Recommended Charger for Maintaining Automotive Batteries

Question:

I want to charge a regular automotive style 12v battery with my ABCD #1024 charger it is usually used for my breakaway battery. Will this work?

asked by: John

Helpful Expert Reply:

For a car battery you want to use a charger designed for that application, such as one of the CTEK units shown on the linked page. For example, their MULTI US 7002 12-Volt Universal Battery Charger # CTEK56353 is a multi-step, fully automatic charger with pulse maintenance. This can both charge a depleted battery and maintain a charged one. Charging time for 80% charge of a 14-Ah battery is only about 2 hours. I have owned one of the CTEK chargers for several years and it does a good job on lawn mower, motorcycle and car batteries.

The Tekonsha Battery Charger for Trailer Breakaway Systems # 1024 is really intended for maintaining a small already-charged breakaway battery like # HM20008. Strictly speaking it could possibly also charge a much higher-capacity car battery but the charger's modest 300-milliamp output would take an awfully long time to do so.

expert reply by: Adam R