how long to recharge batteries?

[RootBreaker]

ok so my truck has a drain.. to which I am going to start to work on figuring out where it is soon...

however I want to charge the batteries up first...

I know nothing about this stuff...

now google is my friend.. and after some reading..

I read someone explain a dead battery with a 1amp hr charger will take about 35-50hrs....

I dont know how this works...

but let me start in the beginning..

my 2 batteries are each at 11.2v
so I have a 1amp hr charger plugged onto my battery isolator as the back batteries are dead too....


so front 2 batteries are 800cca duralast golds (1000ca each)
ones in back are 1300cca dump truck batteries


I know I can charge just 1 battery but I want to charge them ALL up..


so I have a 1amp hr charger but if your looking at 50hrs on 1 bat.. im looking at A LONG TIME TO CHARGE THEM ALL!!!!!


so I have another charger...
2/10/50

so I can use this one... but what setting and for how long to charge everything up? I dont need to blow them all up as I know I would possibly do...


also when I hookup either charger to just 1 bat I dont get 13+volts but I get like 11.5 TOPS....
is it that it charges and when the battery charges up it accumulates and the battery will eventually reach 14v? if that is the case I have a long way to go for the batteries to be charged.....


Thanks
Jeff

 

[tRustyK5]

I can answer part of your question...for really dead batteries patience is the key. I'd probably do them one at a time on the 2 amp setting. 24 hours on the 2 amp setting should get each one to full charge.

As for how to charge them all concurrently...that depends on how they're wired through your isolator I guess.

Batt voltage will increase as the battery takes more of a charge. With the truck not running a fully charged battery should show approx 12.4-12.7 volts.

I'd find the drain and fix that too...or at least isolate the charged batteries from the electrical system until you do. It's not especially good for them to drain that far unless they're deep cycles.

Rene

 

[RootBreaker]

With the truck not running a fully charged battery should show approx 12.4-12.7 volts.

well I unhooked a battery fully from the system...
think my battery charger isnt great... so when I think im charging I am not...

I checked my battery and it is 10.5v with nothing hooked up...

I put the charger on it at 2a and it still read 10.5v so I figured this is normal..
well I played around with the amp selector and the meter moved... so I think it wasnt doing anything for the last few hrs..
so I just checked the battery voltage with the charger on it and it is 12.5v now so that is better!!!!

 

[tRustyK5]

The guage on the charger should be showing you how much draw the battery has. You can set it on 6 amp or 10 amp and you'll see the meter move quite a bit if it's connected right...then drop back down to the 2 amp.

I brought back a battery that had been dead 5 years using the trickle charge. It was in my wife's old mustang, and after being charged it cranked that 5.0 for quite a while without showing signs that the charge was shallow. I spent almost an hour trying to get the damn thing to fire before giving up...

Rene

 

[RootBreaker]

I can answer part of your question...for really dead batteries patience is the key. I'd probably do them one at a time on the 2 amp setting. 24 hours on the 2 amp setting should get each one to full charge.

As for how to charge them all concurrently...that depends on how they're wired through your isolator I guess.

Batt voltage will increase as the battery takes more of a charge. With the truck not running a fully charged battery should show approx 12.4-12.7 volts.

I'd find the drain and fix that too...or at least isolate the charged batteries from the electrical system until you do. It's not especially good for them to drain that far unless they're deep cycles.

Rene

well I think I got ALL the problems fixed... well not fixed yet... but we will see..


I did as you said above..
unplugged the passenger side bat from everything... 10.5v and charged it up on 2amp for 24hrs..... it read 12.5v
I then moved the charger to the drivers side battery.... and it was at 11.3v and charged it up last night... this morning the drivers side bat is 12.9v.... so I checked the pass bat and it is 9v.... wondering if the bat is bad and discharging itself.... then taking down the drivers side with it!!!!

 

[dremu]

well I think I got ALL the problems fixed... well not fixed yet... but we will see..


I did as you said above..
unplugged the passenger side bat from everything... 10.5v and charged it up on 2amp for 24hrs..... it read 12.5v
I then moved the charger to the drivers side battery.... and it was at 11.3v and charged it up last night... this morning the drivers side bat is 12.9v.... so I checked the pass bat and it is 9v.... wondering if the bat is bad and discharging itself.... then taking down the drivers side with it!!!!

Yeah, if one in a set goes bad all kinds of bad things happen. My sixpack has a pair in it, paralleled (no isolator or anything) and one was older than the other... my bad When the cheapo one started going south, the truck would randomly not start well, charge funny, etc etc.

It now has a matched pair, same type, same age ... much better results. Stable, starts as expected, etc.

-- A

 

[RootBreaker]

well I put 2 new batteries in... duralast gold 1000ca in parallel....
and they died too.. so I still had a draw....

also found it..... seems I had the fuel tank switch wired into battery...so sometimes when on one tank the relay just opens and switches the tank.... then recently I switched to the other tank..... well then it has to use voltage to keep the tank switch that way......

with it plugged in... I had 12.4v on the batteries.... when I unplugged it... I had 12.5v.... so only .1v but still.....