Question about charging batteries

[Shadetree]

I bought a 12 volt battery 3 years ago that I never used. It has sat on the shelf for 3 years and is dead. I now have a purpose for it and need to charge it. The battery is an EverStart Maxx 24FS. Cranking Amps 875, Cold Cranking Amps 700. Couldnt find any other info on the battery except that I bought it 05-08. My charger is a 6 amp manual charger...Can someone please tell me how long it should take to charge the battery? The water level was pretty low so I added distilled water to about 1/2 inch above the plates...Your help is appreciated...Thanks

 

[Shadetree]

I bought a 12 volt battery 3 years ago that I never used. It has sat on the shelf for 3 years and is dead. I'm now installing it in the Expedition and need to charge it. The battery is an EverStart Maxx 24FS. Cranking Amps 875, Cold Cranking Amps 700. Couldnt find any other info on the battery except that I bought it 05-08. My charger is a 6 amp manual charger...Can someone please tell me how long it should take to charge the battery? The water level was pretty low so I added distilled water to about 1/2 inch above the plates...Your help is appreciated...Thanks

 

[alaskanexpy]

i'd give it 8 hours and see where its at then.

 

[Thermo]

Shadetree, I would give it 12 hours. Most batteries are 80 amp-hour batteries and since your charger only puts out 6 amps per hour, after 12 hours, you would have put in 72 amp-hours. So, that should put it near 100%. You can go less time, but you may also find that the truck will turn over slow and may not possibly fire. It really depends on how far depleted the battery is. If you tell me the voltage of the battery prior to charging, I can give you a ball park figure of this.

 

[tonydiv]

You may not be able to bring that battery back, so prepare yourself for that eventuality.


Since it's a manual charger, I would hook it up and check the battery every couple of hours. You want to feel the outside case to make sure that it doesn't get too hot. I'd let it run for maybe 8 hours at a time and then let it sit for a few hours. It's going to take a couple of days to bring it up to charge.

Is there any chance of borrowing a larger, automatic charger? Because then you can pretty much set it and forget it.