Did you know that you can use your car battery for some time even after it is dead? You don’t need to replace it immediately and can charge it. Check out Bosch C7 battery charger specification and see if it can be used to charge your battery.
C3 and C7 battery charger
The two types of chargers – C3 and C7 are battery chargers which can charge the batteries of various vehicles. C3 is a smaller charger which is used for batteries of smaller voltage and C7 is its bigger brother. Let us discuss each one separately and also see how can you charge your vehicle’s battery using these chargers:
C3 battery charger
All of us have a mobile charger. But we don’t quite have an idea that our bike and car batteries can also be charged. Bosch is a leading manufacturer of C3 battery chargers. C3 chargers are for batteries upto 12V only i.e. for car and bike batteries. Most households will have car or bike so, this is suitable for most people.
The C3 charger from Bosch is awesome. Lemme tell you why:
It indicates various things. First and the most important. It will indicate if you connect the wrong polarity of the battery to the charger. This can be extremely dangerous and so, this feature is life saving and no cheap chargers have this feature.
Then it also shows an OK sign. It will glow if you connect only the correct battery which can be charged. If your battery is damaged then you will get to know that right away. When the battery is fully charged, then also this sign will glow.
The next symbol will blink when the battery is charging.
We also have a 6V and 12V indication. The charger will recognize the voltage and automatically charge accordingly.
An ampere sign will show a 9 amp or 14 amp battery. There is also a separate sign for car batteries.
A final symbol shows if your battery is dry battery or gel battery or lead acid battery.
There is a mode button which we will discuss later,
On the charger itself, it will be written the red clamp is for positive terminal and the black is for negative. We have to connect the battery accordingly.
The good thing is that the charger is short circuit proof. There is a fuse in between the output wire which will blow off and save your battery and charger if something goes wrong. These fuses are easily available in the market and you can replace them if you need to.
Must read: Must have car accessories
Here’s how to charge a battery using this:
- I will advise you to first check the voltage of your battery so that you can understand if your battery needs a charger. Do not charge it unnecessarily. If your bike is not starting then the problem may also lie with the starter motor. So, first check the battery using a voltmeter.
If the reading of the voltmeter is around 11V then you don’t need a charge just yet. Still, you can do it. Remember, C3 chargers are only for car and bike batteries.
- Next, watch the polarity correctly and don’t connect the wrong polarity to the battery. Doing so may damage the battery.
There are separate clips for use in car batteries in the Bosch package. So, there won’t be any issue.
- After connecting, tighten the screws just with your fingers but don’t keep it loose. A loose connection will not charge the battery properly and there will be sparks.
- Now, plug in the AC input plug to the wall socket and let the battery charge for 6-8 hours. Don’t turn it off till it shows the OK sign.
- Suppose you have connected a car battery but the charger is detecting it as a bike battery then you have to do a simple thing. Here comes the function of the mode button we talked about.
Press the mode button and the charging will shift to car from bike. If you press again, it will come back to the bike mode. So, if it is detected incorrectly then use this button.
C7 battery charger
C7 battery charger is for bigger batteries like vans, trucks and pickup trucks which use a 24V battery. These batteries won’t be charged with a C3 battery charger and so, if you have a 24V battery then you need a C7 battery charger.
Bosch C7 chargers are capable of charging even 12V batteries. So, with a C7 battery charger for your truck, you can also charge our car or bike battery. That makes life just easier. But the C7 charger will cost more. So, buy only if you need that higher voltage charging.
Let’s sum it up. We can charge the batteries of our car and bike and use it. Replacement is not necessary every time a battery dies. You can check Bosch C3 battery charger specification and features here and buy it.
