Thursday, April 22, 2010

12 Volt Battery Chargers--Cheap Insurance Against A Dead Battery

Most automobile users at some time will require a battery charger. Batteries will often die at very innoportune times and the car cannot be started. If you do not have have a battery charger available you will be stuck in your garage or wherever else you are at the time. Batteries are discharged accidentally when headlights are left on,  or if accessories are used for a long period when the engine is not running. A short in the cars electrical system may result in enough of a discharge to totally run down the battery in quite a short time, or it could take several hours if the battery drain is relatively light.

In short whatever the cause may be,  if your battery has died you need to recharge it with a 12 volt battery charger. You could call a tow truck for a battery boost to start the engine. Then a half hour drive will recharge the battery enough to start the car if you need to. Obviously it is much simpler to put a battery charger on the battery, and use it for a few hours to recharge the battery.

The time taken to recharge completely will depend on the charging capacity of your battery charger. Low priced chargers may provide only one or two amps of electric current. Better quality chargers will charge at 10 or 12 amps which will result in a full charge in a lot less time .The low cost trickle charger with low amperage charging could take  24 hours to recharge the battery fully.  A 12 amp charger by comparison will require just a few hours to completely charge the battery.

Heavy duty battery chargers, or boosters, can supply enough current to start the car even when the battery is totally dead. These are bigger, quite complex and will cost considerably more than ordinary battery chargers. They are a very useful item to have on hand to get you out of dead battery problems very rapidly and easily.

Solar power battery chargers provide very low amperage charging. They have a solar cell which can be placed in the sun, on the dash, and plugged into the car cigarette lighter or power supply plug. These are useful to keep your battery fully charged on sunny days. When the car is parked for some time the charger will trickle a low amperage electric current into the battery and this will keep it  fully charged. These solar chargers are not suitable for emergency dead battery recharging. They require many hours or even days to completely charge a battery.

In summary,it is certainly a good idea for a car owner to own a battery charger and to be familiar with its use so that the battery can be recharged properly and with safety. For lots of information on battery chargers see our website at battery chargers. For information on gas furnace prices see gas furnace prices

Rechargeable NiMH Batteries Give Huge Cost savings

NiMH batteries are now quite popular as a power source for many electronic devices. They are made in both high capacity and lower capacity types. All NiMH batteries are of course rechargeable and may be recharged with either a standard NiCad battery charger or by a charger made for NiMH use. If an ordinary NiCad battery charger is used, getting a full charge will take a longer charging time since NiCad batteries have a lower capacity. NiMH chargers can be obtained in smart charge or timer controlled models. Timer controlled chargers are set to charge for a certain time and then to shut off automatically.  Smart chargers are not set to charge for any definite length of time but will continue charging till the battery has acquired a full charge and then shut off.


In this case why doesn,t everyone use a smart battery charger? The reason is simply that the smart charger is considerably more expensive since it is of more complex construction thus costing more to manufacture. As a result a certain percentage of users will choose the standard fixed time charger in order to save some money. There is of course some saving in the intial price but problems may result. The charger will often shut down before the battery is completely recharged. This can be inconvenient and results in having to start the charger again to get a full charge in the battery.This can be an annoying and ongoing problem so it is really best to spend a little more and get a smart charger.

If however only low capacity batteries will be used the standard fixed time charger will do the job adequately. For high capacity batteries the number one choice is definitely a smart charger.

Solar powered battery chargers can be obtained which will recharge batteries where you do not have power available. The charging rate of these is fairly low and they require a considerable period of time to fully charge a battery. If you are camping or living outdoors solar chargers are definitely useful to keep your batteries going till you can recharge them with a smart charger.

Some companies now manufacture low self discharge (LSD) batteries. These can retain 70% to 85% of their charge for a full year when stored at room temperature. Standard NiMH batteries may discharge up to 50% of their charge in the same conditions. LSD NiMH batteries are rechargeable using the standard chargers used for ordinary batteries. LSD batteries can be recharged up to 1000 times. This makes them very economical even though the intial purchase price is higher.

Electronic device users will find that there is a huge saving over time in using these rechargeable batteries. They cost more to begin with but they produce a very big saving over the cost of buying hundreds of standard non rechargeable batteries. Sanyo now make the Eneloop battery which can be charged up to 1500 times and will keep 75% of its charge for 3 years. Rechargeable battery technology is likely to continue to get ever better in the years ahead. For more information see NiMH Battery Chargers and 12v battery chargers

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Lithium Batteries A Super Improvement

Batteries Lithium, NiMH and 12 Volt


Lithium batteries are a big breakthrough in battery technology. They have much longer life than other batteries.There are two different types. First is the lithium metal battery which is made using lithium metal. This battery is not rechargeable and is usable in any device which takes standard alkaline batteries. The second type is the lithium ion battery.This is made using lithium based compounds which are very stable unlike the metal itself and is rechargeable.

Lithium ion batteries are a very good power source and are capable of recharging up to 1000 times. They run at higher voltage than lithium metal batteries and are lighter and smaller.Using these batteries, many electronic devices require only one higher voltage battery rather than the two or three of lower voltage.They are not made in standard battery sizes since trhey cannot be recharged in stanadard battery chargers.They are made in many sizes and shapes to fit individual devices,each of which has its own charger.
For much more free information about lithium batteries see our website lithium batteries. For information about NiMH batteries and their chargers check this out NiMHbatterychargers.net . To can read all about 12 volt battery chargers here 12 volt battery chargers