Do you need a special type of charger to charge the "new" type batteries? By "new" I mean the batteries that are sealed and supposedly maintenance free compared to the old type that you would top up each cell with water.
tygertung,
May 26, 10:29am
No, the normal one seems to work just fine. I mean the charging system in the car won't know what sort of battery is fitted will it? It just constantly spits out 14.4 volts no matter what.
gpg58,
May 26, 10:38am
Yes if its a calcium battery, you need a calcium charger, as a standard one will not give a high enough voltage for it, especially if its been let get flat. Have experienced the issue myself, battery would say fully charged on standard charger, but would go flat again in a few days, making me think it was stuffed. So took it back to claim warranty, they keep it for 48 hours on a higher voltage charger, and gave it back. It was then fine for the next 2 years(fitted isolator to that spare car afterwards, to stop it flatting fully again).
The typical lead acid charging voltage is between 2.15 volts per cell (12.9 volts for a 6 cell battery) and 2.35 volts per cell (14.1 volts for a 6 cell battery). The ideal charging voltage for a calcium battery is 14.8V for the recombination process to properly occur. ------------- https://www.aa.co.nz/membership/aa-directions/driver/which-battery/ Calcium batteries are the most commonly fitted battery; they also go by the name of ‘wet lead acid’ batteries. The basic ingredients are no different to the old style, but these batteries are more durable and have more starting power. They have a good shelf life and are maintenance free. But they require regular use, so when drained they must be recharged using a charger to bring them back to optimal health. Modern vehicle charging systems will struggle to recharge these fully when they’re drained.
franc123,
May 26, 10:56am
Lol NO. You need to be using the right one for the above reasons, you can only get about 80% charge into a calcium battery with a "dumb" charger and it will take a lot longer to do it. It does work but not very well. Voltage requirements are much higher and special strategies are involved. The cars charging system on those cars equipped to take them also has precise monitoring and battery health feedback strategies to enhance the efficiency of the charging. Even on old cars the charge rate will vary depending on operating conditions.
intrade,
May 26, 11:43am
Get a Ctek
tweake,
May 26, 12:25pm
thats not recommend. the other big problem with sealed batteries is they don't handle high flow rates of gas. if you use and old school charger it will produces a lot of gas and possible damage/split the battery. chargers for sealed batteries keep the voltage down a tad and lower charge rates to avoid gassing.
tygertung,
May 26, 1:32pm
Not a calcium battery, but a sealed lead acid type, sort of a gel cell.
The amount of gas produced will depend on the current output of the charger. If you have a 500 mA charger it isn't going to produce a great deal of gas.
tweake,
May 26, 2:01pm
its also voltage. gel cell is slightly lower than normal lead acid. as far as current goes, it depends on battery size of course but a 500ma charger will take forever on a big car/ute battery.
with modern chargers its pretty much redundant, they are often multi mode chargers. select your battery type and let it do the rest.
cheyenne2,
May 26, 5:02pm
Thanks for the info everyone, on to it.
nice_lady,
May 26, 8:16pm
That charger would take a couple of hours to charge a cellphone. Probably a couple of weeks to charge a car battery at least!
bigfatmat1,
May 26, 8:53pm
maybe in the 1990s. These days batteries capacity and internal resistance is used in a algorithm to determine the charge just like in a charger but to a finer degree. New batteries are also require to be coded/initialized in the vehicle when fitted.
bigfatmat1,
May 26, 8:55pm
no.it won't as the idea of the calcium is to inhibit the gas and boiling of the battery hence why the don't charge fully on a normal charger. The electrolyt doesn't bubble leading to acid stratification.
tygertung,
May 26, 9:04pm
Yes well I've only ever owned old cars. I'm not fancy enough for one of these fancy algorithm machines.
tweake,
May 26, 9:41pm
a lot of sealed lead acid batteries are not calcium batteries. but even then i suspect you will still get plenty of gas if you use old school chargers on calcium batteries.
tygertung,
May 26, 10:22pm
Well maybe, but how many amps can an alternator put out? Plenty.
bigfatmat1,
May 27, 7:27am
no because the voltage isn't high enough.
tweake,
May 27, 11:43am
15-18v high enough?
bigfatmat1,
May 27, 2:57pm
if you have a old charger that's sticking out 15-18v it's faulty. A calcium charger will give short bursts upto 16.6v
tweake,
May 27, 3:24pm
old school chargers go to 15v easy enough. you can get 18v on some especially if you use a big charger on small battery. its only the battery drawing current that drags the voltage down on those old things. there is no nice voltage regulation like modern ones.
curlcrown,
May 27, 4:26pm
Funnily enough when I was working on a big yard there were four battery charges all modern and all or different types, from cheapies up to a few hundred dollars. The only one that was able to get and charge into a completely flat battery was a very old "dumb" charger that I found in a rubbish heap. The modern ones simply wouldn't recognise that there was even a battery connected if it was very flat, or would spit the dummy within a minute or two.
gpg58,
May 27, 6:20pm
Agree, i keep a dunga for that reason, only need it on battery for a few minutes usually, then the modern ones will work fine(think many need to see 2-5v before they will go).
tweake,
Aug 2, 6:53pm
the reason for that is totally dead batteries are usually stuffed anyway. i've recovered a few with my old school charger but they never perform well and end up getting replaced.
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