Battery Chargers

Hearty welcome to battery charger price comparison site. Get benefited with our product reviews of different brands such as Canon, Duracell, Nikon, Nokia and other popular ones that are available in the UK market. Articles that give information about buying a freezer, different types of batteries, selecting battery chargers and lot more are available here.

Buying Guide for Battery Charger

Battery chargers are used to energise the battery or secondary cell by passing current through it. Batteries are nowadays used in almost all devices and some of the devices such as digital cameras drain a lot of power. Different types of battery chargers are Simple, Trickle, Timer-based, Intelligent, Inductive, Fast, Pulse, Solar chargers and USB-based.

The life of a battery depends upon its usage. Batteries tend to fail when certain devices or vehicles are started. This may be due to overuse of these devices such as motorcycle, scooter, lorry and tractor. The power may drain off due to various reasons such as when the lights of car or scooter is left glowing overnight, overuse of the battery and draining of the battery without being able to recharge itself and due to other reasons. Lack of use of battery will also lead to depletion of the battery charge. Almost all batteries self-discharge the power after a said period depending upon different conditions such as operating temperature and storage conditions. Cold weather conditions affect batteries causing strain on it and usually do not start when it needs to be.

Charging methods

• Taper current

Battery in charged from a crude unregulated constant voltage source. The charge is not controlled here. As the cell voltage builds up, the current diminishes. Overcharging may damage the cells. Hence the duration and charging rate must be limited.

• Constant voltage

A constant voltage charger works using DC power supply and consists of a step down transformer from the mains with a rectifier to provide a DC voltage in order to charge the battery.

• Constant Current

Voltage is varied in this type of chargers in order to maintain a constant current flow. The current supply is switched off when it is fully charged.

• Pulsed charge

Battery is charged in pulses in this type of chargers. The width of the pulses can be varied for about one second to precisely control the charging rate. Short rest periods between pulses allow the chemical actions to stabilise.

• IUI charging

Standard flooded lead acid batteries that are produced by some particular manufacturers are charged with this type of charging.

• Burpo charging

This type of charging is also called as Negative Pulse or Reflex charging. A short discharge pulse is applied. The release and diffusion of the gas bubbles is called as the 'burping'.

• Trickle charge

This type of charging is mainly designed for the compensation purpose for the self discharge of the battery. For the standby use, the battery can be constantly charged for long term.

• Random charging

This type of chargers are used in EV and HEV applications that apply regenerative braking. It is applied even on automotive applications

• Float charge

This type of chargers are used for emergency power back up systems. These chargers are applied with lead acid batteries.

Charger Power Sources

The sources from which a battery charger gets charged, its voltage, availability and power range need to be known. Efficiency losses that take place in the chargers must be taken in to account. Some of the power sources are controlled charging, opportunity charging and mechanical charging.

Battery chargers come in different types and sizes depending upon the usage. Hence, it is required for the user to basically understand the requirement before buying the product.

Latest Reviews