Car Battery Chargers Buyer's Guide
If your car won’t start, you may be suffering from a flat battery.
By keeping a car battery chargers handy in your garage, you can prevent long-term damage to your car battery.
Car battery chargers are easy to use, simply attach the charger to your battery terminals and plug it into the mains electricity socket.
What do they do?
All chargers send electricity to your car's battery, but there are three main functions that they can perform. Make sure that the charger you’re buying does what you need it to do.
Maintenance charging
Also referred to as 'trickle' charging, this sends a small amount of electricity to your battery to keep it healthy while it's being stored for long periods of time.
Conventional charging
This sends power to your battery to charge it up from a low amount of power. This can take between 6-24 hours, but it typically takes about 10 hours to charge a battery to full.
Engine start function
This is the same as jump starting your car. It takes a lot more power, so is normally seen on more heavy-duty chargers.
What types are available?
There are two main types of battery charger: standard and smart.
Standard chargers
If you’re looking for a battery charger that’s easy to use, then a standard charger with traditional styling and a simple interface is a great option. These chargers are cost effective, however, they cannot support modern vehicles with a stop-start function.
Halfords Automatic Battery Charger
The Halfords Fully Automatic Charger recharges and protects batteries in 12V vehicles up to 2L.
It’s suitable for lead acid and gel batteries and can recharge a battery in around 15 hours (based on a 60Ah battery).
Smart chargers
Smart chargers can be used for both charging your battery and as a long-term connection for maintenance charging.
They come with various added features and provide multiple charging stages for more efficient charging, which helps to extend a battery’s lifespan. They'll also switch to a trickle charge when the battery is full, so there's no risk of overcharging and damaging your battery.
Halfords Advanced Smart Battery Charger (6A)
The Halfords Advanced Smart Battery Charger (6A) is compact, easy-to-use, and compatible with 6V and 12V batteries.
With one-touch button operation, it provides a 7-stage charging cycle for lithium batteries and a 9-stage cycle for lead acid/AGM batteries, before switching to long-term maintenance mode when your battery is full.
NOCO GENIUS5
The NOCO GENIUS5 is one of the most advanced chargers of its kind.
High-performing, energy-efficient and compact, the NOCO GENIUS5 is designed to safely charge and maintain 6-volt or 12-volt vehicle or leisure batteries, including flooded, AGM, EFB, lithium and Start-Stop varieties.
Which one do I need?
If you know what sort of charging you want to do, there are just a couple of things to think about when picking a battery charger.
Engine size
How big is your engine? A bigger engine needs a bigger battery, which in turn needs a more powerful charger! Check that your charger is suitable for the size of your engine.
Battery type
What kind of battery have you got? Lead acid batteries work with all kinds of battery charger as long as they're suitable, but if you have a gel or calcium battery, or an AGM/EFB battery that’s normally found in cars with start-stop functions, then you’re going to need a smart charger.
Features
What kind of features are you looking for? Do you want a digital display that’s easy to read? Perhaps a winter mode? Specific charging cycles? Think about your requirements and this will help to narrow down your options before purchasing.
Once you’ve decided the type of charging you’re looking for and identified the type of charger that’s compatible with your battery, head over to Halfords.com and shop the full range.
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