Battery charging

[richy759]

I have just got myself an accumate seeing as my battery went flat after leaving my Chim for about 3 weeks. It has been connected for nearly 3 days and is still showing the battery as empty.
I am thinking it is new battery time, has anyone had to charge their battery for longer than this before?

Cheers,
Rich

[Barreti]

I ran mine completely and utterly flat last year and my accumate charged it in about 3 days. Although it did need to be disconnected from the car as each pulse of the accumate made all sorts of things go click and it wouldn't charge.

[Cider Andy]

The Accumate's not designed to charge a battery from flat: it's designed to keep the battery in good nick by gently topping up the charge and keeping it that way. However, it will eventually charge a flat battery. But having a 1.2A output it will take a long time. Three days isn't too long: I'd leave it a bit.

Once the battery is charged up (and assuming you use the car regularly), it won't need changing unless it isn't up to cranking the engine after a short period of time, perhaps a few days.

[steve-V8s]

If you allow a modern battery to become completely flat it will return to full charge fairly quickly because the capacity will be reduced. The longer you leave it flat the more the capacity will be reduced and the quicker it will charge . Arguably charging a completely flat battery is better done with a rough cheap and nasty charger than a good quality conditioner, that way you are more likely to retrieve some of the lost capacity. If it has been flat for 3 weeks then it is probabaly new battery time.

[richy759]

Cider Andy said:

The Accumate's not designed to charge a battery from flat: it's designed to keep the battery in good nick by gently topping up the charge and keeping it that way. However, it will eventually charge a flat battery. But having a 1.2A output it will take a long time. Three days isn't too long: I'd leave it a bit.

Once the battery is charged up (and assuming you use the car regularly), it won't need changing unless it isn't up to cranking the engine after a short period of time, perhaps a few days.

I was under the impression the Accumate was designed to charge and maintain a battery.
From the box "Accumate is an advanced fully automatic battery charger and maintainer..."
And a quote from TVRMonster..
"To recondition a completely flat battery normally takes 2-3 days on a chim/griff."

Steve - The battery hasn't been flat for 3 weeks, just the car was not run for 3 weeks so hopefully it will be OK.

I charged it for about 4 hours on Saturday then it started and I took it for a spin and put the Accumate back on it, its been charging since. Perhaps I'll disconnect it, leave it for a couple of days and see if it holds charge.

Thanks for the feedback guys,

Rich.