Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Putting 2 - 6 volt batteries in series to power a 12volt dc motor - What type of charger is needed?

I currently have a 6 volt battery ride on car and I'm changing the motor to a 12 volt. I will be putting 2 - 6 volt batteries in series to power the car. I currently have a 1000ma 6volt charger and need to know what type of charger I will need to charge the two batteries in series. Also, could I use a 12 volt car battery charger and how would tht affect the charging time. The current 6 volt charger says to charge 8 to 10 hours. The batteries I am using are 6 volt 10AH/20HR lead acid batteries.Putting 2 - 6 volt batteries in series to power a 12volt dc motor - What type of charger is needed?If you put the two six volt batteries in series it will look and behave just like a 12 volt battery. You will have some resistance loss in the connections, but if they are kept clean, that won't be a problem.



As for the charging time, it will depend upon the capacity of your twelve volt charger and the size of the batteries. If the current capacity of the 12 volt charger is the same as the six volt charger, then it will take twice as long to charge.



The reason is that charging reverses the action of discharging relative to the electrodes. That is, it reverses the ion charge on the electrodes. This takes electron transfer which is a function of amperes through the battery. With two batteries in series, the surface area of the electrodes, and then number of ions transferred is doubled. So either the charging rate will double, or the time to charge will double.Putting 2 - 6 volt batteries in series to power a 12volt dc motor - What type of charger is needed?Since you're using lead acid batteries, a car battery charger should work just fine.Putting 2 - 6 volt batteries in series to power a 12volt dc motor - What type of charger is needed?since the two batteries are in series, it is a 12 volt battery, a 12 volt charger will do the job as long as the batteries stay connected together