Battery Charging

[jonathan]

Just seen this on a premium motoring website:-

A conditioning float charger automatically assesses the battery and maintains it at a constant 13.5 volts. It can safely be hooked up without disconnecting the battery. A trickle charger is effectively a slow charger, and the battery has to be disconnected or the process might fry components such as the ECU

Is this true?

As my Jazz is not used much and I leave it on trickle charge the battery connected to car.

Any thoughts...

[guest1372]

We have the MX-5 on an intelligent Oxford charger seems to work fine without disconnecting the battery. Only caution is routing the cable so you can't forget about it before backing out of the garage.

I don't think a dumb trickle charger would do any damage at all either, as most components are isolated by ignition and relays when parked up, plus the alternator is effectively a charger and that does no harm to components while driving. A full battery would not take any charge from a basic trickle charger, although a faulty battery might draw currents higher than desired.
--
TG

[culzean]

I have always thought that a high amperage 'booster charger' (quick charger) has a high voltage (about 18 volts) to 'flood' current into a battery quickly,  and a trickle charger has a lower voltage (less than 14V)  to well,  for want of a better word 'trickle' current into a battery - the lower the voltage difference between the normal 12.0 to 12.6 and the charger voltage,  the less  current flows into the battery. 

The difference between a conditioning charger and a trickle charger is very small.  I can see that 18 volts available from a high output charger would fry some components because highest charging voltage seen by system normally is about 14.8 volts.  I have used a trickle charger many times on both motorbike and car batteries without disconnecting them (in fact I have a two pin plug on a flying lead permanently connected to motorbike battery to connect the charger to save keep taking seat on and off to access battery).  Only thing I wold say was to connect the  charger leads to battery before plugging charger into mains socket to avoid any potential voltage spikes.

[longlegpete]

I have always thought that a high amperage 'booster charger' (quick charger) has a high voltage (about 18 volts) to 'flood' current into a battery quickly,  and a trickle charger has a lower voltage (less than 14V)  to well,  for want of a better word 'trickle' current into a battery - the lower the voltage difference between the normal 12.0 to 12.6 and the charger voltage,  the less  current flows into the battery. 

The difference between a conditioning charger and a trickle charger is very small.  I can see that 18 volts available from a high output charger would fry some components because highest charging voltage seen by system normally is about 14.8 volts.  I have used a trickle charger many times on both motorbike and car batteries without disconnecting them (in fact I have a two pin plug on a flying lead permanently connected to motorbike battery to connect the charger to save keep taking seat on and off to access battery).  Only thing I wold say was to connect the  charger leads to battery before plugging charger into mains socket to avoid any potential voltage spikes.

Would agree 100%, its the high current of some chargers that can damage electrical components, I use the same, fly leads for fast conections on all my bikes, sometimes they are left on all year without problems,  have also done the same with the jazzes for a few months at a time without problems 

[plasma]

I have always thought that a high amperage 'booster charger' (quick charger) has a high voltage (about 18 volts) to 'flood' current into a battery quickly,  and a trickle charger has a lower voltage (less than 14V)  to well,  for want of a better word 'trickle' current into a battery - the lower the voltage difference between the normal 12.0 to 12.6 and the charger voltage,  the less  current flows into the battery. 

The difference between a conditioning charger and a trickle charger is very small.  I can see that 18 volts available from a high output charger would fry some components because highest charging voltage seen by system normally is about 14.8 volts.  I have used a trickle charger many times on both motorbike and car batteries without disconnecting them (in fact I have a two pin plug on a flying lead permanently connected to motorbike battery to connect the charger to save keep taking seat on and off to access battery).  Only thing I wold say was to connect the  charger leads to battery before plugging charger into mains socket to avoid any potential voltage spikes.

Would agree 100%, its the high current of some chargers that can damage electrical components, I use the same, fly leads for fast conections on all my bikes, sometimes they are left on all year without problems,  have also done the same with the jazzes for a few months at a time without problems

+1, yes I do the same with my bikes and Jazz, never had a problem.

Plasma.