How to charge a car battery?!

Lulu58

I don't do a great deal of mileage so my battery tends to play up after a couple of years. I've recently bought a CTEK charger in a hope that I can keep the battery healthy for a bit longer than normal.

I understand that I have to connect the negative to negative (this is the one that is connected to the chassis with my little Clio), but I'm a bit confused about one or two things :embarasse:embarasse

1) Do I actually need to disconnect the battery in order to use the charger or can I attach the clips to the connectors?

2) If yes, the negative connector looks to be relatively easy with a jubilee clip and small nut arrangement. However, the positive isn't the usual snap over red cap thingy. It has a large round, flat metal plate on top with a small hole in the middle. The connector seems to be covered with a red plastic tube. I have no idea how to remove this contraption if indeed it needs to be removed.

3) Do I need to remove the battery from the car. I bought the CTEK charger with the hope that it could stay in the car but a few sites suggest you remove the battery. The instructions say nothing about removing the battery.

4) The instructions suggest that, for negative grounded vehicles, the clip is attached to the chassis. Can this be any part of the metal body?

I so hope to hear from someone soon :undecided

vaio

Lulu58 wrote: »

I don't do a great deal of mileage so my battery tends to play up after a couple of years. I've recently bought a CTEK charger in a hope that I can keep the battery healthy for a bit longer than normal.

I understand that I have to connect the negative to negative (this is the one that is connected to the chassis with my little Clio), but I'm a bit confused about one or two things :embarasse:embarasse

1) Do I actually need to disconnect the battery in order to use the charger or can I attach the clips to the connectors? Nope

2) If yes, the negative connector looks to be relatively easy with a jubilee clip and small nut arrangement. However, the positive isn't the usual snap over red cap thingy. It has a large round, flat metal plate on top with a small hole in the middle. The connector seems to be covered with a red plastic tube. I have no idea how to remove this contraption if indeed it needs to be removed. Clip the croc clips onto any handy metal part of the battery terminals

3) Do I need to remove the battery from the car. I bought the CTEK charger with the hope that it could stay in the car but a few sites suggest you remove the battery. The instructions say nothing about removing the battery. It can stay connected

4) The instructions suggest that, for negative grounded vehicles, the clip is attached to the chassis. Can this be any part of the metal body? Any unpainted part that will give a good connection, probably easier to just connect to the terminals direct

I so hope to hear from someone soon :undecided

........................

Lulu58

Thanks for your reply vaio. Very helpful.

Re (2) I cannot see any part of the metal terminal for the positive terminal. There is a thick rubber/plastic covered cable going into one side of this red contraption, and a second, thinner cable going out of the other side. The whole thing is encased, topped by this metal 'lid'. As far as I can tell, it does not 'snap' off but perhaps I need to give it a bit more wellie! I tried connecting the crocodile clips to the red plate but the CTEK unit did not display a light to show that it was charging.

vaio

there will be metal there you might have to remove some bits of plastic first

Strider590

A lead acid battery is very easily damaged by leaving it in a discharged state, the way to maintain a battery which isnt used often is to buy a battery optimiser which float charges the battery on a permanent basis.

When A lead acid battery keeps losing it's charge, its not going to miraculously get better.... GIVE UP and buy a new one.

You really don't want to see what happens to your car when the battery explodes and it's not as rare as people think.

Lead acid batteries produce hydrogen gas during charging, when you try to use the battery it can cause a spark either internally or externally (the plates or the terminals), this ignites the hydrogen gas and BOOM your cars covered in battery acid.... 30 minutes later and your paintwork is soft to the touch down to bare metal.

sassy_one

I know for a fact it can stay in the car while charging.

Regards charging etc it has already been explained

skiddlydiddly

And the Ctek's are supposed to very good for keeping a battery topped up and conditioned.I have just bought the xs-800, the cheapest I found was £27.99 delivered on ebay.I have a boys toy in the garage that gets little use so goes flat easily.I'e already killed one dry-cell battery by not keeping it charged which was £100 down the drain so I don't want it to happen again.

Lulu, there will be somewhere to clip it for sure, you just need to "persuade" some of the plastic to move without breaking it.It might not look like you can get to the terminal but ofc you can as it isn't a fit and forget part of the car.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Yes those Reno connectors can be a pain to connect to, though as said there's always a way even if you have to jam something like a short nail in the battery connector and clip the charger to that.
Excellent chargers by the way, once you've been through the connecting sequence once it's easy afterwards.

Lulu58

Strider590 wrote: »

When A lead acid battery keeps losing it's charge, its not going to miraculously get better.... GIVE UP and buy a new one.

Thanks for your post, Strider590. Perversely, the battery appears fine and shows 12+ volts. It has a complicated history as to why it sometimes goes flat, but the garage suggested I get a good overnight charge in it rather than a surface charge and see what happens. They have also suggested that I regularly use the CTEK charger to keep it 'topped up' as it's a very low mileage car.

Lulu58

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

Lulu, there will be somewhere to clip it for sure, you just need to "persuade" some of the plastic to move without breaking it.It might not look like you can get to the terminal but ofc you can as it isn't a fit and forget part of the car.

Thanks skiddlydiddly. I'll have another look and see if there is anything I can 'persuade' to shift.

Lulu58

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Yes those Reno connectors can be a pain to connect to, though as said there's always a way even if you have to jam something like a short nail in the battery connector and clip the charger to that.
Excellent chargers by the way, once you've been through the connecting sequence once it's easy afterwards.

Thanks gilbert and sullivan. I did quite a bit of research and the CTEK came out on top. A Lidl brand also came out high, and at half the price, but they are no longer available at present.

It's a weird connector, which I've not seen before. I more used to the red clipon/over ones. This is really defeating me. I'm off to have 2 shredded wheat to gain a bit of muscle and then I'm going to tackle it again!