I've had a car sitting for almost a year and the battery doesn't have enough charge to start the vehicle. Is the Kmart battery charger any good? Or is there something else cheap that is adequate elsewhere?
Thanks
Kmart Battery Charger - 12V Any Good to Charge up Battery That Has Been for Flat for A Year?
subywagon on 05/03/2018 - 08:05
Last edited 05/03/2018 - 11:39 by 1 other user
Last edited 05/03/2018 - 11:39 by 1 other user
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Looks identical to my 20 year old Arlec. About the same 2 amp rate, my experience has been 7-10 hours for dead batteries of small-mid size (probably 9 and 11 or 12 plates). 100% reliable but only used a handful of times.
Note the caps should be removed and water levels checked prior to charging. I haven't tried charging a sealed, no maintenance battery and not sure if that's possible or safe.
Just noticed this too.
Get a CTEK four around $80. Swedish technology that works brilliantly as an intelligent charger. Has eight stages of charging and some models have a recondition mode if you're battery needs a deep kick start. I have 4 of them for my motorbikes and cars and plug them in with comfort connectors or cig light adapters. All made by CTEK.
You can get similar clones ( cheaper ) but I have no experience with them.
+1 on CTEK. Got one and very happy with it.
+1 on Ctek also. Occasionally they go on sale on ebay or Repco.
Another vote for CTEK here
I've had a car sitting for almost a year and the battery doesn't have enough charge to start the vehicle.
Can you jump start it? My guess is that after being flat for an extended period of time your battery is likely stuffed. Jump start it and then let it run for a while for the car to charge the battery up, but I wouldn't be holding my breath in regards tot he battery.
It jump starts no problem. It wasn't totally dead, just not enough juice to get it going. I hope it's not stuffed. I bought it brand new a year ago and only used it once! I don't think an alternator will charge a fully drained battery. The cars not registered, so we can't take it for a good drive.
An alternator should charge the battery fine, that's what it is designed to do. Might pay to take it to a place that does the free battery testing (think Supercheap, Repco, Kmart tyre and auto Batteryworld etc all do it) and get it tested first, they should probably even charge it up for you as part of the test. Generally, batteries don't like being left flat, so might pay to leave a solar maintenance charger attached if it is going to be parked up for a while again.
Just call nrma, get a jump start, drive it around for half an hour. That will work fine at no cost (assuming you're an nrma member) assuming your battery isn't dead (in which case the trickle charger wouldn't help either). Nrma might also diagnose your battery to tell you if it is dead or not, save you having to take it into a mechanic to ask their opinion, or paying money for a diagnostic tool, or buying a new battery when you didn't need to.
Edit: didn't see the above that the car wasn't registered. If this is the case, you just want to drive it to the RTA right??
eBay for a HC20A if you can wait. Costs a tiny bit more but charges at 20A.
Sooooooooooooooooo may variables.
Borrow a charger, charge for 12-36 hours, and have battery load tested properly at your local service centre. Remember, it must be fully recharged for a reliable load test. It must be slow/trickle charged for a safe recharge.
Then…..
If you are not driving the vehicle, disconnect the battery(BMIs and SMs) do still have a slight drain 24/7), and or start and run the engine/drive around your property to get the juices for all the moving components flowing for 15min a week. This helps reduce tyre and bearing flat spots, and keeps hydraulics - brakes/clutch systems from sitting failures, etc etc.That's the plan until I have time to get it ready for rego. I ended up buying the Kmart charger as I very rarely need one. I'll leave the battery charging over night and see how it goes.
I think Kmart charger killed my battery, it was low when I started charging (around 10V) and by the morning it was between 3 and 0V
I'm not sure what happened, but I do not recommend these chargers
I have the kmart charger- it charges.
I also bought a 12v charger off aliexpress. It's basically a laptop brick with clips for $5 it also works but very slowly (which is fine if you not in a hurry). Though to use it you need to have bigger clips (I just put jumper leads on the battery terminal and attach the charger leads to that (not ideal but seems to work.
Just leave it charging for a few days.
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Don't forget to check the water level if your battery as well.