Charging a 6V Battery

[idaho04]

I need to charge a 6V battery from the solar fence charger. My automotive charger is 12V only. I was wondering if I could connect 2 batteries serially ( one 6V and one 12V) and use my 12V charger. What do you think, would it work?

[jml755]

Well, you'd have a potential of 18v across a 6v and 12 v in series. You'd have a potential of 12 across (2) 6v in series. That's a better scenario.

[Pat]

Two 6V batts in series would do the trick.

I assume the 6V batt is not very big and probably doesn't want to be charged more than single digit amps. If your charger has a meter hook it up to the batt plus a light bulb or whatever in series and see if the charge rate is a couple amps. If so you are OK. If charge current is too low use a larger watts light bulb or use a couple in parallel with each other but still in series with the 6V batt.

What you are trying to do is limit the charge current to a proper value. You can put just about anything in series with the 6V batt to try to limit the charge current. Experiment a bit. I'd go for 1-2 amps unless the batt is near automotive size and then maybe 10 amps.

Pat