Think about a situation when your car battery is dead. Now, you might be thinking that you need to buy a new battery. But what if I tell you there’s a way you can turn the dead battery alive?
A battery usually requires changing after a long time. If you’re not using your car for a month or so, you might find the battery dead. You can start the battery again with a little trick called trickle charging.
Let’s get to know about how to connect a trickle charger to a car battery and jump-start it.
Table of Contents
What Is A Trickle Charger?
A trickle charger is not technically a charger or a device. It’s a method to charge a device with low amperage. It only applies if you haven’t used your car for a while and the battery doesn’t seem to respond. This happens because the battery goes cold or it dries out. You should know that even a parked car can eat up all the juice.
You might be thinking that the engine has an alternator that’s supposed to charge the car battery. So, why did the battery dry out? That’s because the alternator only charges when the car is used frequently. The alternator starts charging the car when the RPM hits 1000+. Otherwise, the battery just gives and gives but gets nothing in return.
Think about keeping an ac plugged in and kept off with a remote. Still, it will eat a little bit of electricity. The same thing happens with your car. Doesn’t really matter if it’s safely parked in the garage, it will take energy from the battery and dry it out.
So, to make sure you can use that battery again you need a trickle charged. I will show you the step by step way of starting a dead battery with a trickle charger.
Note: you can’t turn any battery on with this method. Don’t expect trickle charging to jump-start an expired battery.
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How To Connect A Trickle Charger To A Car Battery?
As this is a matter of motor work, you might think it’s better to rely on a mechanic. But it’s easy. You wouldn’t want to spend a penny on a mechanic if you know how easy it is to jump-start a car battery with this little trick. It’s a way of saving money and also salvaging dead batteries.
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Step 1: Preparing the Battery
Some people prefer doing these things inside the garage or inside a workshop. But to be honest there’s a huge danger to this. Dead batteries sometimes release compressed hydrogen that may have been stored inside the car or the garage.
So, before doing this operation you have to make sure that the car has been kept open for at least two hours in a well-ventilated area or open space. Clean the plunging area of the batteries. Do not keep the car on the ignition and take off the keys from the ignition. Now, with this preparation, you are ready to trickle charge your car battery.
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Step 2: Negative and Positive Connection
Always remember, you should never attach both the plugs on the battery. You just have to pin the positive ends and the negative end should never be attached to the battery. Otherwise, you might cause a fire or an explosion harming yourself, the battery and the car.
Plug the negative terminal to a large bolt that you may find on the engine or the chassis. The negative energy will get the earthing it needs. You can also attach the negative terminal to the car frame. Do not plug it in where there’s dirt or oil. Always attach it to a clean spot.
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Step 3: Attaching the Cables
You will see two alligator clips on the charging end of the trickle charger. Attach the red clip to the battery positive terminal and attach the blue on with the designated negative connection you selected from the previous step. Keep the wires apart.
Some people are foolish enough to turn the electricity on before plunging the cable to the battery. If you do that, you’ll get a serious shock or even cause fatality. Never do that. First, complete all the plugging and then go as far as possible from the car and turn on the charging. Let’s get going with the next steps.
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Final Step: Switch The Charger on and Check
Before getting all excited about turning the battery on, cross-check everything to make sure that you haven’t done anything wrong. If everything is alright you can go for charging.
I hope you are now at a safe distance. Hit the switch right away and check the display of the battery to check if it’s charging or not. A properly charged battery will read less than zero amps, on the other hand, a dead battery will read high. So, keep the charging going on for a certain amount of time and keep checking the reading of the display. It doesn’t take a lot of time as a smartphone to charge to full.
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When the battery is charged, turn off the switch first and then unplug the trickle charger. Don’t get overly excited and start unplugging the alligator clips without switching the charging off.
Now, put those keys in and turn that ignition. If the process is done properly, the car will start. Now, just accelerate for a while on neutral gear to let your alternator do the rest of the charging. Sometimes the car tends to break down when the battery is not adequately charged.
Watch this Practical Video:
Final Words
So these are the easy steps to start your car battery with a trickle charger. If you have followed all the steps properly, you’re sure to get your battery working in no time. If you don’t see the car igniting, don’t worry. You might have tried it on an expired battery or the reading was wrong.
Just redo the steps explained above and you’ll surely have a working battery. So, this was how to install a trickle charger on a car and bring it back from the dead. Try this before running off to buy a new car battery every time it goes cold before expiring. It’ll save you a lot of money, trust me!
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