I've got a trickle charger hooked to a car battery - outside of the
car.


I'm assuming that when the ammmeter drops to zero, the battery is
charged?


Thanks


Matt

"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a trickle charger hooked to a car battery - outside of the
car.


I'm assuming that when the ammmeter drops to zero, the battery is
charged?


Thanks


Matt

Ordinarily on a regular (5-15 amps or whatever) charger the battery will be
fully charged once it reaches and stabilizes at about 1/2 the maximum charge
rate i.e. 7 1/2 amps on a 15 amp charger. If you wait for it to reach zero
(which won't ever happen unless you have a bad battery) it may be
overcharging your battery. Newer batteries may go lower than 1/2 the charge
rate and older batteries may be as charged as they will ever get at a little
above 1/2. If you leave even a trickle charger on all the time you will
need to check the electrolyte level often and you may ruin your battery by
overcharging it. Even a float charger can boil away your electrolyte if
given enough time.

What I do is check my batteries with a hydrometer and determine at what
amperage on the meter they are fully charged if I am using a manual charger,
or use my Vector Smart Charger and not worry about it.

thanks man

When amp. meter drops to zero it means
that you not putting anything into battery
and not that you battery is charge
there are several factors involved why
you meter may go to zero main one
is a battery in good health when battery
start to get old it start to built resistance
hence showing as fully charge but actually
battery could be dead. also as temperature
increases the amount of current battery
absorbing will drop
from Dido

"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a trickle charger hooked to a car battery - outside of the
car.


I'm assuming that when the ammmeter drops to zero, the battery is
charged?


Thanks


Matt

Depends.

When charge rate drops to min, what you might call short-term charging
is essentially done, while transitioning to dissociating water to
hydrogen & oxygen.

Around which time lead sulfate crystals, which might have formed on
plates over time, are acted on. After some days, with a sulfated
battery, you might see increase in s.g. readings of cells.

HTH,
J