Are all car battery chargers pretty much the same?

mikey72

Is it a diesel range rover or similar?

longwalks1

mikey72 wrote: »

Is it a diesel range rover or similar?

Spot on Mikey, its 2003 TD6

longwalks1

Strider590 wrote: »

Depends on the condition of your alternator and also bare in mind that 2 hours with the heater/AC, headlights, wipers, etc on will barely put a starting charge back into it.

This is another reason why jump starting is a bad idea, your battery should be fully charged before starting the vehicle.... When you buy a new battery, the little destruction booklet always states this.

Finally, are you sure the boot light (for example) isn't on constantly?

Mr AA when he jumped me last Sunday, said the alternator was charging and it was down to short trips the mrs makes to shops and back, with lights, heater, seats etc on, short trips of 3 of 4 miles max :mad:

But since he jumped me last Sun, the only trip I done was the 2 hrs the next day but everytihng was off, no lights, radio etc

Would it fully charge itself if left running for long enough, with nothing unneeded on, or would Mr AA jumping me just get it fired up and ideally need a nice long charge to fully revive the battery?

Thanks again

mikey72

britishboy wrote: »

Spot on Mikey, its 2003 TD6

Could be the alternator belt needs tightening, or the alternator is starting to fade.
I'd invest in an automatic charger anyway, as it's always a good standby for £13, but you shouldn't really need to be charging a 1 year old battery.
Especially in something with an 65 or 85 amp alternator.
Put it on charge for 24 hours if you buy one, (two nights running would be ok) it's the cheapest first option.

longwalks1

Cheers mikey, does the £13 one from Lidl look OK then? And can I charge the battery while its on the car? It weighs about 25kg (I think) and isnt something id like to remove on my own.... and if I charge it on the car, should i disconnect first?

mikey72

Posted same time there.

The AA man should have checked the belt, hopefully he did, so I would just buy the Lidl charger and give it 24 hours.
Then hopefully it'll be fine, but if you do keep doing short journeys, it'll probably need a top up again each cold month.

mikey72

And again I'm afraid.

The Lidl one can be connected in situ, it's electronic so you don't need to disconnect the battery.

Same warnings as every other charger though, if it goes wrong, it can damage the car, if you disconnect the battery, you can lose the settings for every piece of electronics in the car.

In 30 years, I've never disconnected the battery though.
And never had a problem.

longwalks1

Cheers again mikey,will put her on a long charge for a day or 2 Thursday once Lidl one hits the shelfs, do you know if the Lidl one will kick start my battery if its very flat? Read somewhere smart chargers only top up and keep optimised, and dont have enough ooomph to revive a dead one? Is this true?

reeac

The amphours used to start a car that's in good order are negligible. Let's say 500 A [at most] for [at most] 10 seconds which is 1.4Ah out of a 100Ah battery and, again if the car's in good order, the battery will be being charged all the time that the engine is running. Check the charging by starting the engine and then switching on everything and noting if the headlights brighten up when you rev. the engine - they shouldn't. If they do then check the alternator belt tension - especially if you hear it squeal when you rev. up suddenly. If all OK then, as I said earlier, check for battery drain.

mikey72

reeac wrote: »

The amphours used to start a car that's in good order are negligible. Let's say 500 A [at most] for [at most] 10 seconds which is 1.4Ah out of a 100Ah battery and, again if the car's in good order, the battery will be being charged all the time that the engine is running. Check the charging by starting the engine and then switching on everything and noting if the headlights brighten up when you rev. the engine - they shouldn't. If they do then check the alternator belt tension - especially if you hear it squeal when you rev. up suddenly. If all OK then, as I said earlier, check for battery drain.

Possibly more than that, but you also forgot the preheaters.