Charging a flat 150 battery

[meatman61 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close meatman61]

Would like to know if you need a special battery charger to charge a flat 150 battery. Reason for asking is..
My eldest son has just bought a new Twin-cab Hilux. Doing a few jobs on it on the weekend, left accessories/doors open ect, next morning, battery to flat to start.
Put charger on(not sure what type he has). Left for couple hours. When went to start it, no power windows and some other electricals a no go. Turns out, blew a major fuse in a lume thing somewhere. $140 to replace fuse.
He said he is absolutely sure he didnt cross the terminals when hooking up charger.
Dealer vague as to why it blew.
So, does any one know if there is a special sequence/charger needed for a 150.
Dont want to find out the hard way to if it happens to me.
Thanks.

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Sounds odd, any battery charger that will charge a flat battery will do, some chargers require
a certain battery terminal voltage before they will start to charge.

Most smart chargers will tell you if you have connected them the wrong way around, a
small charger certainly wouldn't blow a fuseable link and at $140 it sounds like one that was replaced, the charger would burnout before the link?

Someone didn't try to jump start it by any chance?

Cheers
Leigh

[meatman61 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close meatman61]

No to jump start, went strait to the charger.
Seemed odd to me to, so i thought i would just float the question.

[Cuvier100 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cuvier100]

I would only use a charger that is suitable for a deep cycle battery i.e. 3 or more charge stages. Most of these chargers are designed to charge the battery in the car. For example a CTEK MXS 7.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

But what if it's not a deep cycle battery?

[Cuvier100 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cuvier100]

These chargers are designed to suit a variety of batteries from deep cycle to lead acid.

[gspy4u Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gspy4u]

If it was an old type charger did he disconnect the terminals from the car first ?

[rwo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close rwo]

Is it safe to actually hook a smart charger to the car (I have a CTEK MXS25) with the batteries still connected?

I did this on the weekend, not really thinking to much into it, then had a call from the missus when I was at work the next day "Errr, the car wont start"! My brain got ticking at 100mph for the rest of the afternoon, trying to think what I have fried and how much it was going to cost to fix. Anyway, on investigation when I got home, car was fine and the missus was gently reminded she needs to put foot on break to start it....

But it brings the point to mind, are these chargers safe to use connected to the car?

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Yes, a multi stage charger will reduce the charge voltage once the battery/s are charged and allow the unit to be left on 24/7. I personally wouldn't leave it unattended for weeks on end as like any piece of electronic equipment it could fail and there's no guarantee as to what will happen if it does.

I tend to leave mine charging when I'm around but a I disconnect it one day a week to let the batteries have a rest and discharge a bit.

Cheers
Leigh

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Will a multi-stage charger hooked up to the primary battery charge the aux as well via the isolator?

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

It depends, if the charger is connected to the cranking battery and the isolator
doesn't have an ignition trigger function then yes it will providing it has a reasonable
output capacity.

Some Redarc units are bidirectional, you can connect a charger to either the cranking
battery or the aux and they will link.

Cheers
Leigh

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

I have a Redarc unit connected across to my deep cycle battery. When I was O/S last year, I connected a small CTEK M300 charger unit to the starter battery, and left instructions for my daughter to turn the unit on, on a specific day, and turn it off 2 days later.

When I returned several days later, both starter and deep cycle battery were just under 14 volts, more charge than just driving around normally, where the charge the following day is around the 12.5 to 12.7 mark.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Thanks Leigh. I'm using the ABR-Sidewinder DBi-140R isolator, I don't think it has an ignition trigger. The charger is a Projecta Pro-Charge PC800 8 amp unit.

http://www.sidewinder.com.au/page79.html

http://www.everybattery.com.au/prodd...php?prod=PC800

ETA: Checked with Derek and he confirmed it will charge both batteries if connected to the main.