Drained the battery :/

[goldfinger]

I was runnling late for work and I guess in my hurry to get inside I didn't shut the door. When I got back 7 hours later the door was completely open so the dome and floor lights had been on the whole time. Unfortunatly it had been raining and I got the driver's side door pretty wet, including the power locks.

Luckily everything still worked fine.

When I went to start it I could tell it was very weak as it took a long time to crank and didn't sound good at all. The low/charge battery light was also on.

I drove it ~ 1 mile home and tested it with a DMM. Read 10.59 volts. I can only guess it was lower than this before the brief drive.

My question is which is best for the battery? Drive it and let the alt do the charging or pull the battery and put it on a charger?

 

[Propflux01]

Just pulll the NEG cable off and charge it with a charger. The Alternator is not designed to charge a battery, only to maintain it.

 

[cryptokid]

sence most alternators put out over 60 amps, i would say it can charge it without a problem.

heck i have an alt mounted to a briggs 5hp motor and use it to charge remote power banks of batterys.

anyways, it will be cheaper to use a 110v charger to charge the battery, so thats what i would do.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Your best bet is to trickle charge it at a nice steady 2 amp charge rate for 24 hours.