Need help charging battery

[notned]

It's a twelve volt battery that hasn't been used much.

My charger has a 6 amp setting and a 2 amp setting. When I put it on two amps it will charge one amp. When I put it on 6 amps it will charge 4 amps.

To the side it has a percent charged reading and at 4 amps it says 100% charged.

In side the teardrop there's a voltage meter while hooked to the charger it says 12.5 volts which according to the chart that I got here its almost fully charged. When I come back an hour after charging then we're down to 12.1 - half charged.

I had the idea that I would trickle charge to baby the battery. So far I've got a half day in.

I really don't know what I'm doing.....help

[Miriam C.]

Trickle charge can take a while. If this doesn't work then you might take it to a battery shop or Walmart and see if it has a dead cell. Sometimes batteries loose their charge for too long and just never work the same again.

[wannabefree]

Lead acid batteries that sit around without being charged regularly undergo a process called sulfation. This is a buildup of sulfur dioxide on the plates that acts as an insulator. This may be your problem. You can at least partially alleviate it by going through several charge/discharge cycles. If that doesn't help you likely will need a new battery.

[notned]

I'm happy this morning. I hit the battery for probably 3 hours with the 6 amp last night, and this morning I'm up to 12.6 volts. So that's 100% right?

[Miriam C.]

I'm happy this morning. I hit the battery for probably 3 hours with the 6 amp last night, and this morning I'm up to 12.6 volts. So that's 100% right?

That it is. You might get a battery maintainer to keep it charged when not in use. It will last longer!

[notned]

I'll look into that. Thanks very much for your help.

[Dale M.]

I would put charger on battery at 6 amp setting and let it go for 24 hours then take reading with independent volts meter... Do not worry about charger setting, a battery will only absorb the electrical energy from charger and store it as chemical energy that it can internally chemically handle...

Actually a full charge 12 volt battery should read 13.5 volts (+/- a tiny bit)....

A lead acid battery puts out at full charge about 2.25 volts per cell...

2.25 x 6 = 13.5 volts...

A fully charged battery at float voltage (hot) will actually go as high as 14 to 14.5 volts if you have decent charger...

Lots of good reading about batteries here....

http://www.batteryfaq.org/

Dale

[madjack]

I would put charger on battery at 6 amp setting and let it go for 24 hours then take reading with independent volts meter... Do not worry about charger setting, a battery will only absorb the electrical energy from charger and store it as chemical energy that it can internally chemically handle...

Actually a full charge 12 volt battery should read 13.5 volts (+/- a tiny bit)....

A lead acid battery puts out at full charge about 2.25 volts per cell...

2.25 x 6 = 13.5 volts...

A fully charged battery at float voltage (hot) will actually go as high as 14 to 14.5 volts if you have decent charger...

Lots of good reading about batteries here....

http://www.batteryfaq.org/

Dale

...ditto ditto ditto...notned, I would plan on having to replace that battery soon...........