01/10/2020
Why do you need a car battery charger? The answer of course is that you have a dead battery.
Would you know how a car battery charger works? If you don’t, read on and learn. But before that, let me give you some facts about your car battery and why it went flat or died.
Reasons Why A Car Battery Goes Flat or Dies
When you go on short trips often, with a lot of starts and stops, chances are your battery is working very hard. This is especially true during winter when other than your engine, the headlight, heater, wiper and heated windows are also working overtime.
Since a large amount of current is being drawn from the battery, the battery will eventually be in a state of discharge or will go flat. That’s when your car will refuse to start.
Another reason why a battery dies is when the car is on storage for a long time. Even when the engine is not working, the battery is going through what is called as a self-discharge. Being stored for a long time, especially during winter,will eventually drain your battery.
This situation however, can be prevented if you have a battery charger, an accessory that is quite cheap but very necessary for car owners like you.
A Car’s Electrical System
Of course, you have your car’s alternator, which is a major component of the electrical system of your car. Your car’s electrical system draws additional power from it and it also charges the battery of the car while the engine is running. But the power drawn by your engine and other electrical devices due to the frequent stops and starts could be too much for it. Also, when the car is in full stop while in storage, the alternator is not working but the battery is self-discharging, thus, the battery dies or goes flat.
In addition to the alternator, a battery is the most essential component of the electrical system of your car. It supplies the power to start your engine and to operate the electrical devices in your car with the help of the alternator while the car is not running. It also performs a critical function in the proper operation of the voltage regulator of your car’s alternator.
Old cars with antiquated electrical systems don’t have batteries but instead only used alternators/generators. The cars that we know now, however, are equipped with state-of-the art electrical systems that require a battery to work properly. When your battery is discharged, your alternator works doubly hard, to the point where it too could fail. This is the reason why, as a car owner it is vitally important to understand how to maintain and charge your car battery and also how a car battery charger works.
What is A Car Battery Charger?
A car battery charger is a device that puts energy to your battery by driving an electric current to it. How much current to put and how long will the charging take is dependent on the type and size of your car battery.
Several types of battery are highly tolerant to overcharging, meaning, they continue to be charged even after being full. Other battery types, those that cannot tolerate overcharging, need to be immediately disconnected from the charger after they are fully charged. They get damaged; capacity is reduced and lifetime is shortened if overcharged.
They may even overheat or, worse scenario, explode. This type of batteries may require a charger with a timer to stop the charging once the battery is fully charged or after a predetermined time is reached. The charger should also have a microprocessor controller and circuits that could sense voltage or temperature to ascertain the state of charge, adjust the charging current safely and stop the charging at the end of a charge.
CAR BATTERY CHARGER RATINGS
There are different types of car battery chargers and they are rated differently too, There are large chargers, like those found in repair shops and gas stations, which can charge a battery quickly, like in an hour or two, and usually, these chargers can quickly provide the hundred of amperes needed to crank the starter of an internal combustion engine.
Chargers with a low rating such as two amperes are usually used to slowly charge a stored vehicle so that they don’t get discharged while on storage. This type of charger is also the charger of choice for small batteries of equipments such as a garden tractor. A charger with a rating of from ten to fifteen amperes are also used to recharge the battery of a car that gets discharged accidentally, or to maintain the charge of a car’s battery.
FUNCTION OF BATTERY CHARGER
A car battery charger works by drawing 120 volts of AC current from a household outlet and converting it to a 12 volt DC current which is what is used to charge a car battery.
The capacity of a typical car battery is approximately 48 amp hours. What it means is that it can deliver 1 amp of charge to your car engine within 48 hours when it is fully charged or 2 amps for 24 hours, 6 amps for 8 hours and on and on.
