recharging 12 v battery

[trader_4]

Says who? I could open the breaker to a perfectly functioning HVAC condenser unit and the system would not blow cold air. That's just one example.

[Stormin Mormon]

Baah, you can't convince customers of that.

[trader_4]

I take it that was sarcasm that I missed.

[Stormin Mormon]

One tech's experience. I remember one job, I was fixing a cooler. All I did was clean the dust out of the condenser. The store guy was totally determined that I added freon, and would not believe me when I told him what I did. Just totally would not believe me.

[philoÂÂ]

On 12/12/2014 06:50 AM, trader_4 wrote: '

X

Sheer genius on your part!!!!!

[micky]

I believe you. (even before I read the rest of it. )

I've saved this whole post for future reference.

I've never had an automatic battery charger. I have a one-amp charger my 80-something-year old cousin gave me in 1966 when he stopped driving gave me his '50 Olds.

The 50-Olds had a 6-volt battery, and I often didnt' drive it on weekdays. The battery went dead a couple times, so I ran an extension cord from the place I lived that year in college to a post and then to the car, put the little charger under the hood with the cord coming out the grill. It didn't seem to charge in the cold weather on 6-volts so I switched it to 12 volts and ran it all winter, day and night, when I wasn't using the car, which was almost all the time. . The circuit breaker inside a little glass thing that looked like a neon light or xmas tree light, would trip every 15 seconds or so, and reset 5 seconds later. So it tripped 3 times a minute, 180 times an hour, about 4400 times a day, at least 52,000 times in the more than 4 months I did this. and the breaker still worked fine, then and now. (though now I have to trip it on purpose.) EVentually in the late 70's, the selenium rectifier broke, and in this case I found another which I had to mount outside the case. It looks like a martian child.

And I have a 10 or 12 amp charger I found alone on a sidewalk in Brooklyn or Queens in 1972. Sort of scratched up like it was heavily used. It didn't work -- I'm positive -- and I looked all over NYC for a large selenium rectifier, because in those days, I thought one had to use just the kind of rectifier originally used. Ended up leaving it in a corner for about 5 years and when I noticed it again, it worked. Still works today, although I think I finlly replaced the rectiifier with a 6 2-amp or 5 3-amp diodes in parallel. Proably at least 55 years old. I did eventually replace the leads, but I kept the large spring clips, with a + or - sign cut through the clip. .

Never had a variable charger. Would the 1-amp charger have fixed it?

Can I discharge it now and recharge it with the 1-amp, or is the extra 3 years using it a problem?

The one-amp has no built-in meter, but I could put a meter in the circuit. When I only had the one small charger, I figured 24 hours to charge, but later I had to get to work and I was impatient and used the big one, which usually put in enough in 10 minutes to start the car. (In one of my cars I accidentally put in two burglar alarms, and another had a light on all the time somewhere.)

Okay. I saved this but I'll remember most of it.

[micky]

That's another very good point. I had other things on my mind, and was going to install the battery buddy no matter what. the buddy might have lasted only 6 months, not 3 years like I said. It has a big button with a rubber cover one pushes to reset, but I can't push it. I think I took the rear cover off but it was filled with plastic under that. Some day I'll try harder.

I don't wonder. The buddy failed physically, but the Priority Start works just fine. It's only tripped about 6 times in the last 3 years, I think every time I was listening to the radio with the engine off. (I'm a perpetual optimist who thinks this time it will last longer, but usually doesn't time how long it lasts.)

The battery is only needed for starting (and listening to the radio.) Once the car is running, an old decrepit battery is as useful as a new one. That's the advantage of an alternator over a generater, greater output at low speeds. And I keep the battery out of the landfill for another 5 or 7 years. (3 so far)

And as I said, once the car starts in the morning, it's never a problem to start it during that day. It is surprising that since I installed the PStart, it's never gone dead over night, and caused the Priority Start to trip. That part I don't understand. With the Buddy, one of my cars with an old battery often went dead overnight. I"d have to open the hood and push the big black button. With this one, I would only have to put my foot on the brake, and I can even hear the motor in the PStart turning and then stop.

[philoÂÂ]

If you have had a battery in storage for 3 years without it ever having been charged, its going to be sulfated beyond redemption

A fully charged battery might still be OK if left stored for six months but if a battery is discharged and place in storage, you don't habe much time before stage 2 sulfation sets in

If you had an over-discharged battery a one-amp charger probably would not be able to charge it. The voltage needs to be raised high enough to get an initial flow of current.

It is possible though that the one amp charger might have worked.

I have an old vacuum rectifier shop charger designed for charging a bank of six volt batteries in series. Possibly a dozen or so.

I replaced the tube rectifier with a silicon diode and use it for recovering over-discharged batteries. Probably have not used it for over

20 years though