Generator Charging Question

harry54

Ater driving my 54 hornet to work yesturday, I inadvertantly left my lights on. 9 hours later of course , the battery was dead as a doornail. That's to be expected. However , after getting a jump and driving home 2hrs it cranked right up when I got home. Not thinking to much of it, I didn't bother to throw a charger on it. This morning , dead again. Of course i jumped it and drove 60miles to work anyway and when I got here , it cranked up no problem.

My question is shouldn't the battery get enough of a charge from driving that distance ? Do I have to charge it anyway ?

Unknown

How old is the battery? Sometimes older ones have a tough time returning from the dead. There are lots of variables involved in answering your question. They include, but may not be limited to, the age and condition of the battery as well as the function of the charging system. Even if the charging system is performing to specs, drained batteries sometimes just give up the ghost and can't be revived.

SamJ

If you're using a "dry-cell" type battery like Optima, it probably needs a few hours on the charger to get fully back up to speed. :cool:

harry54

The battery is group 2 non dry cell. Napa about a a year old. Charging system is in good shape....

junkcarfann

Two things:



First, when a battery has been discharged as yours was, a slow charge on a battery charger is recommended to bring it back.



Second, General purpose wet-cell car batteries are suffer harm by being completely discharged. Only batteries labeled "deep cycle" can safely be completely discharged. (As I understand it, Deep cycle means to go from fully charged to fully discharged).

harry54

So does this mean I'll have to get a new Battery ?

mars55

harry54 wrote:

So does this mean I'll have to get a new Battery ?

Not necessarily, what it does mean is that the live of the battery has been shorten. If the battery now holds a change, it's probability OK. You can check its health with Hydrometer.

harry54

Thanks to all