Reviving batteries
 

Around 4 years ago u brought a Duracell battery for my old car. It was a higher end battery compared to other options.

Around 2 years after having it the car was scrapped so I took the battery out and put it in the locker box of my caravan as a spare.

Thought I would take it out the other week and charge it but the charger doesn't recognise the battery as good enough to charge.

It seems a shame to scrap it.

Is there anyway to tell the condition of it and is there a way to force charge it or get it into a usable condition?

Does the battery show any voltage? If it is less than 12v then it may be scrap!

What type of charger are you using?

An ordinary charger will not do it you need an intelligent one that will pulse charge it like those made by CTEK

If it's a "conditioner" type like a C-tec then if it's bellow a certain voltage it won't want to charge it. Try charging with an old school basic charger......then try the "intelligent" conditioner on it.

2 years sitting won't have done it any good though.

I believe it's a charger with a conditioner on it. My father in law has it and tried to charge it.

I seen a trick on YouTube where someone connected another good battery is series with the one that needs charging and that got enough in the battery to then charge on it's own. S

Recommended?

No, not in series...….I think you mean in parallel. Yes that should work.

Yes parallel.

Embarrassing mistake considering I'm a sparks haha

Modern batteries can play dead if they have been left discharged for any length of time. Actually it probably is dead... but to stand any chance of getting a charge in to it you need a cheap, old fashioned battery charger - not any form of modern, intelligent or electronic one.

I’m talking the basic job - transformer and rectifier.

Charge it for 48 hours, then discharge it using say an old headlight bulb, repeat 3 times, you might get some use out of it.

Something like this : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Taurus-4-...temCondition=4