Old Car Battery Charger - How to use it?

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The battery seems to have died on my old W reg Corsa as I didn't keep running the engine through all the snow.

I have a Selmar Turbo 6 12v Battery Charger, but no instructions and I'm not sure how to use it. Anyone any ideas?

Do I plug it in to charge for a certain length of time and then take it out to the car, or do I need to take the battery out of the car and connect it all together to charge indoors?

Any help appreciated, I have very little car knowledge, sadly!
 
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check the rating plate on the charger (its not long and orange is it with an ammeter on one side?)

if you have a coded radio, make sure you know the code.

remove the battery from the car, connect it up indoors.

if its the same as my selmar, its a 4A max charge, so I leave mine on overnight for a completly flat battery, or when the ammeter goes down to 0, or near to 0 (its telling you the charge current, NOT the power in the battery)

if its completly dud, you may find you need a new battery, out of interest how old is it? if its the original, its done well anyway.
 
if you can protect it completely from rain and wet, and the flex is not a hazard, you can recharge it on the car. I prefer to put all connections and chager under the bonnet and prop it nearly closed to keep the rain out.

check the + (red) and - (black) indicators on the battery at least twice, and stick extra labels on them if they are not eye catching. If you connect the charger the wrong way round it will be damaged (or depending on model will have a replaceable internal fuse). Guess how I know that.

Electrical items used outdoors should be protected with an RCD inside the house (you can buy an RCD adaptor, as used for lawnmowers, at electrical or gardening places)
 
I'm guessing the ammeter is the thing on the front with the needle and 1 3 5 6 7? So that's on the front, the charger itself is a sqareish black box, no long orange bits (sorry - I REALLY don't have a clue about this stuff)

There is a switch on the front with 6v or 12v.

Back says
Input 240v 50Hz 85W
Output 6/12v 4A DC
Min Capacity 20Ah

It's not the original battery, no, think RAC replaced it last year. I presume it's the battery, anyway - when I try to start it I get one brief, dying noise then nothing. But I was very stupid and didn't keep going out and starting it when we had all the snow.

Thank you so much for your help - am lost with all this stuff without my step-dad who died last year.
 
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I think I'll bring it in to be on the safe side - pretty sure I remember it not being to hard to get the battery out. And will check carefully!

Don't know if my radio does have a code, but I've never put one in, so I'll just hope for the best.

Thanks so much to both of you :)
 
you should not need to keep starting the car. A battery in good condition will keep its charge for a month or so (unless there is a drain like an internal or boot light switched on, or an incorrectly fitted accessory like a radio).

Running the engine for short periods causes internal moisture in the engine oil, and it takes quite a while to put back as much energy into the battery as the starter took out.

It is more common for batteries to go flat in winter, partly from the cold, but also because lights, heater blower, heated rear window and wipers are used a lot more, and the engine is running slowly. so unless you have a long journey, you may drain more from the battery each time you use the car. Running at tickover does not charge the battery much as the alternator is spinning quite slowly.

About 12 hours on a trickle charger should be right, but you will see the ammeter dropping from max to min as the battery clowly charges up.
 
Ahh, will be a combination of the cold, then, along with mainly short journeys before I stopped using it for about 2 weeks in the worst of the snow.

Thanks for that - will bear it in mind in future!
 
Set the charger to 12v.
Your radio does have a code, and it will be lost if the battery is disconnected.
There is no problem charging the battery up on the car, but you must not reverse the polarity clips for even a second.
The battery will initially charge at about 5 amps, but after a few hours this will drop to 1 or 2 amps.
John :)
 
Thanks John,
Is there any way of finding out the radio code before I start then? It's never worked properly anyway (since I bought it 2nd hand) and doesn't look like the original one - it's one of them where the front comes off. Radio's never worked, only cds.

I'll have to bring the battery in 'cos the car's on the street and I don't think I have a long enough extension lead or the time to keep an eye on it while it charges...
 
photo of the radio, or its make and model, will help
 
There's a few firms on the web that will code your radio for you, for a small fee....some individuals even give it for free if you quote the serial numbers on the side.
Anyway, why not do this - assuming wee Corsa will start?
Drive down to a local friendly motor factor. They will do a heavy discharge test on the battery,check your charging voltage, and fit you a new battery if it needs one while you wait...saves all the fuss in the long run. They will also fit a memory saver that will keep the radio code when they do this.
If Corsa has the grumps and doesn't want to start, connect up your charger for an hour...my guess is that it will come back to life.
John :)
 
Radio seems to be a Fusion FCD-135MP3S 45W X 4 :: MP3/CDTuner

I have never understood it properly and only the CD player has ever worked. I'm not too bothered if ot locks me out or whatever, I've had the code done on one for about 15 quid in the past, or I'll just use MP3 player with speakers in the car.

The reason I'm doing all this myself is that I have a grand total of £7 til pay day, so any garage work is completely out of the question. Even though there's a lovely one that I trust not too far away.

So I'll try charging the battery first, then take it from there :)
 
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