My battery charger is used mainly to give my sitting, weekend car a 15-30 min charge every week or two. Been doing that since I bought the battery new over a year ago. And did that for 3 years on the previous batter before it died at the 6 yr point. Within 1-5 minutes it's always back to full charge....charging at no more than 1-2 amps. I had put that same charger on the older battery when I found it nearly dead (car wouldn't start) and the plates exposed...needing several cups of water to get it back.
I realized I had been neglecting my daily driver's battery which is the exact same model as my other car, and purchased at the same time. Darn, if put the battery charger on there, and it tripped the charger's internal over loads in under a second. The charging rate pegged out at over 10 amps/off scale. That was a surprise. Should have expected that as it gave a pretty good spark as soon as the negative lead was grounded.
First thought I had was that my car's alternator must not be doing the job to be that far from full charge. I checked the terminal voltage and it was 12.29 volts after sitting overnight....12.42v after just driving it. Meant to check the alternator output but haven't gotten to it yet. It's 15 yrs old/74K miles so it's probably age. Could be a bad ground somewhere too. How do I get this battery charged up without being shocked? Interesting that my old battery in my other car was essentially DOA. Yet I was able to bring that back to life from around 10-11 volts and only needing an 8-10 amp charging rate....no sparks. So hence the surprise when charging this newly new battery that has never given me even a hint of trouble.
Anything else I missed?
I realized I had been neglecting my daily driver's battery which is the exact same model as my other car, and purchased at the same time. Darn, if put the battery charger on there, and it tripped the charger's internal over loads in under a second. The charging rate pegged out at over 10 amps/off scale. That was a surprise. Should have expected that as it gave a pretty good spark as soon as the negative lead was grounded.
First thought I had was that my car's alternator must not be doing the job to be that far from full charge. I checked the terminal voltage and it was 12.29 volts after sitting overnight....12.42v after just driving it. Meant to check the alternator output but haven't gotten to it yet. It's 15 yrs old/74K miles so it's probably age. Could be a bad ground somewhere too. How do I get this battery charged up without being shocked? Interesting that my old battery in my other car was essentially DOA. Yet I was able to bring that back to life from around 10-11 volts and only needing an 8-10 amp charging rate....no sparks. So hence the surprise when charging this newly new battery that has never given me even a hint of trouble.
Anything else I missed?