Trickcle charger

[Matt]

I've got a trickle charger hooked to a car battery - outside of the car.

I'm assuming that when the ammmeter drops to zero, the battery is charged?

Thanks

Matt

[Ulysses]

Ordinarily on a regular (5-15 amps or whatever) charger the battery will be fully charged once it reaches and stabilizes at about 1/2 the maximum charge rate i.e. 7 1/2 amps on a 15 amp charger. If you wait for it to reach zero (which won't ever happen unless you have a bad battery) it may be overcharging your battery. Newer batteries may go lower than 1/2 the charge rate and older batteries may be as charged as they will ever get at a little above 1/2. If you leave even a trickle charger on all the time you will need to check the electrolyte level often and you may ruin your battery by overcharging it. Even a float charger can boil away your electrolyte if given enough time.

What I do is check my batteries with a hydrometer and determine at what amperage on the meter they are fully charged if I am using a manual charger, or use my Vector Smart Charger and not worry about it.

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[Matt]

thanks man

[DiDo]

When amp. meter drops to zero it means that you not putting anything into battery and not that you battery is charge there are several factors involved why you meter may go to zero main one is a battery in good health when battery start to get old it start to built resistance hence showing as fully charge but actually battery could be dead. also as temperature increases the amount of current battery absorbing will drop from Dido

[barry]

Depends.

When charge rate drops to min, what you might call short-term charging is essentially done, while transitioning to dissociating water to hydrogen & oxygen.

Around which time lead sulfate crystals, which might have formed on plates over time, are acted on. After some days, with a sulfated battery, you might see increase in s.g. readings of cells.

HTH, J