Charging weak battery

[Dime]

Well, car won't start.
For the sake of me not damaging anything I thought I'd ask what the procedures for charging the battery with a charger in a ZR-1 are. I assume that ZR-1s are negative-grounded, correct? So, hook red to the positive post on the battery, and hook negative to the frame?

And I assume any 12v charger would be fine?

[VetteMed]

You are correct - connect red to positive terminal, black to a good ground. If the battery is very weak, you should probably charge at around 10A, if that's a setting available to you on the charger. A 2A trickle is more of a maintainer type charge.

[Kevin]

just buy another one with how these cars eat batteries

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by Kevin

just buy another one with how these cars eat batteries

Very true. Once it's run down dead or very low, it's forever damaged to some degree.

[Dime]

Originally Posted by Kevin

just buy another one with how these cars eat batteries

Alright that was going to be my next question.

What battery would be best? Right now it has a 70-6yr ac/delco.

[VetteMed]

Lots of choices really. Odyssey batteries seem to have a good reputation, probably better than optima overall. You can search the forum for some posts (I think by Hib Halverson) about the Odyssey. Here in FL, the heat kills batteries quickly, so I just plan on replacement every 3-4 years in all of my vehicles. My current battery of choice is Deka (also sold as Napa house brand), but I've also used many of the different labeled Johnson Controls' batteries (Diehard, Autocraft (from Advance auto), Duralast (From Autozone).

[Anniv88]

To be safe and not damage the cars electronics, disconnect the battery Pos. and Neg. Hook the charger to it and put it on the 12 amp setting. Do this when you are going to be home all day so you can monitor the charging progress.
You don't want to over charge the battery and boil it dry, as I have done in the past.
When the charger shows a full charge reconnect the battery and you should be good to go.
Batteries are tougher than you think. My Duralast is 5 years old and goes
dead on me at least once a year because I rarely drive the car. Well, last
week I didn't get my door completely closed. Guess what, no interior lights, no dash lights, no nothing. Nada, zilch, nothing, completely dead.
I disconnected the battery and charged it on the 12 amp setting for 8 hours.
It was about 3/4 charged so I took the car out for the evening. That was
Saturday. Sunday I put the charger on it and it registered a full charge.
I checked it again tonight and still a full charge.
Hope this helps.

[Dime]

Originally Posted by VetteMed

Lots of choices really. Odyssey batteries seem to have a good reputation, probably better than optima overall. You can search the forum for some posts (I think by Hib Halverson) about the Odyssey. Here in FL, the heat kills batteries quickly, so I just plan on replacement every 3-4 years in all of my vehicles. My current battery of choice is Deka (also sold as Napa house brand), but I've also used many of the different labeled Johnson Controls' batteries (Diehard, Autocraft (from Advance auto), Duralast (From Autozone).

I had heard that Napa batteries were basically re-labeled Dekas; I guess I'll be running by Napa latter today and picking one up.

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by Dime

I had heard that Napa batteries were basically re-labeled Dekas; I guess I'll be running by Napa latter today and picking one up.

I've got 2 of them in my duramax, no complaints at all

[Daniel_Mc]

Originally Posted by Anniv88

To be safe and not damage the cars electronics, disconnect the battery Pos. and Neg. Hook the charger to it and put it on the 12 amp setting. Do this when you are going to be home all day so you can monitor the charging progress.

Originally Posted by Anniv88

You don't want to over charge the battery and boil it dry, as I have done in the past.
When the charger shows a full charge reconnect the battery and you should be good to go....

Dime he makes some good points I had a charger on the GS since it was hard to start once I only had it on for about 2 hours in the 12 amp setting and luckily was in the shop and it started smoking. Since then I take the extra 5 minutes take the battery out of the Vette and charge it on my work bench. I have lost 2 C4's due to fire and don't plan on doing it again (BTW not the Vettes fault the house burned).

Daniel