The Best Way To Charge A Dead Car Battery

As owners of cars and boats or vehicles, it can often be intimidating to find oneself in the midst of a dead car battery situation. On land, you can run into trouble with fading headlights and a possible sudden stoppage in the middle of the road.

On the sea, the situation can become even worse (imagine being stuck in the middle of the ocean at night!). Given an immediate survival situation, what is the best way to charge a dead car battery?

To be honest, the best way to charge to charge a dead battery falls into a sensible and hands-on process that requires some observation and of course, some cautionary attitude. Okay, so this process involves a:

1. A car with a functional car battery
2. a set of jumper cables

Essentially, with these two items, you can just transfer the energy from the functional car battery you have through the jumper cables and then unto the dead car battery.

With that said, you can be pretty much on the ready and good to go the next time you run into a situation where you have to charge your dead car batteries. Best of luck to you, my traveling friend.

Oh, also, if you are interested in a more detailed process, please read on below to the rest of this article and you can find some good points to remember when going through specifically this hands-on process in detail.

And, remember friends, it pays to list down the process to have something to remember. In this case, post-it notes can be a really good help as reminders. It can often be very helpful to go about the process step by step in case you need to troubleshoot—no rush and stay calm. All right, let us go head on to the specifics.

Best To Prepare: Investigating Dead Batteries

So, using a jumper cable to transfer energy to a dead car battery sounds like a straightforward process. It looks and sounds like it is. But, one of the downsides that can be ignored is actually checking out the dead car battery In question.

Make sure these procedures are observed before you use the jump cables:

1. Make sure the dead car battery does not have any leaks (especially liquid solutions). It is also a good reminder to pay attention to certain cracks that the battery has.
2. Some like the grease and grind of this type of operation but it is recommended you go wear some protective gear for your eyes and hands when doing this.
3. Your battery cables should be clean. Remember to clean them to avoid corrosion.
4. It is of paramount importance that the car with the spare battery is near the dead car battery. For this, you have to take your time and verify. Jumper cables can only go so far and it pays to close the distance between travel points, especially when it involves electricity.
5. Do not forget to turn off the car with the functional battery.

Jumpstarting The Charge Of A Dead Car Battery

In the jump-start process, the steps observed can often be meticulous based on how well you have the preparation process (see above guidelines) setup. These are really what can either cut or add up to the time needed for the actual boot-up we all want to get.

Given that, observe these steps (slowly, my friends, slowly) in jump-starting a dead car battery:

1. Remember to open the closed hood compartment in the vehicles where both the batteries (dead and functional) are located.
2. Both batteries will have a negative (-) and positive (+) terminal points that are labeled on them.
3. The ends of the jumper cables will need to be placed in the positive (+) terminals of both batteries. A positive ended jumper cable usually has a red color.
4. The order of plugin usually has a standard procedure. The first end of the jumper cable should be plugged to the positive terminal of the dead car battery first and then placed unto the positive terminal last.
5. Now, connect the negative end of the jumper cable (colored usually as black) to the negative terminal (-) of the charged battery (not dead battery).
6. You can now attach the other negative end of the jumper cable unto a grounded metal plate like a chassis, provided it is of little or no paint or rust.
7. Head on to the car with the functional (charged battery) and start up the engine. Five minutes passed is usually a good time for the dead car battery to get a sufficient charge. In any case, you can go over and start to the car with the dead batteries and check with a startup. If it does not start, you can go over to the other car, start it up and add another five minutes.
8. While the dead battery is running for a good five or ten minutes, remember to disconnect the jumper cables in reverse to the order you went with earlier. That is, grounded metal plate disconnects first, then the negative end (black) on the negative terminal of the charged battery and then proceed to the positive ends (red) on the positive terminal of the charged battery and formerly dead batteries, respectively.
9. Take the car for a test drive and see how it goes.

From Dead Car Batteries To Charge Batteries

Also, a case in point. Remember the jumper cable sequence given above? That sequence is standard procedure so that the likelihood of having electric sparks will be low.

Aside from sequence, connecting to the wrong end of the terminals could cause the fuse to blow up and that is not a pretty sight. And, while the method above is a recommended piece of advice, please observe that some batteries might be in need of replacement already.

A takeaway note here is understanding that there may no real one best way to charge a car battery. But, there is a reasonable way to it and the process needs to observed well so that accidents do not happen. It is hoped that this advice has helped and remember, keep safe, dear friends.

If you are interested in reading about how to use a car battery charger then we highly recommend you to check it out!