In article ,
Arfa Daily wrote:
All of the 'off-vehicle' battery chargers that I've seen here in the UK,
are just a transformer, couple of diodes and a fuse and meter.

[Sucks breath through teeth]

Even my 10 year old Halfords one is a bit more sophisticated than that. ;-)

Most decent modern ones will also change to a float charge when the
battery is fully charged. So called 'sealed' - actually low maintenance
types - don't like being left to gas heavily as once was the norm.

[snip]

Interesting about the exploding batteries. I'm sure that temperature
must be a big factor in this. I've been in Florida when there has been
sustained heat. The UK does get that hot, but only for a day or so at a
time. I have never had a car battery explode on me, and I can't think
of ever having heard of any friends or colleagues that have either.

It used to be fairly common when garages had battery charging areas -
mechanics would plug or unplug one from the communal charger and a spark
would do the rest. But H&S regs would probably make sure any such area
these days was properly ventilated. But I'd agree with you - I've not
known one explode on a car.

On the other hand, we do get sustained periods of cold ( or at least we
used to ) in the winter, and I don't recall ever having heard of a
battery freezing. Looking around on the net, the freezing point of
sulphuric acid, seems to be around the -20C mark depending on
concentration, so that might be why batteries don't typically freeze
here, but what happens when these things are in use up in the north of
Canada or wherever ? Do freeze inhibitors have to be added ? Does a
frozen battery cease to produce any current at all, and does it recover
if left to unfreeze ?

I remember stories long time ago about those in Scandinavian countries etc
with severe winters taking the battery indoors at night. That would be a
pain these days with all the memories on a modern car.

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.