"12V automatic heavy duty plastic-cased battery charger for car, motorcycle and lawn mower batteries. LEDs show current charging levels. Double insulated and protected against thermal overload and reverse battery connection."
However: "230V. DC. Max. battery size 6Ah. Weight: 1.4kg" ????
Shirley the smallest motor car battery is around 40 Ah?
Something does not compute; I assume that the details are wrong.
Cheers
Dave R
P.S. Happy New Year!
The only thing I can see wrong IS that mention of 6Ah with battery power.
A 6A it would (eventually) charge even the biggest (good) battery you are likely to find on a conventional (12V) vehicle.
The only rider on that would be if it has a timeout, automatically cutting it off before it had fully charged a big battery.
Cheers, T i m
It happens that David formulated :
I think they have their amps and amp/hours mixed up. The maximum output is 6amps. I would be a little wary of the 'automatic' part of the description, it reads as if it a basic transformer, rectifier with ammeter unit with no automatic control so if left will over-charge a battery.
I'd certainly agree with the first part of that - the same error occurs in the spec for the 4A version as well. Interestingly, both entries carry exactly the same series of customer reviews!
It seems to be impossible to find a detailed specification for these chargers. I found a document relating to the larger
6/12V switchable 8 & 12A versions but these are only operating instructions. The nearest irt comes to a specification is to state the maximum charge rates but, at least, is does say that the 12A version is suitable bir batteries up to 160 Ah and up to 112 Ah the 8A version so, pro rata, the figure for the 6A one underdiscussion here is likekly to be in the region 0f 75- 80 Ah.
As to whether it is really 'automatic' or not, if it isn't, surely that will be a serious offence under the Trade Descriptions Act?
You can always ask, though:
Technical enquiries: snipped-for-privacy@streetwizeaccessories.com
on 01/01/2019, Terry Casey supposed :
I suspect not, it will 'automatically' charge your battery, trouble is it will not stop when fully charged. It looks very much like a conventional old fashioned charger, just the power switch and ammeter. Modern auto-chargers usually have a button to initiate the charge and will refuse to initiate if the polarity is reversed - no sign of that.
Personally, I dumped that sort of charger decades ago.
It looks like a 6A car battery charger. If so the max 6Ah claim is nonsense.
NT
I'll bet those charge figures are a peak output plucked from the air.
Makes you wonder how the car alternator can re-charge the battery so quickly if 6 amps is a safe amount into an 80 amp.hr battery which is towards the large size for most cars.
I have a Halfords charger - a few years old but claims to be automatic. On the front says 11 amps. It takes longer to charge my car battery than the
14 quid Lidl one which only claims about 4 amps.
All you need to prevent wrong connection is an internal relay with the coil fed via a diode from the battery. That's been a feature of many for a long time.
How dare you cast Nasturtiums upon honourable ancestors Chinese descriptions. Search for SWBCG6 brings up a number of sellers and such details as :-
"Charge rate: 4.2 Adc equal to 6 Amps RMS" "Suitable Use Type : Suitable for Lead & Acid Batteries" " Ideal For Porsche 911" "Suitable for cars up to 2.5L (2500cc)" "Not suitable for children under 14 years" "Current Type : DC" "Not suitable for trickle charge" "Ideal for Long-Term Connection"
It does seem a shame it can't be used on children under 14.
but with them it's oftena matter of usingb up energy, rather than adding it.
I have an old 'automatic' Halfords charger that has no buttons to initiate anything and stops (or goes into maintain mode, I can't remember) when the battery is fully charged. Just two rocker switches, one for High / Low (charging current) and one for Sealed / Std. Two LEDS, one amber one for charging and a green for charged.
Only a few of my modern 'auto-chargers' have a button on them to initiate anything either (Optimate 2,3,4 and 6).
Cheers, T i m
But that final time can depend on the time *it* takes to manage the final phase?
Like the Optimates go though a charge and leave stage at the end and monitor how much the voltage drops when left. If it drops too much it starts charging again and will only put up the 'Done' LED, once it really is. Therefore, it might appear to take longer than a more basic lower powered charger because it's more thorough?
(I'm not saying that IS the case with your chargers etc ...)
Cheers, T i m
Quite. I'd guess the Lidl one bashes in its full output 'till fully charged. Unlike the crude Halfords one that works on battery terminal voltage.
Basically, the old Rover has quite a high quiescent load on the battery due to a 'sophisticated' alarm and other toys I've added. And the car may not get regular use. So I charge the battery every three weeks, if it's not been used. If one charger was doing a better job of fully charging the battery, I'd guess I'd notice. ;-).
Dave Plowman (News) brought next idea :
Peak of the ac current and only into a large and very flat battery, output will go down drastically as the battery take a charge and builds up some voltage.
Dave Plowman (News) wrote on 02/01/2019 :
I am aware of that thank you, but this charger doesn't not suggest it has any reverse protection. It appears to have just an on/off mains switch and an ammeter. Nothing to indicate the charge is complete, so likely just a transformer and a rectum fryer inside.
I don't know any good (non faulty) LA charger that would work like that, not without the potential to cook (/overgas) the battery that is (depending on the ability of the charger and the capacity of the battery). Even the charger for my EV (200Ah / 48V battery) only gives full output (current) for the bulk charge phase before tapering down to next to nothing.
Don't most chargers work that way, even straight transformer / rectifier (taper) ones?
Funnily enough I was talking to a mate tonight about his desire to automatically turn on various battery chargers for (say) 120 mins once every month. He said he couldn't find a 30 day timer (?) so I was thinking of one of the ESP / Arduino's might be handy?
Cheers, T i m
Bullshit. I've got a very basic 4A battery charger. Just a transformer and rectifier. If the battery is flat, it'll give out 4A. Once the battery gets full, it drops to a fraction of an amp. Basically it just gives out 13.8V maximum - the trickle charge for a lead acid. The battery itself prevents overcharge by taking far less current once it's full. Lead acids are very easy to charge without complicated circuitry. You only need complicated circuitry if you want to charge them really fast. How do you think a car alternator works? It just feeds 14.4V to the battery continuously. Probably a bad idea 24/7, but the car ain't running 24/7.
The output of a basic battery charger will vary a lot due to the transformer regulation and so on. A basic one is very unlikely to produce a constant voltage - unless specifically for SLA gel types.
No alternator I've ever seen stays at 14.4v when the battery is charged. It would very soon fry the battery. And modern batteries are semi sealed and don't like gassing.
I have a very accurate voltmeter fitted to one car, and the volts do go up to over 14 when the battery is low, but the normal figure is not surprisingly 13.8v. It can be a little lower with heavy loads at low engine speeds.
I presume the transformer and diodes are chosen so it never goes about about 13.5 volts, which means it'll charge at 4A if the battery really needs a boost, limited by the resistance in the transformer coils, then drop off to virtually no current at around 13.5V once it's full. On my 60Ah car battery, it charges at 4A if I've even just used it slightly (for example put the headlights on for a few minutes with the engine off). If I leave it overnight, it's 0.4A in the morning, and the battery is completely full.
Maybe modern cars have a regulator to stop that, but older cars (and I mean around the turn of the century ones, not vintage) don't. If you put a meter on the battery when the engine is running, it's always over 14V. I assume batteries don't really mind that as long as it's just for driving time - they'd be upset if you did it 24/7.
You've got me interested now, so I'm going to check my 2002 Renault Scenic.... maybe I've never checked the voltage after the car's been running for a bit. This website says a continuous charge should be 12.9 to 14.1V for a full battery:
However I then connected my old 4A Bradex car battery charger to it with the engine off, and it quickly rose to 14.4V. Maybe I shouldn't be leaving that on overnight.... although if it's only giving out half an amp, which is 1/120th of it's capacity, that can't do any harm? I have noticed that the green float indicator (which I never trust) is now white and the battery is only a year old. I leave the charger connected all night, since the alarm has a habit of draining the battery overnight for no reason, and I can find no way of disconnecting it without dismantling the entire dashboard - they hide them well from theives!
What seems to surprise a lot of people is an alternator will rapidly charge a battery at idle engine speed, most people seem to think you have to drive around.
Also, when jumpstarting someone else's car, you don't have to start the donor car. The donor car has a good battery, it's therefore capable of starting the other engine just as easily as its own one (unless you have really shitty thin jump leads that lose voltage - my jump leads are 13mm thick each - I think they were sold as lorry jump leads, rated at 600 amps or something). I didn't get them to conduct better, but so they didn't fall apart with age like Halfords ones do. I've jumpstarted plenty cars with normal jumpleads without starting the donor car first. On that subject, I occasionally hear weird myths about certain BMW or Mercedes cars exploding (the battery I think) when they're jumpstarted - this can't be true unless they use 6 volts or something?! Or more likely some stupid fool connected the black and red wires the wrong way round?
Just been reading up on Li-Ion car batteries (I assume they have charging protection built into them so they can just be dropped into an existing car). They cost twice as much but should last 4 times as long. They're lighter, so motorcyclists love them, not sure the weight is important in a car though.
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