Charging Dead Battery

Today's smart battery chargers will not charge a completely dead battery. The clamps do not get power, until the charger knows it is hooked to a battery! But what if you have a battery that has 0 volts? You have to somehow let the battery charger know that it is actually hooked to a battery. Here is a quick and easy way to get that smart battery charger, charging you completely dead battery. This is the redneck way, I guess!

[GearsBusinessSolutions]

👍👍👍 I hooked it up using a dewalt battery pack as shown and my charger kicked in! thank you very much. That is truly a hack! Now I'm going to do a video to show you how to get that mower and battery cleaned up nice. ..and yes, this comment comes to you 3 yrs after you posted the vid!

[frankstanton]

I’ve asked many times about using this method, and no one replied, till you put this on! Now I know that this will work I will try it, thanks

[soldiermikeft]

Worked like a charm! I thought something was wrong with my charger. Had NO IDEA that it was because it could not register a dead batter to even begin charging it. THANK YOU!!

[asukahuang]

Awesome trick. I left my car in the garage for half a year not able to charge at all. Now it is charging and hopefully my car will go back online soon. Thank you for sharing

[JackMessenger-ph]

Heaven forbid a world run by “smart” computers, dudes like you make the world go round and you just saved my bacon 👍🏻👍🏻 thanks man🎉

[OldGuy]

Damn John I’ve owned this damn “smart” Charger for a year and I thought it was harbor freight junk. I can across this video and it just so happens I left the fuel pump on and killed the battery in my truck and off course my jumper park was all but dead I did what you said and sure enough the charger started charging! 😊 thank you man

[draconas]

kinda glad we have an old charger with an "auto/manual" switch, the manual trickle charges totally flat batteries until auto can detect it

[curiosity]

Yes this method works perfectly, I did although use a smaller gauge wire at first and it turned into a toaster wire so I went up to 12 gauge house wiring. Some chargers although good like the BatteryMinder don't take the hint right away and wait for the next test cycle; can be 30 seconds to a minute. Just be aware of wiring gauge and possible test cycles. Perfect solution but as always be careful; batteries are nothing to play with if you are unsure. Wear protective gear as stated in the video. Most solutions will have zero issues but you need to understand either battery might have a disagreement with the situation so protect yourself from both batteries in play.

[richardlarson]

Yep that worked for me. I ran a car battery totally dead by leaving an interior light on. I have a battery pack however, apparently that is "smart" too and it would not give any juice to the system. No lights or anything would come on. I did what you said and got the charger working. Thanks.

[breakingames]

Bro thanks man....I did it this way tho...I found my harbor freight cheap rotary tool...the power wire is exactly 12 volts, cut the wire, used my harbor freight 5 dollar multimeter to find out what wire was positive...plugged it in...hooked my charger up...did the same as you and presto...it started charging...thanks dude subscription added man

[josemedeiros]

Good video. Noco Genius smart chargers have a force mode to charge a battery below 1 volt. I still have and use my Schumacher 1 Amp manual charger to trickle charge my battery along with my PulseTech PowerPulse passive battery desulfator.

[nismonemesis]

Thank you for this video. I used my car jumper to start my trickle charger and it worked. Now I can try and charge my 3 other dead car batteries I have lying around

[tomasbengtsson]

This will work in a bind. Just be aware of the dangers.

There is a good chance that you will blow the fuse in your tool battery. The dead lead acid battery will more or less work as a short if it's completely discharged. The fuse is not easily replaced so you risk bricking your tool battery.

A better way is to buy a small 13.8V power supply (or 12V will work as well), preferably current limited. Hook it up with the correct polarity and charge manually for a few minutes. Usually it's enough to get the battery above 2-6V for the smart charger to start. You can get one for less than $20.

As pointed out in several of the comments, your battery will never be the same after a deep discharge. Lead acid batteries should be stored fully charged in a cool dry place. Disconnect it if possible and charge it fully with a smart charger or if thats not possible, arrange so you can charge it fully at the end of the season and top up the charge every 6 months. A permanently attached battery connector with an inline fuse is a good solution.

[racinjayson]

Damn John how smart is that you buy battery charger to charge a dead batterybut the battery charger won't charge a dead battery you have to trick the battery charger to think in the battery is not dead. LOL

[thermoking_-truck]

I got a battery tender and I hook it up once a month
So my battery is ready to go and I will never let it die. 👍

[robertdouglas]

Great job TJ! I have two of those from Harbor freight. I didn't realize that about the smart chargers!

[mickthedawg]

DUDE! I'm not I had a Golf Cart behind a shed I want to sell. Knew the betteries were toast. Also knew the cart runs and dosent really run bad. Just needs batteries. And really no way to get any vehicle in the fenced back yard to get jumpers on a battery. So I was looking at removing 2 of the 8 volt golf cart batteries and luggin em all the way up through the garage. Till I saw this video that is. YOU DA MAN BRO! I got it to take 1st off a small smart charger with your Lithium tool battery hack, then I was able to get enough of a charge for the smart 48 volt regular Golf cart battery to kick in. I'm so totally geeked--I now have spare time-or as I like to call it, more beer drinkin time! Thank you! I'm only 3 years late with this comment--I was drinkin beer! LOL

[adrianscott]

A smart charger that is too stupid to charge a dead battery. Awesome!

[ytalanwms]

you would think that the manufacturers would provide a small button to achieve the same thing - Momentarily put a voltage on the leads.
It's sad that a flat battery can't be charged by a smart battery charger.

[robinandthedog]

Top it worked, I used 2 6v batteries in serie holding together, and at the ends I used the multimeter cables, is charging now woot!