How long does it take to fully charge a battery?
09-08-2012, 10:57 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
How long does it take to fully charge a battery?
My battery was dead, I have a trickle charger hooked up to a red top optima battery. How long does it take to fully charge? I'm wondering if my battery is too dead to recharge. It's been on there since Thursday evening and this morning was not fully charged.
09-08-2012, 11:15 AM
#2
Le Mans Master
A trickle charger may not charge a fully discharged battery, especially an Optima battery. Put a 10 amp charger on it for a couple of hours to get it going then put the trickle charger on it. It still could take several hours. Make sure the battery is not getting hot. It may get warm and that is ok, but if it is getting hot, it probably is not any good.
09-08-2012, 11:15 AM
#3
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St. Jude Donor '13
A trickle charger can take forever, or close enough to forever that you can't tell the difference.
I'd try a normal charger, they're pretty cheap if you don't have one already.
IIRC, some chargers will not charge a really dead battery, the charger requires a little "backtalk" current from the battery to know that it's connected. You might try jumper cables onto the dead battery for a few minutes to get enough juice into it to do a normal charge. If you are lucky...
A battery that has been run completely dead will lose some ability to recharge fully, some folks will tell you to just junk it. But our 2009 sat around the dealer lot for 9 months, I'm sure it went mostly dead several times but battery was still doing fine when replaced at 3 years as a precaution.
I'd try a normal charger, they're pretty cheap if you don't have one already.
IIRC, some chargers will not charge a really dead battery, the charger requires a little "backtalk" current from the battery to know that it's connected. You might try jumper cables onto the dead battery for a few minutes to get enough juice into it to do a normal charge. If you are lucky...
A battery that has been run completely dead will lose some ability to recharge fully, some folks will tell you to just junk it. But our 2009 sat around the dealer lot for 9 months, I'm sure it went mostly dead several times but battery was still doing fine when replaced at 3 years as a precaution.
Last edited by Gearhead Jim; 09-08-2012 at 11:17 AM.
09-08-2012, 11:36 AM
#4
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"How long does it take to fully charge a battery?"
There's no set answer.....it depends on many factors such as the condition of your battery, the type charger you use, how it's being charged, etc. If you don't seem to be getting anywhere I'd take the battery to some place like AutoZone and have them test the battery. It might be past recharging and you need a new battery. Good luck.
There's no set answer.....it depends on many factors such as the condition of your battery, the type charger you use, how it's being charged, etc. If you don't seem to be getting anywhere I'd take the battery to some place like AutoZone and have them test the battery. It might be past recharging and you need a new battery. Good luck.
09-08-2012, 01:03 PM
#5
Le Mans Master
"How long does it take to fully charge a battery?"
There's no set answer.....it depends on many factors such as the condition of your battery, the type charger you use, how it's being charged, etc. If you don't seem to be getting anywhere I'd take the battery to some place like AutoZone and have them test the battery. It might be past recharging and you need a new battery. Good luck.
There's no set answer.....it depends on many factors such as the condition of your battery, the type charger you use, how it's being charged, etc. If you don't seem to be getting anywhere I'd take the battery to some place like AutoZone and have them test the battery. It might be past recharging and you need a new battery. Good luck.
09-08-2012, 02:04 PM
#6
Drifting
A storm recently "activated" my wife's MB warning flashers. Unfortunately, it occurred about 7PM and continued through the night into the morning. By the time I realized it, the battery was dead. After jumping the car, I applied the Deltran Batter Tender every night for three nights. It finally turned "green" on the third morning. We haven't had a battery issue since then (About four months).