A lot of our toys don’t get used often enough to keep the battery fully charged. When we do find we need to boost a battery that might be down on power, we need to use the right equipment and perform the task safely. Optima’s Digital 1200 12V charger is designed to charge whatever type of battery you have.
With any battery charger, we need to follow certain basic rules because some batteries emit combustible gases, and any spark near those batteries will cause an explosion, which would ruin your day. Here are the basics:
One) always plug in your charger last after hooking up the leads.,
Two) for a negative ground system with the battery in the vehicle, always attach the positive lead to the battery first.,
Three) for a negative ground system, always attach the negative lead to a part of the chassis, not the negative battery post.,
Four) always follow the battery manufacturers recommendations for venting the battery during the charging operation.,
Five) remove the battery charger after the battery is fully charged.
With the Optima Digital 1200, the operation was easy, we just attached the leads as described above, checked the Pre-Charge Battery Status, then selected from the panel which type of battery we were wanting to charge. It will charge AGM style such as the Optima Red we used, as well as flooded batteries (with liquid electrolyte in the cells), small engine batteries and deep cycle types.
The features of the Digital 1200 include: Enhanced performance of AGM batteries; Charges, conditions and maintains 12V AGM and flooded batteries; Recovers deeply discharged batteries; Includes a USB charging port; Is rated at 12 amps maximum.
The Digital 1200 has storage for all of the cords within the case and a handle and hook for placing it where it is convenient. The display has a convenient “Fuel Gauge” style meter to show the status of voltage, amps and percent of charge in the battery and is designed to be very user friendly. Bringing the battery up to full charge on our 19’33 Ford Factory Five coupe kit car was a snap.
For all of your battery charging needs, be sure the identify the type of battery you are using, find a charger that will best handle that type of battery and always follow the basic safety rules for charging 12V batteries. And use those toys more often.
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