Battery charging question

[Greenjello]

Ok so I bought a battery charger from sears. It has seperate charging profiles for deep cycle and for starting batteries. I am sure eventually I will get a onboard but for now this is what I could afford.

Anyway my question is in the instructions it talks about using a 12-24" pig tail on the negative terminal of the battery during charging. Well I have never heard of that I went ahead and bought one and will use it next time but I wanted to see does anyone else do this? Or has anyone had problems doing this that I should be aware of

Thanks

 

[joed]

Re: Battery charging question

I don't do it. Never heard of it. But can think of a reason why. Batteries give off hydrogen gas when charging. A spark could cause an explosion. By moving the battery connection away from the battery it could reduce the explosion risk.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Battery charging question

Make the connection before plugging in the charger and unplugging the charger before disconnecting the cables from the battery should not cause a problem.

 

[Greenjello]

Re: Battery charging question

Thats what I have always done positive on first and then neg plug in charger...unplug charger neg off first then positive.

Because I want to leave my batteries in the boat to charge so I want to be as safe as possible.

 

[mickjetblue]

Re: Battery charging question

I was curious, and found one on ebay with the following description:

? Additional Pigtail for Universal Battery Charger. What does this mean? If you have a few bikes, atv's, snowmobiles, etc... like most do you can just purchase extra pigtails. Let the pigtail connected to the battery all the time once you have them connected to the positive and negative terminals. This will keep you from having to take the time to always disconnect the terminals and remove the pigtails after each use. Just plug the two connectors together and let it charge. Once the chargers light goes out, it is done. The charger will not overcharge.

The pigtail has a two wire plastic connector at the end, that you will need to
use with the charger wires. It will be more convenient, and it will also serve to
contain any spark within the plastic connector in event someone messes up
on the plug in/unplug sequence.

You got the right idea.