Effective Ways to Charge Your Car Battery

If you take good care of your vehicle, your battery should last a minimum of 5 years, especially if you’re using a reliable brand such as Exide battery for car. Nevertheless, you must stay prepared in case an unforeseen situation comes up. Here are a few things that will help you charge your battery on your own:

Tools

It’s always best to carry a set of useful tools in the car; they may come in handy when you least expect it. The kit should include basic equipment such as screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers along with an auto battery charger or re-charger. Also carry protective gear such as gloves and goggles. It is critical for you to take safety precautions before you get anywhere near an auto battery.

Getting Started

To start with, clean all possible connections to and from the auto battery. Use a wire brush or sandpaper to remove white powder and crystals that tend to accumulate around the terminals and cables. The white particles are made of dried sulfuric acid and you must wear protective gloves when doing this step – or else you could burn your skin incase of direct contact. You can also apply baking soda on a wet cloth to wipe around the terminals. This is extremely important, as corrosion is the prime reason for your battery to discharge.

Connecting the Charger

Turn off the car and attach the charging cables to the terminals of the battery. Some batteries may have cell caps that need to be removed before you use the charger. The charger comes with two wires – the red one should be connected to the positive terminal marked as POS while the black one is connected to the negative terminal marked as NEG. You must ensure that the two cables don’t touch each other as this will cause sparking and can be highly dangerous.

Once the cables have been connected to respective terminals, connect the charger to a power supply and leave it on for the battery to recharge itself. Reliable brands such as Exide and Amaron are extremely dependable and only take a few hours to recharge fully. 

In case the car is unable to switch on despite charging the battery properly, just search online ‘car battery shop near me’ to get expert guidance and quick battery replacement at your doorstep.

How to get the best out of the Car Battery

The battery can be considered as the heart of an automobile. It gives power to the entire electrical components of the vehicle and ensures their smooth functioning. Unfortunately, even the best car batteries eventually degrade. Here are a few maintenance tips you can follow to ensure that the battery works fine:

Turn off the lights when not required

We often leave our car’s headlights on unnecessarily. This imposes a huge load on the car's battery and reduces its longevity. Save power by using the headlights only when required. Make sure that you never leave the car’s headlight on when parked or not in use.

Test the battery

Keeping a track of the battery’s performance is essential, but the effects won’t show up until the battery is severely damaged. To avoid unforeseen troubles, get it checked by car battery service providers whenever you get the car serviced or invest in a car’s battery tester. Keep a check on the batteries output voltage level with the tester and the condition of the battery.

Drive frequently

Leaving your car parked and using the radio or the air conditioner will put a lot of stress on the car’s battery and decline its efficiency. A car battery drains out if the car is not driven for extended periods. Make sure that the car is driven at least once a week.

Avoid short rides

When a car is driven multiple times for a very brief moment, its battery does not get receive the charge it requires. Drive your car for longer periods of time and do it frequently. The battery will charge properly and will work more efficiently. To avoid getting stranded in the middle of the road, carry a portable car battery charger with you.

Avoid corrosion on the battery frame

With time, damage to the battery is inevitable. It will slowly develop corrosion on the frame, but it can be avoided if proper care is taken. Clean the battery the frequently to avoid such damage. Use a toothbrush dipped in a mixture of baking soda and water to scrub terminals. Then rinse it off with cold water.

Take care of the car

A car battery is assembled together with several components that function together and somehow each part is dependent on the other to function properly. Therefore, take good care of your car to ensure a longer life of the car battery. A wide range of 3M car care products like battery terminal coating is available for the maintenance if the battery which prevents sulfurization.