Are all car battery chargers pretty much the same?

garethgas

Strider590 wrote: »

Amp rating of the charger merely affects the charging time. The charger can only charge at it's set limit, it's limit is a measurement of how much current it can supply before it's output voltage starts to drop.... Thus self regulating.

60AH battery @ 3A charge = 20 hours from dead to full charge (not taking into account losses).

120AH battery @ 3A charge = 40 hours from dead to full charge.

120AH battery @ 6A charge = 20 hours from dead to full charge.

.

You are, of course, quite right but I was mainly refering to a sensible charge time.
The OP's battery looks like 110A which is mighty hefty and so a small standard type would take ages to charge it as opposed to an overnight charge.

Strider590

garethgas wrote: »

You are, of course, quite right but I was mainly refering to a sensible charge time.
The OP's battery looks like 110A which is mighty hefty and so a small standard type would take ages to charge it as opposed to an overnight charge.

I guess the OP has to weigh up longer charge time versus the extortionate cost of a "chunkier" charger.

Bare in mind my figure's were for a totally flat battery reading less than say 5v. The OP is talking partially discharged, which means that in reality the time difference will be fairly minimal.

mikey72

jase1 wrote: »

Which do you think has the more exacting regulation out of a cheap charger and an alternator?

On the other hand, it isn't unknown for cheap chargers to overheat and bust themselves if asked to do too much Very unlikely that they'd damage the battery though.

I would imagine they're both very similar, as they both have electronic regulators nowadays.
Although the Aldi one does have a cold temperature voltage setting, that alternators don't.

Strider590

mikey72 wrote: »

I would imagine they're both very similar, as they both have electronic regulators nowadays.
Although the Aldi one does have a cold temperature voltage setting, that alternators don't.

And if it is the CTEK on the inside, then it has overheat protection that reduces the current output if it starts to get too hot. Hence why my CTEK is bolted to a metal plate so that it can charge at full chat without the overheat protection ever kicking in.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

And if it is the CTEK on the inside, then it has overheat protection that reduces the current output if it starts to get too hot. Hence why my CTEK is bolted to a metal plate so that it can charge at full chat without the overheat protection ever kicking in.

Cold temperature as in setting the charging voltage higher, not in actually measuring temperature, as both the charger and the battery will become warmer initially, then start to cool back down as they both go onto trickle charge.
All chargers are obliged to have overheat protection inside for faults.
The CTEK should never get too hot. The maximum current it should give out, is 3.8A. It can run all day at that, without overheating.
If it fails to regulate properly, it'll trip. If it can't manage 3.8A continuously, it's rubbish, and I wouldn't say that about it.

espresso

Strider590 wrote: »

And if it is the CTEK on the inside, then it has overheat protection that reduces the current output if it starts to get too hot. Hence why my CTEK is bolted to a metal plate so that it can charge at full chat without the overheat protection ever kicking in.

The mounting holes are to screw it to the wall, not to fit it to a totally unnecessary metal plate heatsink!

Strider590

^^ I know what the holes are for (where's the rolleyes smiley?), the thing gets warm on the bottom/outside, warm enough that the internal temperature would be in excess of 60 degree's C..... It's date of manufacture is after 2003, with means it has to be RoHS compliant and therefore uses lead free solder (keeping up so far?).
Now lead free solder has two major flaws:

1) tin whiskers form between the soldered joints (these have bought satellites out of orbit before now)
2) it's brittle and hates vibration and/or hot/cold cycling.

It's the very same reason that the early Xbox consoles suffer the "ring of death).

I want this charger to work on a permanent long term basis, so I stuck it to a metal plate to keep it's temperature stable......

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ I know what the holes are for (where's the rolleyes smiley?), the thing gets warm on the bottom/outside, warm enough that the internal temperature would be in excess of 60 degree's C..... It's date of manufacture is after 2003, with means it has to be RoHS compliant and therefore uses lead free solder (keeping up so far?).
Now lead free solder has two major flaws:

1) tin whiskers form between the soldered joints (these have bought satellites out of orbit before now)
2) it's brittle and hates vibration and/or hot/cold cycling.

It's the very same reason that the early Xbox consoles suffer the "ring of death).


I want this charger to work on a permanent long term basis, so I stuck it to a metal plate to keep it's temperature stable......

You made sure there was a good thermally conductive path between the board and the inside of the plastic base as well?
Took the board out and washed all the flux residue off?

You'd be better off lacquering the pcb as well.

Gloomendoom

mikey72 wrote: »

Took the board out and washed all the flux residue off?

You'd be better off lacquering the pcb as well.

Ha ha! You may jest but I brought a malfunctioning battery charger back to life the other day simply by scrubbing the pcb with a toothbrush.

I should have lacquered it too.

espresso

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ I know what the holes are for (where's the rolleyes smiley?), the thing gets warm on the bottom/outside, warm enough that the internal temperature would be in excess of 60 degree's C..... It's date of manufacture is after 2003, with means it has to be RoHS compliant and therefore uses lead free solder (keeping up so far?).
Now lead free solder has two major flaws:

1) tin whiskers form between the soldered joints (these have bought satellites out of orbit before now)
2) it's brittle and hates vibration and/or hot/cold cycling.

It's the very same reason that the early Xbox consoles suffer the "ring of death).

I want this charger to work on a permanent long term basis, so I stuck it to a metal plate to keep it's temperature stable......

Heatsink!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

But everyone on here knows that you make sweeping generalisations and talk a lot of crap!

Strider590 wrote: »

Could be this, the rad could be a block of ice..... Should be able to see if it's frozen as I think all pugs have the reservoir on the side of the radiator, thus any ice floating about would give you a clue.

The thermostat is also VERY likely, these things tend to stick and stop water routing into the radiator = same result as above.

It's curious how it only happens in cold weather though, as the thermostat sticking would cause overheating much faster in warmer weather.

Get the anti-freeze checked to make sure it's not just waterand do it soon, if it freezes back into the engine the ice will destroy the water pump and you'd be looking at cambelt(ish) costs to replace (so £300-£400) or worse it could crack the engine block (£1500-£4000 for a new engine).