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As you know, a battery converts chemical energy into electrical energy. The chemical energy in the battery is in the form of electrolyte. When the electrolyte is used up, the battery is considered discharged or dead as it can no longer provide electric current. In rechargeable batteries, this electrolyte can be restored by charging the battery using battery chargers.
Of course, chargers cannot restore 100% electrolyte of the batteries, so with each recharge some electrolyte is lost and eventually the battery dies. We will discuss the most common types of chargers available.
Simple Charger
A simple charger applies a low but constant DC power to the battery. It has no mechanism of knowing when to stop charging. So most often simple chargers end up overcharging the batteries, thus damaging them and reducing their life. To minimize the effects of overcharging, low charge is used in these simple chargers.
Fast Charger
A fast charger charges the battery faster than a simple charger. When the battery is charged, the charger gets to know this via the battery control circuitry. On detecting this, the charger stops charging or switches to trickle charge. Fast chargers can be used as overnight chargers, especially for NiMH cells.
Charging raises battery temperature. Fast charging can raise the temperature significantly, and so fast chargers have cooling fans to reduce temperature.
Trickle Charger
Trickle charger provides very low currents, typically in the 5-1500 mA range, to the battery. So it is good for charging small capacity batteries, typically 2 to 30 Ah. Trickle chargers can also be used to maintain the charge of batteries having more than 30Ah power.
Pulse Charger
In a pulse charger, instead of continuous DC supply, DC pulses are used to charge the battery. The best part of pulse chargers is that they can be used to charge any battery of any size, capacity, or chemical composition. They may be used to charge personal gadgets, automobile batteries or fleet batteries.
To ensure maximum productivity of a battery, you should always use a charger that was provided with it. However, if you have to use some other charger, you should find out the compatibility of the battery and charger before using.
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