How Not to Charge a Battery

[desertbob]

My Duh! moments are getting more frequent but not any less surprising. Even if I anticipate them they can still happen because I didn’t follow the thought through with action quick enough.

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

Always provides a good laugh though.

If we didn’t laugh when we do these things to ourselves we would cry! To err is human, to forgive is sublime. However, thanks for the laugh!

 

[KenDittrick]

So you ARE human!

 

[flyhi2cfar]

So you ARE human!

If this is actually true...

he'll now discover the battery charger still hooked up to house power and sitting out in the weather beside the truck!

 

[pglaves]

If this is actually true...

he'll now discover the battery charger still hooked up to house power and sitting out in the weather beside the truck!

Nope. It is unplugged out beside the truck.

 

[pglaves]

Here’s how I see it, or at least how I would try to sell this set of circumstances to Annie:

1. Conducted long-term test of GPS. All okay.
3. Conducted field test of “Genius” charger to establish the limits of said genius. Limits established; no longer referred to as Genius.
5. Conducted second field test of charger number 2 and confirmed genius is not all it is cracked up to be: sometimes a dumb guy with a hammer gets the job done.
7. Tested the light control system of the truck in a long-term simulated operational test. Established that the system got its brains the same place as the genius charger.
9. Ran rigorous operational test of the truck battery by putting it through multiple total loss scenarios. Battery performed well, although life expectancy is now suspect, and the test continues.

I see a return to the Owner’s News for a guest article recounting tour exploits.

I'll make sure Voni sees your in-depth analysis.

 

[gregfeeler]

Here’s how I see it, or at least how I would try to sell this set of circumstances to Annie:

1. Conducted long-term test of GPS. All okay.
3. Conducted field test of “Genius” charger to establish the limits of said genius. Limits established; no longer referred to as Genius.
5. Conducted second field test of charger number 2 and confirmed genius is not all it is cracked up to be: sometimes a dumb guy with a hammer gets the job done.
7. Tested the light control system of the truck in a long-term simulated operational test. Established that the system got its brains the same place as the genius charger.
9. Ran rigorous operational test of the truck battery by putting it through multiple total loss scenarios. Battery performed well, although life expectancy is now suspect, and the test continues.

I see a return to the Owner’s News for a guest article recounting tour exploits.

I see a big future for you writing speeches for politicians.


P.S. I've had to do the same drill as Paul: using a dumb charger to get a totally dead batter to where the smart charger to work. Many of the newer NOCO Genius chargers (which I think is the brand in this thread) now have an override feature to allow you to manually force it to charge a totally dead battery. Just be sure you don't have it hooked up to a dead armadillo or a rock when you do, though.

 

[akbeemer]

I see a big future for you writing speeches for politicians.


P.S. I've had to do the same drill as Paul: using a dumb charger to get a totally dead batter to where the smart charger to work. Many of the newer NOCO Genius chargers (which I think is the brand in this thread) now have an override feature to allow you to manually force it to charge a totally dead battery. Just be sure you don't have it hooked up to a dead armadillo or a rock when you do, though.

If you use jumper cables to connect a full battery in parallel with the deeply discharged battery and connect the charger to the full battery you can many times get the discharged battery to take a charge. Monitor the good battery for overheating. After an hour or so, disconnect the batteries and check the voltage on the discharged battery. Repeat the process until the battery has at least a 10 volt charge. Then hook the charger directly to the problem battery and charge as normal. A friend is an Interstate battery distributer and showed me this.

 

[brownie0486]

If you use jumper cables to connect a full battery in parallel with the deeply discharged battery and connect the charger to the full battery you can many times get the discharged battery to take a charge. Monitor the good battery for overheating. After an hour or so, disconnect the batteries and check the voltage on the discharged battery. Repeat the process until the battery has at least a 10 volt charge. Then hook the charger directly to the problem battery and charge as normal. A friend is an Interstate battery distributer and showed me this.

Cool trick and tip, thanks

 

[tater]

My Duh! moments are getting more frequent but not any less surprising. Even if I anticipate them they can still happen because I didn’t follow the thought through with action quick enough.

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

Always provides a good laugh though.

Well put and absolutely true !!!

 

[stevenrankin]

When

When we cease to laugh at ourselves from time to time is when we become old. St.

 

[Rainman48]

[*]Conducted field test of “Genius” charger to establish the limits of said genius. Limits established; no longer referred to as Genius.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and all the things we have both erred at and solved, but I have a question for you.
May I assume that by quoting the word "Genius" in your story that this was a NoCo Genius brand charger and if so, what model?

The reason I'm asking is I have a fifth-wheel trailer in a storage facility down in southern California that has no available power for keeping batteries charged so I completely disconnect the 12v RV battery for the 9 months a year it's left there. Last year, I bought a NoCo Genius 10, a 10A (max) charger that did great restoring the RV battery with less than 1v back to 13.6v by beginning that process with a mode they call "Force Mode" for batteries in that state. It runs for 5 minutes and then switches to a standard charging mode. That worked well for me. I'm just wondering if that was something on your charger as well.

P.S. I wouldn't dare use that charger on my AGM motorcycle battery.

 

[pglaves]

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and all the things we have both erred at and solved, but I have a question for you.
May I assume that by quoting the word "Genius" in your story that this was a NoCo Genius brand charger and if so, what model?

I didn't intend to mislead anybody about the "genius" charger. My use of the term was a frustrated sarcastic reference to how smart the smart charger wasn't.

It is a good charger. It is a Duralast, Model DL150. It has a 15 amp charging mode and a 3 amp maintenance mode. It is the heftiest of several chargers I own. With 5 bikes, a car, a truck and a camper van I need several sizes of chargers.

Part of its "smart" routine is to detect battery voltage and of course to decide when to switch from charge to maintenance mode. Like many (maybe most) "smart" chargers, if battery voltage is too low it doesn't know what to do so it does nothing. I didn't measure the battery voltage when this fiasco started but I am pretty sure it was less than 3 volts.

As noted in this thread, to get one of these smart chargers to kick in and start charging sometimes it needs to be fooled, or otherwise assisted. I used a dumb charger to raise the battery voltage to a point the smart charger would start charging. Hooking another battery in parallel, as mentioned in post #27 also works.

I hope this addition to the tale helps.

 

[Rainman48]

I didn't intend to mislead anybody about the "genius" charger. My use of the term was a frustrated sarcastic reference to how smart the smart charger wasn't.

I hope this addition to the tale helps.

Paul, it did, and Thank you. I too have more chargers and boosters than I have vehicles these days. A few of them have even been loaned out to others who needed one, and if they get returned or not, that's OK too.

I am hoping that Kevin will respond as well. I was quoting his post where he used with the capitalized word "Genius" and hoping he would respond as well.

Merry Christmas and a better 2022.

 

[akbeemer]

Paul, it did, and Thank you. I too have more chargers and boosters than I have vehicles these days. A few of them have even been loaned out to others who needed one, and if they get returned or not, that's OK too.

I am hoping that Kevin will respond as well. I was quoting his post where he used with the capitalized word "Genius" and hoping he would respond as well.

Merry Christmas and a better 2022.

I used the word genius, despite the capitalization, in the same sense I would use the word smart to describe a phone. I didn't even know there was a charger with a brand or model name of genius.

I just counted the battery chargers I have. 12 battery tenders of one brand or another, over half are Battery Tender brand. Two battery chargers that can also be maintainers. This is to maintain 7 motorcycles, two John Deer lawn tractors, my daughter's lawn tractor, a 5kw generator and a couple of batteries I keep on the bench.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well.

 

[henzilla]

This is to maintain 7 motorcycles, two John Deer lawn tractors, my daughter's lawn tractor, a 5kw generator and a couple of batteries I keep on the bench.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well.

And a partridge in a pear tree!

 

[pglaves]

Battery update

Well, I left the truck and its battery unmolested for a week. Then I went out this morning to start the truck for the prior intended jaunt on high clearance 4WD roads in Big Bend National Park.

The poor abused battery started the truck right up. Maybe I have invented the use of flow-through electrons for battery maintenance. Or maybe not.

 

[Omega Man]

Did I miss your posting about the age of the battery? I have found the newer the battery the more “abuse” it will tolerate.
OM

 

[pglaves]

Did I miss your posting about the age of the battery? I have found the newer the battery the more “abuse” it will tolerate.
OM

It is about two years old, so a relatively young one.

 

[stevenrankin]

abuse

LOL, just like me, I could stand a lot more abuse and mistreatment when I was younger. Now it is less and I give more back, LOL. St.

 

[coachz]

Wish I could say I've not had a brain dead moment like that, but, well, yeah.... Hope the battery survives long term