Charger simply drains amps - new charger or new battery?

cmscss · Post by **cmscss** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:07 pm

Hi There,

I have a battery charger that is also a power supply. Whenever I've tried to charge a battery, I've notice that all it does is drain the amps from the battery.

In the past I'd assumed it was the battery but I'm beginning to suspect that the charger may be the culprit as this is a fairly new battery.

Is it possible that a faulty charger can simply drain all the amps from a battery instead of charging it? The Power supply portion works, it's just the charger function.

Very green when it comes to this stuff so sorry if it's simple. Also, does anyone know of a good place to get MKI MX5 batteries?

Cheers

Ben

evel · Post by **evel** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 5:00 pm

Sounds like an interesting fault.
What sort of charger is it? and how old?
Have you tried it on any other batteries?
How long does it take it to drain the charge?
Are you using anything to test the battery before and after charging?

In terms of getting a new battery Repco is pretty good, plus I think they can test your battery and tell you whether you really need a new one.

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:04 pm

I bought an imax b6 charger designed primarily for radio controlled cars. it will charge ANYTHING . i use a 6 amp laptop power supply to power it. i charge everything from single cell lithium to car batteries and you can program in the current so you can limit it to 100 milliamps. they are pretty cheap too.

cmscss · Post by **cmscss** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:09 pm

Thanks heaps for the replies,

What sort of charger is it? and how old?

The Charger is just called a 'Dual Source' and was purchased about 8 years ago from Part Master. It's never worked for charging but I always assumed it was the batteries because I have a really old bimer that I didn't drive much - I ended up using the device to start it in power supply mode and getting the alternator to charge it.

Have you tried it on any other batteries?

Not recently but I've tried to charge at least 3 batteries over the past few years - the most recent one is about a year old and hadn't gone completely flat.

How long does it take it to drain the charge?

It takes about 1-2 hrs then the Amps are at 0

Are you using anything to test the battery before and after charging?

No sorry, I don't know what you mean.

2low2c · Post by **2low2c** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:19 pm

if i am reading this wright the amp needle is going from say 6 down to 1 or 2 on the charger. if so then it is charging correctly the amp needle is showing the amps going into the battery from the charger not the amps in the battery.

rake · Post by **rake** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:54 pm

http://thebatteryclinic.co.nz/

If you want cheap go with these guys. I'v never ha a problem although i don't keep cars for long. $50 and you get a 6 month warranty.

evel · Post by **evel** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:03 pm

What 2low2c said. The amps gauge on the charger will be showing how many amps the charger is applying to the battery, in other words as the battery fills up the amps slowly drop.
Re my testing question I mean do you test the battery with a digital battery tester and/or a carbon pile tester. If you don't know what these are don't stress out, they just apply a load to the battery to simulate starting a car.

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:54 pm

dont over charge your battery, you will cook all the charge out of it. also dont let it get dead flat (like under 11 volts) as that kills batteries too.

cmscss · Post by **cmscss** » Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:34 am

Thanks heaps for all the replies - very helpful.

I'll put the battery back on the charger and see what happens. In the past, a batteries didn't worked even if left on the charger overnight but they may have been a buggered batteries which I'm sure this one isn't.

The Charger seems to have 3 automatic modes (bulk charge, over charge and float charge) and the manual says you can leave a battery permanently on the charger until ready for use so am pretty sure it won't cook the charge but I don't know.

Will see what happens today.

Cheers

Ben

Charger simply drains amps - new charger or new battery?

Charger simply drains amps - new charger or new battery?

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