NOS Battery (dry, sealed): $45 Acid: $18 HF battery Charger, rated at 6V: $30. The battery says 'Max Charge 1.9 amps' The Charger says: 6v, 6 amps. The LAST thing I want to do is cook the battery, but if I pay attention to it, and charge it for 2 hours or less...am I gonna kill it?
Put a light bulb in series with the charger. 6v if you have one handy but a 12v will do. The slower the charge the healthier for the battery. By the way 6 amps is the maximum charge, it won't charge that high unless the battery is really dead. Put the charger on the battery and keep an eye on it, if it doesn't come down to 1.9 amps in a few minutes try the light bulb trick for a few hours then try it again without the bulb. Charge it overnight if possible before putting it into service. If possible leave the charger on until it comes down to a finishing charge, less than 1 amp. A good modern charger can be left on for days and no harm done because it will charge less and less as the battery charges up.
I'll give that a shot...I don't have much confidence in the cheapo harbor freight charger, though. I'll get an ammeter on it and babysit it for a bit.
I just bought an optima 6v after going through 2 autozone duralast batteries this year So far so good but it has only been in the truck for 3 days. I want a tender for those cold mornings and the just in case situations.
Will a battery tender put a charge on a new, uncharged, battery? I always thought they were more for maintaining a charge and not recharging.
Some will. I was pleasantly surprised that the 12 volt tender that I bought actually charged a completely dead battery in only a few hours. I too thought that they were only for maintaining a charged battery. When I checked the tender, it said tender/charger. I can't tell you about a 6V units but the 12 V tender sold at Sears stores does in fact charge a dead battery. Check the fine print before you plunk down a bunch of cash. Check the weekly sales fliers. They usually go on sale this time of year to bring in buyers. They make excellent Christmas gifts for enthusiasts.
A fully acidified new battery shouldn't require much of a charge, if any at all. The charge in the battery is created by the level of acidity and you just installed brand new acid. The "charging" of a lead/acid battery is actually a chemical conversion of water into acid and not the actual storage of electricity. I'd install and run it in the car. Let the car charge it.
Take a look at this one. http://www.batterychargers.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductName=94080001 I spent $30.00 on it and works well for both 6 and 12 volt.
I discovered the Battery charger is 'smart' enough to not start charging with the multitester in series with the positive lead. So....I found a 1 Ohm 10 Watt Resistor in the electrical junk drawer, ran it in series with the positive lead, and found the battery charger showing 2 amps (instead of 6 amps)...which is good. I then used a non-contact thermometer after a few minutes and the resistor was cresting 250 degrees...which is bad. Put a box fan on it and it hangs out at 170 degrees. I'll get a for-real trickle charger soon, but I wanted to get the thing charged as it's keeping me from doing other electrical diagnostics. Edit:forty1fordpickup - thanks I'll pick that one up at the start of the week! Mike51Merc: this particular system has been sitting for at LEAST 30 years...it won't be doing any charging of it's own in the near term. It's also a B***...(If I mention WHAT it is, it'll be a forum violation. if the battery isn't up to full charge, the coil won't support ignition.
It should do as most are designed to be charger tenders. Deltrans make a 6 volt tender. C-Tek also make one.
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