Battery chargers ?
Discussion
Mine died so bought a Draper one,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-20486-Battery-Char...
But it doesn't seem to put any charge in anything I have put it on, is it me doing anything wrong, is it not very good and what should I buy ?
Used it on my TT the other week, didnt make any difference, the C1 was flat as a pancake today, put it on that for an hour and all it managed was one languid crank, both times, gave up and went and bought a battery. The TT started on a jump start pack no problem.
Just have no confidence in it, am I better getting one of those booster packs.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-20486-Battery-Char...
But it doesn't seem to put any charge in anything I have put it on, is it me doing anything wrong, is it not very good and what should I buy ?
Used it on my TT the other week, didnt make any difference, the C1 was flat as a pancake today, put it on that for an hour and all it managed was one languid crank, both times, gave up and went and bought a battery. The TT started on a jump start pack no problem.
Just have no confidence in it, am I better getting one of those booster packs.
CharlesdeGaulle said:
I have a couple of C-TEK battery conditioners which are excellent. I'd definitely recommend them,
I had one, just bought the only one the local car spares place had and it was a low outut one but great, lent it a neighbour who had a wonky Polo and it came back dead 
Might buy another as it was great.
I have a Lidl one, a ctek and an optimate. They are good although the Lidl ones don’t seem to last more than a couple of years, unlike the others I have.
With all these intelligent battery chargers I find they don’t work with a really flat battery, So I use my old fashioned dumb charger to put a bit of juice in a dead battery after which the modern conditioner types then detect the battery and do a good job of bringing it back to life.
You will need to leave it on for more than an hour with a flat battery, try overnight but be careful as the one you have does not seem to have any automatic means to prevent overcharging.
With all these intelligent battery chargers I find they don’t work with a really flat battery, So I use my old fashioned dumb charger to put a bit of juice in a dead battery after which the modern conditioner types then detect the battery and do a good job of bringing it back to life.
You will need to leave it on for more than an hour with a flat battery, try overnight but be careful as the one you have does not seem to have any automatic means to prevent overcharging.
Edited by jkh112 on Wednesday 28th February 21:38
J4CKO said:
Mine died so bought a Draper one,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-20486-Battery-Char...
But it doesn't seem to put any charge in anything I have put it on, is it me doing anything wrong, is it not very good and what should I buy ?
Used it on my TT the other week, didnt make any difference, the C1 was flat as a pancake today, put it on that for an hour and all it managed was one languid crank, both times, gave up and went and bought a battery. The TT started on a jump start pack no problem.
Just have no confidence in it, am I better getting one of those booster packs.
Does it actually show that it's charging i.e. is it registering a suitable current on the ammeter? If not then it sounds like it's faulty.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-20486-Battery-Char...
But it doesn't seem to put any charge in anything I have put it on, is it me doing anything wrong, is it not very good and what should I buy ?
Used it on my TT the other week, didnt make any difference, the C1 was flat as a pancake today, put it on that for an hour and all it managed was one languid crank, both times, gave up and went and bought a battery. The TT started on a jump start pack no problem.
Just have no confidence in it, am I better getting one of those booster packs.
Mr2Mike said:
Does it actually show that it's charging i.e. is it registering a suitable current on the ammeter? If not then it sounds like it's faulty.
It's 4.2 amps max. A couple of wires pushed into a lemon kicks out more than that.Connect that to a 100 ah flat battery and you need to mark the fully charged point off on a calendar.
Paul G
Leptons said:
I bought one from Lidl the other week, it was on special buy. Turns out it won’t actually charge anything if it’s dropped below 7 volts. What the f
k use is that? I suspect yours is the same.
Had to charge it with my Dad’s old one to get enough charge in for mine to take over.
My otherwise excellent charger has this problem. Last time I connected it up then "jumped" the battery with a pair of 9v alkaline batteries in series. About 5 seconds of that was enough to get the charger working.k use is that? I suspect yours is the same.Had to charge it with my Dad’s old one to get enough charge in for mine to take over.
Mr2Mike said:
Doh, I totaly missed the description and zoomed into pic of charger which shows 15amps full scale on ammeter!
Easily done mate, easily done. 
Obviously you don't want to cook your battery and since many are sealed I think about 10 amps is a good starting point.
I still like to see a proper amp gauge on a charger then you can see the needle drop as the power content builds.
As you walk past and glance down at the gauge you can estimate the fully charged point, where as those with a red LED
that changes to green.... well your guess is as good as mine.
Paul G
As a couple of posters have already said, a lot of chargers won't charge a "dead" battery.
I connect a good battery with jump leads at the same time as I connect the charger. After about 15 minutes (or when I remember) I disconnect the good battery and leave the other to charge.
A trickle charger will take some time to charge a battery. I usually leave it on overnight.
I connect a good battery with jump leads at the same time as I connect the charger. After about 15 minutes (or when I remember) I disconnect the good battery and leave the other to charge.
A trickle charger will take some time to charge a battery. I usually leave it on overnight.
I have this:
http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equi...
Or at least, I have the slightly older version and it seems pretty good for the money (more so with trade card) and it'll bring a battery back from the dead if left overnight and that's on a rather large battery... probably larger than Halfords would like me to be using. Bit confused by the reviews that say it won't recharge from flat... mine will, granted not within an hour but if left over night then it's all good.
Only issue is the switch packed in... granted it's stuck on the sealed setting which is handy as that's all I use.
http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equi...
Or at least, I have the slightly older version and it seems pretty good for the money (more so with trade card) and it'll bring a battery back from the dead if left overnight and that's on a rather large battery... probably larger than Halfords would like me to be using. Bit confused by the reviews that say it won't recharge from flat... mine will, granted not within an hour but if left over night then it's all good.
Only issue is the switch packed in... granted it's stuck on the sealed setting which is handy as that's all I use.
Edited by Davie on Saturday 10th March 09:37
Leptons said:
I bought one from Lidl the other week, it was on special buy. Turns out it won’t actually charge anything if it’s dropped below 7 volts. What the fk use is that? I suspect yours is the same.
Had to charge it with my Dad’s old one to get enough charge in for mine to take over.
FWIW the reason for this is that smart chargers include protection to try to prevent the more intellectually challenged members of society connecting them up backwards or connecting them to 6v batteries. Annoying when you have a very dead battery, but easy to work around.k use is that? I suspect yours is the same.Had to charge it with my Dad’s old one to get enough charge in for mine to take over.
I have just got one of these and its a absolute beast, weights a ton and does all the AGM stuff, bargain price and 3 year warranty to boot.
http://www.silverlinetools.com/en-GB/Products/Auto...
http://www.silverlinetools.com/en-GB/Products/Auto...
Bit of a thread hijack on this, but expanding on what has been discussed already. Hoping to get some help!
I have a flat 12V battery (reading 1.8V) which I'm looking to resurrect (it's probably only a couple of years old and the battery condition indicator on the top suggests it doesn't need to be replaced).
The trickle charger (AA branded 1.5A) I've tried won't charge it, returning a fault light, presumable due to the low voltage protection.
In the garage I found an old Heayberd 2A battery charger.
https://imgur.com/a/IRRe2
https://imgur.com/a/pqQcR
I've tried using this charger, but the label states 'keep pointer within green section,' which denotes 0-2A, and when I connect it to the battery the pointer jumps straight to the limit of the red section (4A+), so I've turned it off as I assume it might be unsafe to continue.
I'm just looking to coax the trickle charger into starting to charge the battery, even if it takes 2 or 3 days.
Is it safe for me to connect that 2A Heayberd charger and leave it on at 4A+ in the red zone for a period of time until the trickle charger recognizes 12V and begins charging?
Thanks!
I have a flat 12V battery (reading 1.8V) which I'm looking to resurrect (it's probably only a couple of years old and the battery condition indicator on the top suggests it doesn't need to be replaced).
The trickle charger (AA branded 1.5A) I've tried won't charge it, returning a fault light, presumable due to the low voltage protection.
In the garage I found an old Heayberd 2A battery charger.
https://imgur.com/a/IRRe2
https://imgur.com/a/pqQcR
I've tried using this charger, but the label states 'keep pointer within green section,' which denotes 0-2A, and when I connect it to the battery the pointer jumps straight to the limit of the red section (4A+), so I've turned it off as I assume it might be unsafe to continue.
I'm just looking to coax the trickle charger into starting to charge the battery, even if it takes 2 or 3 days.
Is it safe for me to connect that 2A Heayberd charger and leave it on at 4A+ in the red zone for a period of time until the trickle charger recognizes 12V and begins charging?
Thanks!
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