Automotive Services Blog

Jamaal E asked:


I found this article on wiki:
“Charge and discharge:
In normal automotive service the vehicle’s engine-driven alternator powers the vehicle’s electrical systems and restores charge used from the battery during engine cranking. When installing a new battery or recharging a battery that has been accidentally discharged completely, one of several different methods can be used to charge it. The most gentle of these is called trickle charging. Other methods include slow-charging and quick-charging, the latter being the harshest.
In emergencies a battery can be jump started, by the battery of another vehicle or by a hand portable battery booster.”

Does this mean that if I were to bring the battery to the point where I get the battery low indicator light that turning the car off (or mabe letting it run?) Would recharge the battery? Why then switch out the battery when it goes dead?

Trying to run two portable DVD players and a power inverted 37w unit and trying to see how much stress I’d be putting on the car battery and how long I could go before the battery goes dead. However if it’s true that the battery recharges it self, then I dont think this would be a problem unless I run the units for too long.
So I guess my next question would be (another post) that when something is inserted into the cigarette lighter port, is it running directly off the car battery, or the alternator?

Brad