I have a newer battery, been dead a month or two? Replaced my charger with a new one and not sure if I have a Prob,me wiht the battery or new charger or neither!

When I plig the battery in, it's supposed to determine if 6v or 12v and light up accordingly. Then start charging with a charging light and progress bar.

Mine lights up with the status light and 6v light but nothing else. It is a 12v battery.

Is this a time thing, as in takes a while as its so dead? Has been on a few hours now. There is a fault light thst should light up if battery unable to be charged and im not getting thst do just wondering if it's slow? Or is the battery or possibly charger faulty?

Should I put a working battery on and see how that goes or will they damage the battery as its alreasy charged?

Hope that makes sense, sorry unfortunately not a car person :-(

Thanks :-)

budgel, Sep 28, 9:51pm
If you can put a known good battery on the charger in parallel with the other one, it should register on the charger enough to get it started.

thejazzpianoma, Sep 28, 9:54pm
1. You need a charger that can be safely left on the vehicle all the time. Don't let the battery go flat, you can't do that many times without the battery dieing for good.

2. Without a volt meter it's hard to tell what is happening with your battery. You certainly could try charging a good battery to see that it detects etc.

3. There is one other thing you could try. if you have a set of jumper leads and a spare battery. Connect your dead battery to your charger. Then connect the good spare battery to your dead battery with the jumper leads and turn the charger on. The idea here is that the good battery will boost the voltage enough for your charger to recognise at 12 volts and start charging properly. The IMPORTANT thing though is to disconnect your spare battery as soon as the charger starts charging as it may cause your dead battery to boil and quite quickly at that.

In short, really you need a smart charger that you leave on all the time and ideally spend $10 on a multimeter as well so that when you comeon here with questions you can give us some useful info.

Hope that helps!

thejazzpianoma, Sep 28, 9:54pm
Snap!

johotech, Sep 28, 9:54pm
If you leave the battery flat for a month or two, it will get sulfation on the plates and will be stuffed.

Check if there is any bulging of the outside case of the battery.

thejazzpianoma, Sep 28, 9:56pm
BTW. if the car is not kept in a shed, use a solar panel instead of a charger. They are about $25 at supercheap, go for one of the larger sized ones as sometimes the very cheapest is a bit small.

tweake, Sep 28, 9:58pm
i suspect whats happened is battery voltage has dropped so low its either not charging or thinks its a 6v battery
running a battery dead flat stuffs them.
one way around this is to use an old fashion charger or even just connect it to another battery to get some charge into it and get it up to minimum voltage.

whats battery charger is it?
i havn't seen an auto select one. most i've seen you have to select battery voltage, type and charge current.

panicky, Sep 28, 10:00pm
Most modern battery chargers need a residual voltage of around 7 volts to kick start the charging process. Essentially your charger does not recognize there is a battery there. Hook up another good battery in parallel with jumper leads as suggested above. It will likely need to be on there only for a few minutes and charge from there.

panicky, Sep 28, 10:02pm
Or borrow someones old school charger that charges regardless of residual voltage, while it wont fully charge a deeply discharged calcium battery, it will bring up the voltage enough to be able to use your more modern charger.

christin, Sep 28, 10:18pm
Unfortunately don't know anyone with a car charger old or new type to borrow.

The buttery prior to this one could be charged after a couple of months odd fine, this is the first time this one has gone flat. No bulging etc.

Only other battery is the one on my other car. Running it parallel via leads. Which one goes where ? As in charger goes onto old one or new flat one?

This is the charger . I thought this may have been better thsn the2amp basic one I've used many times before. (On deader batteries than this new one)

http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/autohaus-battery-charger-ahbc-3.8i-intelligent-smart-6v%2F12v-3.8amp/R1803208.html#q=car+battery+chargers&start=1

The battey shouldn't be left to go flat, but unfortunately has. I want to get it started I can get it warranted and useable again, once I do I should be able to run every week or so which should avoid this in future.

christin, Sep 28, 10:24pm
It does recognise there is a battery therr to some extend, as when I disconnect one terminal lead it flashes so knows thst much at least,

christin, Sep 28, 10:30pm
I assumed to keep it charged do it needs to be plugged in all th time? Which is a bit hard with no PowerPoint near car :-(

mack77, Sep 28, 10:34pm
For the battery to go ''flat'' after such a relatively short time it indicates that there must be some load on the battery i.e. there is some current drain. Provided that it's not a very late model car, just disconnect the earth lead from the battery to solve the problem; but the best solution is to buy an automatic battery charger e.g. CTEK 12V 3.8A and mount it in the engine compartment of your car so that you can easily leave it permanently connected to the "national grid", except of course when you use the car.

christin, Sep 28, 10:35pm
The charger I have has a rescue function for very low batteries. I was hoping it was in that phase and would eventually start charging,

My last charger never showed a charging light either but did chsrge, so hoping this one would be too as its supposedly a better charger.

This is the previous one, it's been fine for a while on many batteries but since lending ro a friend it makes a clicking noise and connected light flashes in and off since I've got it back from him so thought safer to get a new one

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=arlec+battery+charger&client=safari&hl=en&prmd=ivsn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr-cTDycfWAhUNObwKHX3AC90Q_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=672#imgrc=T2Vsm7yLABuebM:

christin, Sep 28, 10:37pm
National grid. IE plugged in? Can't do that unfortunately at this stage. Just want to get the thing charged now. Then hopefully can maintain thst by running more often or Disconnecting earth lead as you say,,,,

peanuts37, Sep 28, 10:53pm
We use extension cords down here to overcome that problem just like you guys do to get our power up to you LOL. Yes it needs to be plugged in and when charged shuts down with only the LED display lit.

yz490, Sep 28, 11:32pm
Sounds like the battery is 'past it' but if in with a chance perhaps take it to a battery place or a good car garage that might have an adjustable charger where the amps cam be cranked up to bring it back to life. When settled then take it home & hook up your home charger & leave for 24 hours then keep it active by regular topping up [charging]. Bottom line is will it start the car when fully charged. Where i worked years ago we had one of those chargers [big bugger] & could have a few batteries on together & just adjust as required. She was good for waking batteries up & could just about see it heaving on the wall grunting away. Didn't pay to turn your back till it had settled & had to keep backing it off till stable. Don't whatever you do--do what i did & tried to wake up my car battery with the arc welder. Didn't work as battery was too far gone but think it would've if current could've been passed through but seemed like a good plan at the time. [or not lol].

supernova2, Sep 29, 12:25am
x1
You say this is a newish battery. How old is it? Is it still under warranty? If so take it back and get the store to sort it out. If not take it to an auto electrician and see if they can charge it.

christin, Sep 29, 2:57am
I don't have a suitable point nearby.

christin, Sep 29, 3:00am
Battery is under six months old

marte, Sep 29, 3:26am
How long does it take to charge a 330 CCA battery on a 4 amp charger?

Would intermittent use of a trickle charger be better?
like 80% of the time trickle- 20% 4 amp?

christin, Sep 29, 7:23am
used to leave my 2amp one on oernight and it would charge it, so would assume this one is faster.

either way this one should charge it. battery being under 6 months old would assume it would be able to go flat once.

im going to take the multimeter home from work so i can check whats happening. will also try a good battery on there to see if that picks up at 12v and gets some charge going.

will also leave it on for a day to check its not just in recovery mode before charging

hopefully one of those will help decide if its the battery or charger.

gpg58, Sep 29, 8:25am
My spare cars(now) have disconnects (isolators) fitted to batteries, to avoid this issue.
This sort of thing - http://www.quickcable.com/products.php?pageId=335

Simply means open bonnet and screw disconnect closed before using vehicle.
Disadvantage is clocks etc will stop too, but it is such stuff that is draining battery and causing problem.

If you have a calcium battery, you need a calcium charger, to get the higher charging voltage needed to recover them from flat.

I had a dead one i took back under warranty, which they put on a bulk 16volt charger for 24 hours, and it came fully back to life, (still fine 8 months later).
My own chargers (3 - 1 old school + 2 modern 12 and 17 amp auto) would only surface charge it, and it was flat again within 2 days.

christin, Sep 29, 8:37am
thanks, will see how i go this weekend. where is a good place to take it to get fully charged if need be. auto electrician?

kazbanz, Sep 29, 9:21am
christin- a couple of thoughts.
The first being that its possible you have a new type battery -calcium which you can't charge with a "normal" battery charger. it needs to be set to calcium "mode"
The second is that Ive had a fair bit of success bringing back flattened batteries using a charger from Super cheap. It is really small -not much bigger that the chargers for phones etc but it has cables to go to battery leads http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/Product/SCA-Smart-Battery-Charger-3-Stage-12-Volt-1-6-Amp/343260?menuFrom=1021637
it is specific for your situation. -I would swap to a higher amp charger once theres some voltage showing because its very slow charging.