I've charged a lot of car/boat 12 volt batteries with my battery charger but now need to charge a battery off a riding lawn mower/tractor and want to check on some things first. I guess I'm close enough to "home repair."
First, if there are 6 places to add water to the battery then it's a 12 volt? If 3 places, then a 6 volt? I thought lawn tractor batteries would be 6 volt, but this one has 6 places (cells?) to add water and yet it is smaller than the average car/boat 12 volt battery. So, which do I have?
Second, my battery charger will work on either 12 or 6 volt. I've always just selected the 12 volt setting for what I knew to be 12 volt batteries, connected the terminals then plugged into the AC and followed the specific gravity of the solution with one of those floating ball aspirators, when all
4 float, it's charge is OK. If I do have a 6 volt battery, can you use the floating ball thing to follow the charge or is the specific gravity different for 6 or 12 volt batteries?Thirdly, when I set my charger on the 6 volt option, it doesn't come on until I turn a separate dial which clicks on and allows me to adjust the output of the charger from 0.2 to 1.2 amps. What amp output should I use to charge a 6 volt battery?
Thanks.
Chet