Looking for good car battery charger

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Looking for good car battery charger

qwerty7

434 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#104115 15-Jun-2012 08:41

I have one that is about 20+ years old, still good but not really suited to newer batteries with calcium etc which require a higher voltage and 3 stage charging etc

I notice at super cheap alot of the chargers are made by cheap brands like calibre and best buy.

I want it to use when i need it (like left lights on), i am a bit of a car guy. Or should i be looking at a jump pack?

6FIEND

774 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#641136 15-Jun-2012 09:07

By the sounds of things - you will need a jump pack instead.

Most "battery chargers" won't activate on batteries that don't have a minimum remaining voltage (to protect against fire from arcing)

Personally, I use a charger on a regular basis... I got it from SuperCheap (i think the brand is "Battery Fighter") Unfortunately, the residual current draw in my vehicle is so high that the charger never detects that the battery is at full charge and switches into 'trickle charge' mode... so i just use it once a week when the car isn't in use...

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#641150 15-Jun-2012 09:23

you will probably find that its the voltage protection in things stopping the battery getting up to a high enough voltage rather than the standby current.

There are still many many unregulated transformer based chargers for sale that will just cook batteries. I just use the lead acid setting on my hobby charger, its only going to 14.7v but I think thats enough for a calcium battery to charge, and the accumulated mAh that goes into it is pretty close to the battery capacity by the time it turns off. Only does about 4.2A on a 6 cell lead acid so takes a while.

Richard rich.ms

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#642338 18-Jun-2012 08:32

So I went and bought the SCA house brand charger. It looks pretty cheap (not SUPER cheap) but it seemed to be OK. Should I not trust it? I can't find it on their website anymore unfortunately. I mean it's just made in China rubbish but it reckoned it's microprocessor controlled etc.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#642396 18-Jun-2012 10:26

It all depends on what it is controlling that matters. there could be a micro in there just to control the LED on the front and they wouldnt be lying.

If you want it charged fast you need one with multiple stages, and a way to choose the battery type.

Richard rich.ms