totally dead battery, charging questions

[pow3rslave]

haven't started my car in months and tried to start it the other day, turned the key and nothing, no dash lights, no pump noise. i thought i might have forgotten something i removed, but the only fuse i took out was door lights because i was leaving the doors were open for a day or 2.

hired a arlec charger from the hire shop, disconnected the battery and put the charger on it. the ammeter shifts a bit, but then sits on 0 when connected to the battery and switched on. not sure if this is normal, or if the battery has charge and i should look somewhere else for the problem.

the charger doesn't have an auto cutout for when the batteries charged, so i'm not keen to leave it switched on in case it kills a good battery.

how do i tell if it's dropped a cell? fluid levels look normal but i don't know what else to check (no access to the tool to test the fluid)

[88GreenVN]

It needs a good 12 v to crank the engine. So when it's dropped a cell the crank volts will drop below 10v.

Also check the water level in the battery - can be low.

[pow3rslave]

does the charger issue seem like a dropped cell? no electrics came on at all when i turned the car to acc.
what causes a dropped cell?

[88GreenVN]

does the charger issue seem like a dropped cell? no electrics came on at all when i turned the car to acc.
what causes a dropped cell?

Age, then low water.

If you have the charger on it should provide life to dash lights in no time at all.

If completely dead - check terminals maybe

[smith#29]

hey man, dunno if u resolved the problem or not but a good trick to try is:

if you have access to another battery, wack sum jumperleads from that battery to the dead one, and then hook the charger onto the dead battery at the same time, after half an hour or so, the battery will start to take charge, this helps the dead battery take to charge.

cheers.

[TVR-190]

take it to ur local supercheap and they can test it for you.