Battery Chargers

Re: Battery Chargers (MCT_MR2)

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 19:19:10 GMT

I use a little 12v battery from a central locking remote with some wires soldered on, small and easy to trick a charger into starting a charger on a dead flat battery.

Re: Battery Chargers (dasic1)

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:41:34 GMT

haha and I've been wondering why my charger does not spark when touching the ends together but still charges. Makes sense now

Re: Battery Chargers (Reddtarga)

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:49:28 GMT

Too bad if you don't have another battery handy lol.
I believe that it is a safety feature for many charger's to need to see a voltage before they will charge.

Re: Battery Chargers (dennis the menace)

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 11:20:37 GMT

As a little side track to this thread, I've had the issue of a "dead flat" battery and the high tech charger not seeing it. Solution - use a second battery (actually a 12V power supply), jumper cabled in parallel with the "corpse" momentarily to fool the charger into starting. Once it's charging remove the jumper source.

Re: Battery Chargers (5SGTE)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:55:47 GMT

Newer chargers need to sense some voltage or they won't turn on if the battery is below a certain voltage dependant on which charger you have. You can however get a zero volt charger which will charge a flat battery from almost zero volts provided the battery is otherwise in good condition.

I too use a battery fighter as I one drive my car about once every few weeks to a month. These are great as they're around 750ma which is a much healthier way of maintenance charging a battery rather than 6 amp (or whatever) switching between a float and bulk charge all week long.

Best way I can explain is 3 meals a day for a week vs a week's worth of food in a day.

Re: Battery Chargers (dylmrt)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 15:23:15 GMT

Ordered one for $93 delivered. Seems like a good price. Will let you guys know how it goes!

Re: Battery Chargers (dylmrt)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:55:02 GMT

Yeah, I currently have 3 cars, so its pretty often atleast one of them doesn't get driven for a while, so batteries need charging!

Think I'll order one today then!

Re: Battery Chargers (MR2QIK)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:28:10 GMT

I'm guessing it has to do with being a "deep cycle" charger.

Re: Battery Chargers (Reddtarga)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 10:59:55 GMT

I've no idea why, but if you run your battery totally flat, (easy to do if you leave your door ajar for a day or two) some chargers just won't charge them up. With them in that situation you might think the battery is kaput.

I have two fairly new modern chargers in that category. One is a 'battery maintenance' type, and the other is a supposedly good brand general use type.

I do however have an ancient heavy 40 year old one that will easily bring a totally flat battery right back.
I suppose there's probably some simple answer why, because the old charger wouldn't have any fancy electronics.

Re: Battery Chargers (Carmikey)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 08:56:42 GMT

I'm with Robk & Senor_2.
I too have this charger, +1 for recommendation also.

Re: Battery Chargers (MR2QIK)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 08:20:25 GMT

I have a ctek. Does the job for maintenance charging.

Re: Battery Chargers (Mrskylighter)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:40:09 GMT

I installed another brand called Battery Fighter which worked well in my old SW20. I had it mounted in the Frunk and connected to the battery full time.
Was th same as the ctek ones with 4-5 stages , microprocessor controlled etc

http://www.master-instruments.com.au/products/59148/BFP012.html

Re: Battery Chargers (darius)

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:34:02 GMT

Agreed, that item does both i think.
Its damn handy when you only drive your car once a month or even less than that.

Re: Battery Chargers (Senor_2)

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 22:29:22 GMT

I've got one as well, +1 for recommendation

Re: Battery Chargers (robk)

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 21:01:05 GMT

I have that charger, and so does Tom. It's a great charger, I recommend it for sure!