While the vehicle’s power unit is idle, the entire on-board network is powered by battery voltage. In addition, her responsibilities include starting the engine. At the same time, if this device is not used correctly, or if it is not charged according to the instructions, its service life will begin to decrease. In addition, the need to purchase a new battery will be much faster. But does each owner of his vehicle know how to charge a car battery? Indeed, in this case, which is simple at first glance, it has its own peculiarities.
Battery Features
The battery of any vehicle cannot generate the necessary amount of electricity to start the power unit and the needs of on-board consumers. She can only store it in herself and give it as necessary. For the restoration of the charge during operation of the power plant meets the generator, which, in turn, operates due to the operation of the engine.
The charge-discharge cycle to the battery itself is not good, and over time, the amount of charge decreases, up to its complete loss. The maximum number of complete discharge and charge cycles is about 60. After that, the battery is destroyed and cannot hold a charge. A generator alone is often not enough to restore electrical energy. Ultimately, a moment may come that the car’s battery will not be enough to start the engine. Then it becomes necessary to charge it.
Battery Types
In total there are several varieties of car batteries:
In addition, there are also lithium-ion batteries, but due to their design features, they are not able to start the engine. For this reason, they can only act as an additional source of electricity.
Probably those motorists who are interested in how to charge a car battery of 12 Volts already know that there are still other types of batteries - serviced and unattended.
The first include only acid batteries. This is due to the fact that during the course of the chemical reaction, some part of the water in the electrolyte evaporates, which results in a decrease in its density. Therefore, you should periodically check its condition, adding the missing part of the liquid. For this, only distilled water is used. Some motorists add electrolyte, but this is not recommended.
As for maintenance-free batteries, these are, for the most part, gel batteries. They have a sealed enclosure, and with a chemical reaction there is simply nothing to evaporate. In this regard, there is no need to top up water. Although some batteries can be restored by adding a little distillate to the cells.
As for the device, all the batteries are similar to each other - there is a set of plates that are electrodes. Some of them are positive, others are negative. So that a chemical reaction proceeds between them, the entire space of the monoblock in which these plates are located is filled with electrolyte. It can be different solutions: acid or alkali with water.
Acid batteries
Before figuring out how to charge a car battery with current and voltage, at least briefly consider the main types of batteries. In this type of battery, the electrodes are lead plates with additional impurities. The use of lead is justified due to the fact that this material has good energy intensity. In addition, he has one more indispensable quality - the ability to produce a current of a higher nominal value in a short period of time.
An acid solution is used here as an electrolyte. This is the most common option that is used in many vehicles. This is especially true for commercial vehicles, since the cost of such batteries is the lowest.
Alkaline batteries
These batteries differ from alkaline counterparts in that the electrodes are no longer lead plates, but nickel-cadmium or nickel-iron analogues. And the entire space between them is filled with a solution of caustic potassium. At the same time, this type of battery is not used as often as acid batteries. This is mainly due to the fact that alkaline batteries give less current. But they have high capacity, so they are used in golf carts, loaders, where long work is required. They are extremely rare as starter batteries.
CA / CA Batteries
What voltage does the CA / CA car battery charge? This is a little later and it is worth noting that there are subtleties of the charging process. But what is hidden beneath a calcium battery? In fact, this is the same acid battery with ordinary lead plates, which are at the same time doped with calcium. Moreover, this metal contains not so much - about 0.1%. But even this amount is enough to obtain higher performance characteristics for energy storage.
In addition to calcium, the plates can be coated with silver, which as a result raises the cost of such batteries. However, at the same time, their service life also increases markedly. And all due to the fact that due to the inclusion of silver, it is possible to significantly reduce the percentage of sulfate formation on the surface of lead plates.
Gel analogues
This technology can be considered as yet new, since such batteries appeared not so long ago. This is another version of an improved version of the acid battery. Only now is the electrolyte used in a different way - it is a jelly-like substance, which has its own significant advantages.
About what voltage to charge a maintenance-free car battery, will also be said, but also a little later. It is worth noting that this is a more promising option for batteries. At the same time, a number of technological features do not allow them to be widely used. In addition, their cost is not so affordable.
How to understand that the battery is low?
A car battery is almost never discharged suddenly, because the generator is constantly recharging. But again, this is with good electrical equipment. However, sometimes this may not be enough. It all depends on the nature of the operation of the car. If the trips are frequent and short, then the energy consumption will always be large and the generator is simply not able to make up for the losses.
Sooner or later, the charge drops to a critical level. In addition, low and negative temperatures act as a catalyst - the discharge time in cold weather is noticeably reduced. For this reason, the need for recharging occurs more often. But how to understand that the battery has lost its charge? A number of symptoms may indicate this:
- With the ignition on, all the lights go out.
- When the engine is idle, the lighting of the light fixtures is dim than usual.
- While turning the key, you can hear the starter spinning several times and notice that it is difficult for him to crank the crankshaft. In addition, loud clicks are heard.
- If the discharge is deep, then the starting device does not turn on at all. The same can be said of the retractor mechanism.
It is important not only to know to what voltage you need to charge the car battery, but to be able to recognize its discharge in time. Do not allow a deep battery discharge! Otherwise, sulfation of the plates cannot be avoided; this reduces the battery capacity.
What is characteristic, the appearance of these signs may be due to oxidized terminals or poor tightening of the contacts. It is easy to check the charge using a multimeter or hydrometer. A reading of 12.6-12.8 Volts will indicate that the battery is fully charged, but if the display shows 11.8 V or less, then the battery is completely discharged. When using a hydrometer, the positive value of the capacitance is 1.27 g / cm 3 .
Charger Selection
In order to properly charge the battery, you should choose the appropriate device. In fact, it is an electric power converter and the simplest circuit consists of a step-down transformer and a diode bridge. The principle of operation is simple - the supplied alternating voltage (220 V) passes through the listed elements and is converted to direct current with a nominal value of 14-16 V. Actually, this is how much you need to charge the battery.
Many beginners often think about how to charge a car battery. Moreover, the answer must be known in advance, as this will allow you to choose the right device. In addition, there are two charging schemes:
- at a direct current;
- at constant voltage.
Moreover, each species has its own advantages and disadvantages. The devices of the first type are able to fully charge the battery (already a plus), however, electrolyte overheating may occur. This negatively affects the battery life.
By using DC charging, the above problem can be avoided. At the same time, at the end of the cycle, the current value decreases. As a result, the battery cannot be fully charged (this can already be considered a drawback).
Suitable option
However, there is no reason to despair, since in many automotive stores you can find combined chargers. The battery charges at constant current. In this case, the voltage varies within reasonable limits, which avoids many unpleasant nuances. However, such devices are quite expensive.
In addition, many car enthusiasts are interested not only in what voltage the car battery can be charged to, but they are also asked by another equally important question. It is about what is better to choose - transformer or pulse charger?
The first device is characterized by a higher degree of reliability, but has large dimensions and weight. The second type has compact dimensions, but its reliability is fully dependent on the manufacturer. Therefore, there are certain risks to come across a poor-quality device.
Preparatory stage
For many motorists, the charging process does not seem complicated. It is worth carefully reading the instructions, which are mandatory to be attached to any charger.
But along with this, it is necessary to take into account a number of nuances:
- Caution and mindfulness. When removing a battery with liquid electrolyte, you need to ensure that it does not spill from plugs or necks. Otherwise, the surface should be treated with a 10% solution of caustic soda, although ordinary food is also suitable.
- Non-residential premises. Battery charging is carried out only in non-residential premises, since during this process the electrolyte heats up and boils, forming an oxygen-hydrogen mixture. Harmful vapors by inhalation can cause serious harm to health. In addition, an open source of fire will inevitably lead to fire and even explosion.
- Battery check. It is not so important to understand what voltage to charge a car battery, the main thing is to make sure that it is working. In most cases, the cause of battery malfunction lies in a short circuit in one of the cans or several at once. This can be understood by the signs of electrolyte boiling when the charger is turned on. If the battery starts to heat up quickly at the set current, this is a symptom of sulfation of the plates.
- Electrolyte level control. It should also be checked before recharging the battery and, if necessary, add disciplined water.
After that, you can go directly to the procedure itself. She also has her own characteristics, which will be discussed later.
Features of charging the battery at home
When the preparatory phase is completed, you can start connecting the charger to the battery. But for the correct procedure, some features should be taken into account. And first of all, it concerns the choice of the optimal current strength, so the information below will also help you choose the right charger.
The optimal value is 10% of the battery capacity. In other words, for a battery with 55 A / h, the charging current should not exceed 5.5 A. By analogy, you can calculate the current for other capacitance values - 60, 65, 75 A / h. For such batteries, the indicators will be 6.0, 6.5 and 7.5 A, respectively.
As for another parameter, the same 10% appear here, only from the voltage on a fully charged car battery (they should be added). For example, for a battery it is 12.6 V, then 10% will be 1.26 V. Finally, we get the optimal voltage for charging - 12.6 + 1.26 = 13.86 V.
In some cases, the process can go much faster with a much higher current - from 20 to 30 A. However, in this case, you can damage the battery and for this reason it is better to refuse this method.
When charging gel maintenance-free batteries, it is necessary to ensure that the voltage does not reach a critical level of more than 14.2 V. Based on these criteria, the battery will be charged correctly.
We do the battery charge correctly
As we now know, there are two constant-value battery charging schemes:
In this case, the constant voltage method is quite simple to implement. All that is required is to set the optimal current value (as we recall, 10% of the battery capacity). As the battery charges, the current will decrease. The end of the process will be the lowering of the arrow of the device to “0”. As a rule, the whole procedure can take from 10 to 13 hours.
How to charge the car battery with the second method? Everything is a bit more complicated here. First you need to set the same 10% of the battery capacity and at this current value, charging will continue until the voltage on the battery reaches 14 V. After that, it is necessary to reduce the current by half, so that the voltage readings increase to 15 V. Then you should reduce the current again by half . A full charge of the battery will be indicated by the fact that within an hour the voltage readings will not change.
Calcium Car Battery
Charging calcium batteries is slightly different from the traditional options that we have already considered - here the permissible voltage is from 16.1 to 16.5 V. For these purposes, you need a good device, such as Orion Pennant 55, which contains several charging programs and algorithms. It is only worth noting that the device is quite expensive - about 3-3.5 thousand rubles. But if funds were found to buy an equally expensive branded calcium battery (their price can reach up to 10,000 rubles), then it makes sense to purchase a good charger.
The process itself is performed in the following order:
- Stage I. The voltage is set to 16.1 V, and the current according to the already known scheme is 10% of the battery capacity. In this mode, the battery is charged until the current reaches 0.5 A. This completes the first cycle. This may take several hours.
- Stage II. In this charging mode, periodic changes in voltage and current are characteristic. “Algorithm 1” (voltage - 16.1 V, current - 3 A) and “Algorithm 3” (voltage - 13.2, current - 0 A) are set on the device.
It is important to grasp the essence of how to charge a calcium car battery. At stage II, charging is carried out in waves: that is, the voltage from 12.7 V will increase to 16.1 V. After that, the current drops to 0, and the voltage drops to 13.2 V. In order to return to the original value (16.1 V ), it takes time (about 20-30 minutes). In this case, the entire process is displayed on the display of the device.
Upon reaching a voltage of 13.2 V, “Algorithm 1” is connected again. Each time, reaching a value of 16.1 V will be faster. At some point, to reach the maximum threshold, it will take several tens of seconds, and the minimum - a few minutes. This will indicate that the battery is ready for use and that charging can be completed.