Taking care of your car battery is one of the most important tasks to do for your car. Usually, the new batteries don’t need to charge as they are in good condition, and they get charged when you drive the car. After a few years of usages, your car battery may lose its efficiency and need charging. You can charge your car battery either using a battery charger or from another car battery.
For charging your car battery accurately, you should make sure to use the proper steps. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you in charging your car battery safely and quickly.
Charging Your Car Battery Using a Charger
Step 1
First, you can remove the battery from your car and clean the terminals. For cleaning the terminals, you can use sandpaper and scrub around the terminals to clean them. Also, you can make a solution of baking soda and clean water and dip a clean cloth in that and then rub the terminals with that cloth. While doing this process, you should ensure that the solution is not coming in contact with your skin and clothes. If the terminals have a layer of a white powder, then you should avoid touching it as it can burn your skin.
Step 2
Now, you should remove the cell caps to make the battery ready for charging. Also, some batteries don’t include cell caps. If your battery doesn’t have cell caps, then you can skip this step. But if the battery contains cell caps, then you must ensure to remove those caps before starting to charge the battery. By removing the cell caps, you can allow the gases in the battery to dissipate into the atmosphere.
Step 3
Then you can connect the cables of the charger to the battery terminals to start charging. While connecting the cables, you should ensure to connect the red wire to the positive terminal and the black one to the negative terminal of the battery. Also, you should avoid touching both the terminals because that may cause a spark.
Step 4
After connecting the cables to the battery terminals, you can switch on the charger. Now, the battery will start charging. After a few hours, you can switch off the battery charger and check the voltage. If the voltage is 12.6 volts, then you can make sure that your car battery is fully charged. If the voltage reading is less than 12.6 volts, then you may consider charging it until it reaches to that voltage.
Step 5
After some time, you can check the voltage of your car battery again. This time, if you get accurate voltage readings, then you can use the battery in your car.
Charging Your Car Battery Using Another Car Battery
Step 1
In order to charge your car battery using another car battery, first, you need to place both the cars closely. Also, you should ensure that they are not touching each other. After placing both the cars closely, you can turn off the engines of both cars.
Step 2
Now, you can use jumper cables to connect the batteries. First, you can connect the positive terminal of the uncharged battery to a jumper and the other end of the jumper to the positive terminal of the charged battery. After that, you can connect another jumper to the negative terminal of the charged battery. Then you can connect the other end of that jumper to a metal part of the car that has the uncharged battery. By doing this, you can ground the car that contains the uncharged battery. You can connect the jumper to the metal part that is not painted or oxidized.
Step 3
Now, you can start the engine of the car that has the charged battery. When you start the car, the uncharged battery of your car will start charging. You can keep the engine in on condition for a few minutes to let the uncharged battery start charging.
Step 4
After a few minutes, you can try to start the car that contains the uncharged battery. If the battery has developed some charge, then the engine will start easily. If the engine doesn’t start, you can allow some more time to it to develop the charge.
Step 5
If the engine with the uncharged battery starts, then you can disconnect all the jumpers. First, you can disconnect the ground jumper connected to the metal part of the car with the previously uncharged battery. After that, you can disconnect the jumper connected to the negative terminal of the charged battery. Then you can disconnect the cable, from the positive terminal of the charged battery, and lastly from the positive terminal of the previously uncharged battery.
Step 6
After disconnecting the cables, you can let the car with previously uncharged battery run for a few minutes. By doing this, you can allow the battery to charge. Also, you can drive the car for at least 20 minutes or half an hour to provide sufficient charge to the battery.
Conclusion
You should ensure to maintain your car battery to prevent it from damaging. If your car battery is not able to start your car engine effectively, then you may need to consider charging your car battery. As the car battery contains dangerous acid, you need to take extra care while charging your car battery.
Therefore, you can follow the above steps to charge your car battery effectively.