Can you charge an undead-battery?

Blazs (Skoda 120GL)

Hello,

lead-acid starter batteries can be recharged. In fact, they must be always kept fully charged and a 12V battery must not be discharged below 10.5 Volts. A fully charged battery is around 12.7-12.8 Volts. The maximum charging voltage applied to a 12V is around 14.4-14.6 Volts, depending the construction of the battery (regular which contains fluid, AGM or spiral cell etc.), but 14.4 is generally OK for all types. When the battery is drains below 10.5 Volts, you must recharge it with a proper battery charger as soon as possible, otherwise a process 'sulphatation' starts where non-conducting sulphate crystals are formed at the surface of the plates in the battery, which blocks flow of eletric charges (charging or loading the battery). Two or three weeks below 10.5 Volts of voltage and you have very little chance to recondition your battery. For charging current, with batteries larger than 30-35 Ah, there's no current limit (can be even 50 A+, when you have a charger that can charge 50 Amps at 14.4 Volts :D). the important thing is that you should buy a good battery charger, preferably one with a switching mode power supply with automatic charging characteristics (e.g "IUu" see below), rather than a simple transformer-based 'hobby'-charger. the more current your charger can do, the less time it takes to recharge the battery.

Eg.: a 12V 5A charger, which can charges your battery with max. 5 Amps current ("I" -> constant current) at 14.4Volts ("U" const. voltage), then swithes back to 13.6-13.8 volts ("u" smaller const. voltage), when e.g. less than 1 A flows.

With the above charger, a 75Ah battery can be recharged from 10.5 Volts to full level in approx 20 hours. when you don't use it often, it will be a good choice.

Regards

chemicalimbalance000

Yes, you can. But if you're not careful, it will try to feast on human flesh.

Sexy mama

Yes you can!!!! Just put your batteries in the freezer. It's easy as cake

Albannach

Yes you can charge it; Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.

Elim

What? Like a zombie battery?

Dianamite

of course - right now my cell phone is plugged in and recharging, even though I've still got almost 1/2 power on it. I do it all the time.

Pops

If it is "undead" which I interupt as being "charged".....why would you want to charge it??? If the battery is charged, no, you can't charge it, however you can connect either a trickle charger to a battery to maintain the charge OR connect an automatic cutoff battery charger to it so you won't over charge it. Pops

monie99701

what type of batteries? ..... auto? yes... cellphone? maybe, depends on the type.. AAA thru D? yes if they are rechargable batteries, no if they are disposable... hearing aid/watch? NO

Knows2much

Yes, but not for long. The plates in it will start to sulfate. If they do, the electrolyte in the battery will no longer be able to produce voltage with them through the correct chemical reaction.

Mr Cellophane

If the question is, Can you overcharge a battery? then the answer is yes. Charging the battery generates heat and can evaporate the water out of the battery. If you have a no maintenance battery, (one you can't add water to) it will not last as long. You need to add water to the battery periodically to prevent it from going dry. Charging a batter to fast can cause mossing, which is a very porous deposit on the plates of lead sulfate. If the deposit is thick enough to touch the adjoining plate, it will short out the cell in the battery.