How Long To Charge A Car Battery At 10 Amps?

Charging car battery Image source Home depot

Your car’s battery gets drained after a period of time whereby you have not been recharging. When you find yourself in such an awkward situation, you are likely to ask: “How long will it take to recharge at 10 amps?”

Averagely, charging a car battery at 10 amp will take a period of between 6 to 10 hours. That is if you are using a standard car battery whose voltage rating is  12 volts and has the current capacity of 50Ah.

But there is more that you need to know about the expected charging duration of a car’s battery. There are several factors that determine how long it will take to charge a car battery at 10 amps.

Read on as we dig deep into this topic.

What it means to charge a car battery at 10 amps?

Charging a car battery at 10 amps simply means that  the car charger, or any other charging device that you are using will be delivering  up to 10 amps unit of charge per second.

This is the amount of current that the charging unit will be putting into the car’s battery.

The charging unit is important as it will determine how fast or slow the battery will charge.

So, a charger that delivers higher unit(let’s say 20 amps) will charger the battery faster than one that delivers 10 amps.

Let’s say the car’s battery capacity is 50 Ah, Charging it at 10 amps means that it will take an average of five hours to get it from zero to fully charge.

However, when we consider numerous other factors, the charging time will greatly vary.

For instance, the charging time will be longer for a deeply discharged batter, that is if  it is below 10 volts.

How the state of the battery affects time?

Even as  you expect the battery to take between 6 to 8 hours when charging at 10 amps. The state of the battery will make it longer.

If you use your multimeter  to test your battery and indicates 12.7 volts, this shows that the battery is full. 12.0 means that the car’s battery is 25% full.

However, anything below 11.9  means that the battery is empty.

On the other hand, it will take shorter time to charge a car battery that is barely discharged.

Battery capacity will affect time

We know that most if not all car batteries are rated 12 volts. But there is more-the current capacity.

While most have the capacity of 50 Ah, others are rated 100 Ah even though both are under the same voltage rating od 12 volts.

A 100 Ah car battery will take longer to charge at 10 amps than a 50 Ah.

So, before you conclude on the time to be taken by the charger, you should check out the rated battery capacity.

Condition of the battery

The physical condition of the battery has a direct impact on the charging time that will be take.

You can easily predict how long it will take to charge a brand new battery. This is because it is in  a perfect running condition and its charging systems have not been tampered with.

On the other hand, you will take longer to charge an old battery at 10 amps.

Chances are some of its key components have been badly affected by age, and this applies to any other battery that has been misused or mishandled.

Charging method used

Even if you are charging a car battery at 10 amps, the charging method that you use will affect the overall charging time.

Some methods are faster than others.

But what are these charging methods?

• Constant Current (CC): As the name suggests, this method entails charging the battery at constant current. It is quite a predictable method since the voltage of the battery will increase as constant current is supplied until a full charge is attained. While  the method is fast, it puts the battery at risk of overheating.
• Constant Voltage (CV) charging: This technique entails charging a car’s battery at a constant voltage that has been specified by the batter’s manufacturer. Here, the charging current will keep decreasing until it hits the lowest point and that is when charging will stop. CV  method is recommended as it is quite gentle on the battery. It does not cause overheating. However, it is relatively slower.
• Pulse charging: This method  entails charging a car’s battery by supplying it with bursts of  electric current. There are special chargers that are designed to do this type of charging. They have control features that allow you to adjust the frequency and amplitude of pulses.The method increases the battery’s lifespan and improve performance.
• Trickle charging: here, the battery charger supplies low current over a long period. It is a complete opposite to the pulse charging method. The main  reason behind trickling method is to protect the battery from any possibility of overcharging.  However, it is quite slow.

So, which of the above four charging methods should I use? It all depends on your specific needs and the batter’s specifications. Some manufacturers warn against using certain charging methods due to the negative effects that they have on the battery.

Temperature affects the charging time

Another key factor that will determine the time taken to charge a car battery at 10 amps is temperature of the area. It has a direct impact on the behavior of the electric current. Cold temperatures can  slow down the rate of charging while extremely high temperatures can cause erratic charging, which can also lead to overheating.

So, you can only predict the charging time at moderate temperature conditions.

Conclusion

From this information, charging a car battery at 10 amps will take between 6 hours to 10 hours.

Even as you keep the above figures in  mind, remember the other factors that affect the charging time.

Use the chargers that have been recommended by the car battery manufacturer. This will guarantee safety and reliability  of your battery.

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