Battery Charger

[balmerchris]

Went to charge tractor battery this morning and battery charger has gave up the ghost. Need to get a new one, question is which one? I want something reasonably good but not willing to spend hundreds and what are your thoughts on starter/chargers? been told the starter mode kills batteries?

 

[jonjoe]

are you sure its not the fuse

 

[balmerchris]

are you sure its not the fuse

I thought that at first but new fuse and still not working. Its a very old charger been dropped off tractor bonnets for years! surprised its lasted so long!

 

[J.B. Welding]

Hi, yes there is the plugs 13amp fuse to check, there is also what I call "the money maker" 11amp fuse inside a lot of the small box type chargers. Would be a shame to scrap it without having a look. Starter-chargers are pretty handy and I don't think I've killed any batteries with one, just flick them onto start once the engine is heaving over and they do the job. Once the engine fires switch the start mode off straight away, I think the damage is done if the battery is allowed to take all the current from the charger, ie the ignition key is not sending the current to the starter motor. The draper 180 model is not too bad.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I bought one of these http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_895217_langId_-1_categoryId_255205 - good sturdy machine which seems as if it will stand up to knocks etc well. I got it for iirc £57, so must have been on offer at the time.

 

[balmerchris]

Hi, yes there is the plugs 13amp fuse to check, there is also what I call "the money maker" 11amp fuse inside a lot of the small box type chargers. Would be a shame to scrap it without having a look. Starter-chargers are pretty handy and I don't think I've killed any batteries with one, just flick them onto start once the engine is heaving over and they do the job. Once the engine fires switch the start mode off straight away, I think the damage is done if the battery is allowed to take all the current from the charger, ie the ignition key is not sending the current to the starter motor. The draper 180 model is not too bad.

I didnt think of an internal fuse thanks J.B i'll check that tomorrow

 

[balmerchris]

I bought one of these http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_895217_langId_-1_categoryId_255205 - good sturdy machine which seems as if it will stand up to knocks etc well. I got it for iirc £57, so must have been on offer at the time.

That does look like a sturdy box and well priced!

 

[jonjoe]

if you tryed to start the engine with the charger on charge it will blow the fuse

 

[Anguz]

the only reason the starter mode kills batteries if it they are allready had it......

 

[balmerchris]

if you tryed to start the engine with the charger on charge it will blow the fuse

That's a possibility jonjoe god knows what my da does during the day when i'm at work. Haven't had a chance to look at it in depth yet, kids are all poorly.

 

[jonjoe]

what tractor is it?

 

[balmerchris]

Ford 3600

 

[the snooper]

what tractor is it?

a quiet one

 

[balmerchris]

Screwed the charger open to look for a fuse but none there gave it a bit of a blow out with airline and low and behold its working again! happy days!

 

[J.B. Welding]

Often the threat of the bin is enough to make these work again! What make is that charger then, I've seen a small glass fuse in a few makes like draper etc and sealey sometimes have internal or 'mounted on the front' fuse. Yours might have a thermal overload metal strip type thingy which had a bit of crud jammed in it? Great its working but no excuse now just to stay in the workshop-

 

[Jan]

The first inverter I bought failed pretty quickly. It turned out that there were 2 standard car blade fuses inside the box which had been soldered directly to the circuit board. They had both blown. Unfortunately not fast enough as the board was fried. My new one is much bigger and copes with loads of over 1.2 KW which is higher than the constant .95 KW (1050Watt peak momentary) of my generator!