How to recharge a car battery?

The car battery is a fundamental part of our vehicle that, if it is not in good condition, can pose a serious problem to our mobility. Fortunately, it is possible to recharge our battery and get going again, as long as we know how to do it.

There is nothing worse than going to start our car in the morning and finding out that the vehicle’s battery does not work. For this reason, it will always help us maintain our mobility, such as knowing if a battery is bad, because it is damaged or is already very old. But it is also important to have remedies with which to recover our vehicle, when that battery is already discharged.

Among these solutions, we have the jump starter and the battery charger for the car, with which to give the vehicle that necessary touch of energy so that you can move. In any case, there are other interesting alternatives, which we will comment on throughout this article.

Previous questions

Few cars today have a voltmeter on the dashboard. Something that makes it difficult to know if the car battery is worn out or has a low charge. But there are clues that guide us in this regard. Among them, we have a low brightness of the turn signals if we open with a command or perhaps a different noise when activating the central locking. As an alternative, if you want to know if the car battery is discharged, you can use a multimeter. Once connected to the two battery terminals, it will give us a reading that, if it is less than 12 volts, indicates that the battery is not good.

In this situation, before changing the car battery or taking out the charger, there are a couple of things we can do to try to start the vehicle. First, disable everything on the vehicle that you can. No air conditioning, lights or radio. All energy should be focused on starting.

It is also important that we do not go overboard trying to force that start, if finally the car cannot do it. If we turn the key longer than necessary or force the process, we can damage the starter motor.

Finally, you may be tempted to give the car a push or even try the old rattling trick to try to move the car and let the starter work its magic. The problem is that the electronics of current cars make these systems almost useless, so unless you have an old car, these techniques will not help you at all.

how to recover car battery

Once we have verified that the battery has no power, it is time to try to bring it back to life. For this, we have two basic remedies. One of them is the use of the classic clamps, for which we will need both the charging cables and a good samaritan who will let us plug them into his car. Do not forget the order, first positive and then negative, being careful not to touch the terminals to prevent an electric shock. By the way, although the voltage of the car battery will be the same, it is advisable that the donor battery has more power than that of the receiving vehicle. Once the connection is made, we will wait about 10 or 15 minutes before starting the damaged vehicle.

The other alternative, much simpler and faster, is to use a battery charger or starter. These tools have a good load capacity and allow starting all types of vehicles, practically on the go. In addition, they are safer, as they include different protections against the most common risks inherent to cargo. 

As if that were not enough, these devices are small and can be conveniently carried anywhere. They are used in almost the same way as the starter cables that we have discussed, simply connecting the clamps correctly and waiting a few seconds. At the moment, we can start our vehicle and start rolling without problems.

once ripped

After you have followed either of the two steps above, your car should now be running. If this is not the case, this is because the battery is not charging, probably because it has reached its useful life or is damaged. In this case, you will have to replace the battery with a new one, of the same technical parameters.

If you’ve been lucky and you’re already up and running, it’s key that you spend some time getting the battery life back on track. This is achieved by running the vehicle, preferably at high speed such as highway or motorway. And although it is difficult to estimate how long it takes to charge a car battery while it is running, in general, half an hour of driving is enough for it to be ready for normal use.

Another alternative is to charge the car battery with a charger. In this case, if you want to know how long it takes to charge a 12v battery, we can tell you that to charge a 12v 60ah battery, for example, it takes about four hours. This time is similar for almost all batteries of this voltage, although the higher the amperage, the standby time increases a little. Luckily, if you have a quality battery charger, it will take care of stopping the process when the battery is full.

process safety

Although we have dropped it before, it is key that when recharging your car battery you take all the necessary safety measures to avoid accidents. After all, recharging a car battery is not like charging the battery of a body shaver or your mobile, since the high energy capacity that the car battery accumulates poses a considerable risk.

The first precaution is to be careful with the cables and the poles. Whether you use conventional clamps or a charger or starter, it is essential that you start by connecting the positive pole and then the negative. If you do it the other way around, you can get quite a scare. And if you cross the poles, you can even short-circuit the system. Risks that, in the case of chargers and starters, are reduced. But that doesn’t stop them from happening.

It is also key that throughout the process the vehicle is in a safe area, properly braked and that you have space to move safely. By the way, the idea of ​​dropping the car without battery down a slope to try to start it is not very good, because if the brakes are blocked you can have an accident. As a last piece of advice, if you find that you cannot recover the battery and start the vehicle or you do not know how to do it, it is always better to call your insurance and have them send you to assistance.