GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 17, 2007 I've got a Clarke CC60 12v battery charger that's about a year old and been used on a handful of occasions. Got it from Machinemart and although it's nothing special, it wasn't the bottom of the line one either. I've never got on with it so thought I'd see if it's actually faulty or if I'm just being a bit thick. Problem 1 - It has 3 LEDs indicating full/part charge/flat. Whenever I connect a flat battery to it it always illuminates the part charge and full LEDs together, even though the battery can be flat as a pancake. With a previous battery (seemed to work OK), if I put it on charge from flat, it would do the above pattern, and then eventually just show the fully charged LED, but when reconnected to the car the battery would be dead. I then found that if I just charged it for a short while, not leaving it long enough to just illuminate the full charge LED, I would then have enough life in the battery to start my car. Someone suggested that perhaps the charger completely discharges the battery before charging it, but there is no mention of this in the instructions supplied. Problem 2 - My battery is dead as I haven't driven the car in ages. Dead as in no alarm LED flashing and no CL working dead. So I just connected it up and got no lights at all on the charger. Checked the fuse, OK. Got my multimeter and showing 9.6V (would this be enough to power the alarm LED? surely it must!). Swtched on the charger again and the full LED lit up brightly for an instant and then dimmed right down to barely illuminated in a milli second. Tried it again and it lit up fully with the part charge LED as well. So I'm stumped. Is this charger s*ite or what? The battery itself was new last year and whilst I appreciate that is no garauntee, I'm sure it is OK. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 17, 2007 The battery is now showing just over 12v, so I presume I don't need to charge it any more. It only took a minute or so to get to that voltage though (as I said, it was showing just over 9v before). Seems a bit weird, as I thought it was totally flat when I took it out of the car but I guess not Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ryan 99 Posted September 17, 2007 Have you only tried it with one battery? Because it sounds like the battery is dead. The one that was on my car when I bought it was the same - when you hooked up a charger it said it was nearly full and only topped it up a small amount, but if you tried to start the car it was stone dead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 17, 2007 As far as the voltage test is concerned, I've only done this battery. But since I've had the charger this is the 3rd battery I've tried charging and I always get the same activity with the lights. Whether or not this battery will have enough juice to start a car or not I won't know until I can put it back in. But if it's showing just over 12v then does that mean it is fully charged? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pug309twin40s 1 Posted September 17, 2007 fully charged battery should be 12.5v+ try connecting the multimeter upto the battery when its on charge to see what the charger is giving the battery. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted September 18, 2007 It does sound like your battery is dead, if they are left discharged for even a short period of time they are generally useless afterwards in my experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony 1,000 Posted September 18, 2007 It does sound like your battery is dead, if they are left discharged for even a short period of time they are generally useless afterwards in my experience. Seems to depend on the battery - Bosch Silver's are completely hopeless if you let them discharge and never seem to hold charge again properly, but ironically the cheapy no-names batteries I've had have always been fine.... so much for getting what you pay for eh? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 18, 2007 Seems to depend on the battery - Bosch Silver's are completely hopeless if you let them discharge and never seem to hold charge again properly, but ironically the cheapy no-names batteries I've had have always been fine.... so much for getting what you pay for eh? This is a cheapy no name. Well, it has a name actually, but I don't think it's a well known brand. Can't remember off the top of my head. The voltage at the battery doesn't change with the charger switched on. It's still somewhere between 12.0 and 12.5v (again, can't remember off the top of my head, will have to check when I get home). It has just occurred to me that I didn't take a note of the polarity. Pu309twin40s said it should be +12.5v and I have a sneaky suspicion that it may have been showing -12(point something)v. Does this sound feasible? If so, does this indicate it is fooked? One other thing (to back up what Anthony said), I haven't used a Bosch Silver battery before, but 2 previous batteries I had that were both run flat on numerous occasions and recharged with this charger both worked fine afterwards (except for the problem I listed in the 1st post - battery still dead if left to charge for a while, but OK if only partially charged). They were both old, had both been left discharged for a while in some cases, and I don't think either were particularly good brands. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted September 18, 2007 My batteries are generally cheap ones with odd names such as 'Starting Bull' IIRC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony 1,000 Posted September 18, 2007 The voltage at the battery doesn't change with the charger switched on. It's still somewhere between 12.0 and 12.5v (again, can't remember off the top of my head, will have to check when I get home). That sounds suspiciously like the charger is fubar - you should see an increase in voltage to show that it's charging, even if its only a small increase from a trickle charge. It has just occurred to me that I didn't take a note of the polarity. Pu309twin40s said it should be +12.5v and I have a sneaky suspicion that it may have been showing -12(point something)v. Does this sound feasible? If so, does this indicate it is fooked? Sure you didn't just have the multimeter probes round the wrong way on the battery terminals, as that would give you a negative reading? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 18, 2007 (edited) That sounds suspiciously like the charger is fubar - you should see an increase in voltage to show that it's charging, even if its only a small increase from a trickle charge.Sure you didn't just have the multimeter probes round the wrong way on the battery terminals, as that would give you a negative reading? Ha ha ha, I know I'm thick as mince when it comes to electrics but give me some credit Anthony Perhaps there is no increase in voltage as the charger has decided that the battery is full and has stopped charging. Although this means the LEDs are crap as it was showing both the full and the middle LED, when it should have just the full LED illuminated if the battery is fully charged. I've got an old battery that probably doesn't have much juice in it, so I'll stick that on charge and see what happens with the voltage etc.Either way, perhaps it's time to invest in decent charger. Edited September 18, 2007 by GLPoomobile Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted September 18, 2007 If it was showing -12 you had either the charger, the battery or the multimeter the wrong way round, it depends how you want to look at it I suppose I can't see charging a battery with the polarity reversed doing it much good... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Super Josh 4 Posted September 18, 2007 Sounds to me as if one of the cells in the battery is fubar (they are 2 volts each). Sounds like it's been left discharged for too long. Happened to me when I wasn't working and the car wiuld only be used oncea week at most and the battery soon died a death. I bought a top of the range Varta this week, jsut shy of 100 quid though Josh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLPoomobile 958 Posted September 18, 2007 Charger appears to work. The voltage does rise steadily when it is switched on (and the polarity is positive NOT negative ). However, I guess the battery is on the way out. When I reconnected the multimeter this evening it was at just under 12v. A few minutes charge saw it go up to about 12.7v. When switched off again the voltage drops slowly. 3 hours later and it's showing 12.23v. So I guess if left for a fortnight with no use it is going to drop completely. Even quicker with an alarm drawing current. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pug309twin40s 1 Posted September 18, 2007 yep sounds like the battery is on its way out. a good battery should be able to hold 12.5ish volts for ages if disconnected. but it could just be the battery needs using on a car to get back to full health Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
