How do I use a car battery charger?

ButterCheese

sand_hun said:

3) What are the smaller red and black eyelet type things for?

 

If you re-read my comments in your previous topic, the little rings are colloquially known as "pig tails".  I would suggest fixing them to the terminals on your battery so you can a) close the bonnet better without big crocodile clips getting in the way and b) it's a lot easier to hook and unhook the connectors to the charging unit.  With the big crocodile clips they can often ping off if not secured properly.  

Goudy

That other cable with the eyelets are an optional fitting for the battery.

Those crocodile clips unplug from the charger and you can plug the eyelet cable into the charger.
So you have two different fitting for the battery, the crocodile clips and the eyelets.

The croc clips are a quick easy on and off but the eyelet fitting will be easier if you regularly trickle charge.

You bolt the eyelet cable permanently to the battery by the nuts on the battery terminals and just leave it attached.

Then all you have to do it plug the charger into the cable that's attached to the battery every time you want to charge.

If you do undo those small nuts on the battery clamps, be careful with the spanner.
You don't want the spanner to touch anything on the car (body, engine or the other battery terminal) when you undo the +.
Also, when you undo the -, make sure you don't hit the spanner on to the + terminal.

Batteries, particularly recently charged ones tend to be full of hydrogen and we know what happened to the Hindenburg!

QrizB

QrizB said:

sand_hun said:

3) What are the smaller red and black eyelet type things for?

As about, they're for permanently attaching.  Probably not worth it in your case, although I do use a set of those with my solar panel charger (as referenced in your previous thread).

Here's a photo (not a great one) of the ring terminals as I've fitted them to my car.

The red cable goes to the positive terminal of my battery. The black cable goes to a convenient earth point on the body (I'll explain why later). The red cable has a fuse holder, so that if you do something daft and short-circuit the cable the fuse will blow before anything catches fire. It's ziptied to hold it in place and the tail of the cable is wrapped with cloth tape to prevent chafe where it passes the metal bodywork.

Why take the black cable to the body? Three reasons. It looks tidier, it wouldn't easily reach and also my car has a current shunt in the negative battery terminal so the ECU knows how well charged the battery is. If I'd gone straight to the battery terminal the shunt wouldn't have measured the charge I was adding and the ECU would always think the battery is flatter than it really is.

QrizB

Goudy said:

If you do undo those small nuts on the battery clamps, be careful with the spanner.
You don't want the spanner to touch anything on the car (body, engine or the other battery terminal)

Always disconnect the negative terminal first, and reconnect it last.

My car (Fiat) has a quick-disconnect on the negative terminal for this express purpose. I don't know if the OP's VW is likely to have anything similar.

eastcorkram

Back in the day (1960s), my father used to take the battery out, bring it into the kitchen to charge. 

born_again

What comes to my mind here, is OP said in previous post, was that car was parked a couple of streets away. Which suggests that they either can not always park outside their house or have access off street parking.
So this type of charger is a bit moot, unless OP can park car off street, as we know, running a cable across a foot path is asking for trouble, & could well be again local councils bylaws...

Bigwheels1111

eastcorkram said:

Back in the day (1960s), my father used to take the battery out, bring it into the kitchen to charge. 

Mine too.

He was a bit of a dealer on the side.

House was full of car bits, oil, filters etc.

WellKnownSid

Bigwheels1111 said:

eastcorkram said:

Back in the day (1960s), my father used to take the battery out, bring it into the kitchen to charge. 

Mine too.

He was a bit of a dealer on the side.

House was full of car bits, oil, filters etc.

Drying out the distributor cap with Mum’s hairdryer.

Blocking the radiator grill with foil or cardboard for a faster warm up.

Driving along with the rear of the bonnet open on the safety to stop the windscreen misting.

Always had a can of “damp start” and a bottle of “bars leaks” in the boot.

Mildly_Miffed

eastcorkram said:

Back in the day (1960s), my father used to take the battery out, bring it into the kitchen to charge. 

The world has moved on a long way from those days. Batteries are better, chargers are better, lots of ECUs have memories.

m0bov

Always best to disconnect battery from car to avoid damaging the alternator or ECU.