Car Battery: Recharge, Run Out, Disposal
To recharge the car battery are two methods in particular: with cables and push. Let’s see them together.
Charging With Cables
It is the most used method, also simply because, if you do all the operations correctly, it takes 5 minutes, if not less. To recharge in this way, you need to have another car – with a charged battery – near you, with attached cables.
Open the hood of both cars and connect the red cable to the positive pole of the charged battery and then, subsequently, to the positive pole of the discharged one. Same operation with the black cable, but on the negative side. At this point, enter the car with the charged battery and give a nice acceleration for 5/10 seconds and, then, start the car with the discharged battery.
Keep the cars connected for 5 minutes and then remove the two cables. We advise you to start from the negative poles and then from the positive ones. If everything is ok, the operation was successful.
Push Refill
It is the emergency solution practiced when you do not have cables with you and the times fluctuate between 30 and 60 minutes. In fact, for half an hour, the engine must necessarily be on, with all the other components, however, off.
Another drawback is that the people to carry out this operation must be at least two. Indeed, a person will have to be inside the vehicle, turn off all unnecessary accessories, turn the key, and put the second or third gear. On the other hand, the other person will have to push the car until a decent speed is reached. At that moment, you have to release the clutch and accelerate.
It is essential not to turn off the machine for 30 minutes (although an hour is recommended).
Why Does the Car Battery Run Out
It can happen: maybe you have been on vacation for a month without your car, then you come home, and the car doesn’t start anymore. In a situation that happens more often than you think,
the battery can be discharged because the alternator is not charging. In these cases, usually, the warning light on the dashboard comes on and, to understand if this is the reason, it measures the voltage of the poles. If it is above 15 volts, then the problem is something else.
It can also depend on wear. Remember that the battery is not an eternal product, and it has an end of its own. Usually, it lasts five years – if the machine is kept in optimal conditions – and the problem can arise both from the use made by the machine and from the absorption of the machine’s electrical system.
Tips to Increase the Duration
Before giving you the right advice to increase battery life, we need to make a distinction: one thing is, in fact, the battery of classic cars and another, that of an electric battery because the tips for extending their life are different.
Let’s start with the batteries for methane, LPG, petrol, and so on. In this case, there are two particular precautions to be taken.
First of all, it is important to travel about 20 km every month at high speed (always respecting the highway code!) On petrol, even if you have the gas system installed, recharge the battery and never find it flat.
Or, if you know that you will be away from home for a long time, you can disconnect the battery to connect it to a wall charger to keep it always charged and thus prevent it from being damaged due to its inactivity.
As for electric batteries, however, there are five tricks that you can adopt: the first is to never wait for the battery to reach 0%; as soon as you see that the percentage drops to around 20% or 30%, load it right away. The second is not to exceed the voltage. For example, if the battery is at ten voltages, do not charge it at 15 volts. It risks overloading and ruining itself.
Also, try to avoid traffic or, in any case, avoid driving with sudden unnecessary accelerations, just to skid.
Unlike petrol, where you can also fill up to avoid going to the gas station several times, with the electric battery, the advice is not to always reach 100% but to stop at 80% or 90%.
Finally, avoid putting it in the sun when you park your car: high temperatures can damage the battery.
Where to Dispose of Car Batteries
You have several opportunities to dispose of a used car battery.
You can, first of all, contact the Agency to which your municipality of residence decides to contact to dispose of a similar waste. He can advise you on the nearest collection point and, at this point, all you have to do is go to the place and do everything that the law requires. However, if you live far away, you can contact the Compulsory Consortium for Exhausted Lead Batteries and Lead Waste, called Cobat for short.
This institution will take care of everything, and the service is free and efficient, so much so that in some cases, it is also used by electricians. Or, if you do not want to be channeled into all these processes, you can contact the electrician or your trusted dealer directly. Who will be able to proceed independently or advise you on the best solution?
Remember that the car battery is special waste and must be disposed of following some precise rules!
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