Halfords Car Battery Charger - Lost Manual

[elsmandino]

Morning all.

I have an old Mercedes car battery that I am trying to charge and have dug out my old Halfords car charger for the job - it is the dark green one (haven't used it for ages and cannot find the instructions).

There are three LEDs on the thing, and a normal/fast switch and nothing else.

There is a red light with battery +/- sign and saying "OK", an amber light and a green light that says max.

I attached my battery, last night, and all three LEDs stay lit.

I ran it all night and all three are still lit.

This doesn't quite make sense, does it?

I assumed red would always stay lit to show a good connection.

Red and amber should show charging.

Red and green should show fully charged?

[Krikkit]

I'd imagine the +/- light is to indicate incorrect polarity, rather than being connected? Could well be that it's given up on you.

[RazerSauber]

Could be a properly dead battery. Have you tried connecting it to a known good battery and seeing what the lights do? Could also be a duff charger.

[hairykrishna]

I think I have the same one. The amber light is supposed to go out when it's charged. If it was totally flat overnight might not be long enough to fully charge it on normal.

If you've left it flat for ages it's probably fked though.

[bigandclever]

I'm sure the instructions will be somewhere online, just needs a bit more detailed charger identification than 'the dark green one'.

[elsmandino]

Thanks for the replies - it is really odd that there is nothing to indicate a model number at all.

Some good advice, there.

I shall have a go at charging it some more, tonight, and see what happens - I shall also check, with a multimeter, whether the voltage is actually going up.

I shall also try charging my current car's battery to see what that does, as far as the LEDs go.

It is a sealed battery and it has been years since I have started the car up - suspect that I have indeed screwed the battery (annoying, as it was an expensive heavy duty one).

[hersh]

If you have an old fashion charger, try that first

I seem to remember that modern chargers cannot charge a completely flat battery

Maybe connect the dead battery to another charged battery and leave for an hour, that might be enough for your charger to then kick in and charge it

[Bennet]

Just buy a new battery. IME, even if you get the battery working again, because it's been flattened you will never be able to rely on it again, and at some point it will spontaneously die with no warning. Most likely at an inopportune time.

[Captain Answer]

The one below? From what is left of the instructions (chewed by something at some point) there is no mention of the three being lit together in the book. It does say if the Red LED is on then either its incorrectly attached or the fuse may have blown