Battery losing voltage = dead?

[darrsi]

Sorry to be a pain Unfazed, but could you type a bit smaller please? I can still read it if I turn the screen up to 400% magnification :lol

***UNFAZED
[size=1.35em]You are correct, however since Farmboy81 does not have either an Optimate or Ctek charger then the car charger can be used with care. The biggest issue with using car chargers on old style lead acid batteries is they were being left on for 24 hours or more mostly because a lack of understanding of how they and batteries worked. I have seen many garages leave them on for a few days to give the battery an extra boost which you and I know was totally false economy and destroyed many batteries.[/size]If you use a voltmeter to measure the open circuit voltage of the battery (Open circuit voltage is the voltage of the battery with no load or disconnected from any circuit). It is important not to charge the battery before you test the open circuit voltage. In relation to Farmboy81 Battery, it is a 12v 8ampere hourIn simple terms it would take 8 hours at 1 amp to charge the battery plus about 15%, to allow for the internal resistance but I am not going to go into the full method of how to chargeIf the voltmeter shows a voltage reading of 12.2 volts then the battery is approximately 50% charged.I his case 12.32 volts does not mean the battery is dead.Generaly a lead acid cell is:Fully charger at 12.6 to 12.7 volts75% charged at 12.40v50% charged at 12.2v25% charged at 12v0% charged as 11.8vAgain Farmboy81 battery has a charge of around 60% and his charger would charge it fully in a few hours at a 2 amp rating.It would be vital for Farmboy to user the charge set to its lowest charging rate which is normally 2ampsAll the above of course is not relevant if you have an Optimate or Ctek intelligent charger