Message text written by INTERNET:ebk@buffnet.net
> Boy Oh BOY, talk about mess-ups! I realy don't think this happened,
but
I just want to know incase it did happen.
Question: What effect or what would happen if I took the clips of a
.5
Amp battery charger that ran for 2 months [12hr. on (charging) & 12hr.
off] with the Red clip on the Neg. post & the Black clip on the Pos.
post?
<
Cosmo, In many cases you will blow the fuse in the charger (unless the
battery was really dead to begine with). But supposing that there is no
fuse and the charger didn't burn itself up. The battery would discharge to
zero. This phase would take about about 7 days (40 amp-hour/.5 amps = 80
hours; 50% duty cycle = 160 hours; divided by 24 hours a day = 6.67 days.
After this point is reached the battery will begin to recharge with reverse
polarity. You can check this with a volt meter. Measure with the red lead
on the + and the black lead on the - and see it it doesn't read -12 volts.
If so you have reversed charged the battery.
The bad part to this is that battery construction is optimized for a given
polarity and will perform poorly if reversed charged. Discharging and
recharging will not recover the original health as the internal chemestry
will have destroyed the plate configuration and though the battery may work
it won't have the performance or reliability it had originally.
Of course, if your car has an alternator the diodes will limit reverse
charging to about 1.5 volts.
Check the voltage for reverse polarity before you recharge too long.
Good luck
Dave Massey
St. Louis, MO USA
///
/// triumphs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe triumphs
///
///
|