Am I irrationally scared of car battery chargers?

With two vehicles on the “farm,” I end up driving the disco more than the poopfinder (pathfinder,) mainly because one has leather and ice cold ac and one does not.

Battery is dead on the poopfinder and I’d like to charge it overnight, BUT from way back in the day when my brother worked on RC cars, he beat into me never to leave batteries charging unattended.

The ONE time I did was on my old EP Civic. I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to run down to the basement to check on it. This was a small gel-cell battery, and sure enough, it was sizzling and oozing.

Anyway, am I a weirdo for thinking if I let the Optima in the poopfinder charge all night on the standard issue vatozone charger at (2 amps?) the house is going to burn down? 

Edit: It’s the “old school” charger with the analog dial indicators. Maybe this is part of the problem?

My optima charger kept the Miata charged all winter. Zero issues. I checked it every other day, but never had problems. It comes down to two things: a quality battery that’s not past its lifespan, and a quality charger that’s not from harbor fright. 

Case in point- a friend was aboot to leave for vacation, he decided to randomly go in the washroom and check on things. He had left a HF drill battery plugged in that day, it was smoking and spewing. NEVER trust cheap ish. 

In reply to poopshovel again :

 Did exactly that on boat batteries forever, only had a problem when I forgot they were plugged in for days at a time. No boom, but no water inside either. 

2 amp trickle charger  should  be fine overnight. Maybe take the battery out of the poopfinder first.

I think AGM batteries like your Optima do best with an AGM compatible charger, especially if they're totally flat.  For normal batteries, my favorite battery charger is an old ~1985 Sears model that I inherited.  It has 6/12V, low/high amperage setting, and a  mechanical timer...when the timer hits zero it trickle charges.  Helps me get over the same charging angst.  I like it so much that I took it apart, cleaned it, and repainted it.

I got a CTEK charger for my Optima in the race car. Very impressed with the quality, it was recommended on this forum. 

My dad had a HF charger that went up in flames charging a V12 XKE battery. Luckily we where right there went it happened. Imagine that working on a Jag.....

What charging rate are you using and how "low" is the battery?

Gel cell batteries let the smoke out (sometimes in a bulging-case, jetting-from-the-vents way) if you let the charging voltage get 15v or higher.  Cheap chargers will happily crank the voltage up.

No, you are not irrationally scared.  However, if you get the proper type of charger, you'll be fine.  The proper type of charger, however, is freakin' expensive.  Expensive enough that sometimes I think about running a single wire alternator off of a belt connected to a motor and using that as a charger.  It'll self-regulate better at any rate.

Tyler H said:

I think AGM batteries like your Optima do best with an AGM compatible charger, especially if they're totally flat.  For normal batteries, my favorite battery charger is an old ~1985 Sears model that I inherited.  It has 6/12V, low/high amperage setting, and a  mechanical timer...when the timer hits zero it trickle charges.  Helps me get over the same charging angst.  I like it so much that I took it apart, cleaned it, and repainted it.

Copy that. I’m gonna stop by Oreilly’s on the way home and see if they have the cheaper of the 2 optima brand chargers...or at least something with an AGM setting. Good lookin out!

They had some janky looking ones for $100. For $100 I figure I’ll just buy the Optima one online, as am now an elitist optima snob.

A watched battery never charges.... or something like that.

I'm of the "set it and forget it" camp.  If it blows up and spews acid everywhere, there's nothing you can do about it.  I don't want to be watching it when it blows up because I'll be wearing the acid too.

When I get a charger (usually a $5 used one from an auction sale), I try it a few times with supervision.  Once it has proven that the automatic setting is trustworthy, I plug them in and go to bed knowing I'll have a full battery in the morning.

Get a modern-ish multi stage charger and it'll be fine.  Some of the old designs aren't good for use with anything other than a flooded battery and still need some monitoring to make sure they don't cook the battery dry. 

In reply to Curtis :

Every battery has a current level you can put into it continuously without anything bad happening (including heat build up, heavy off-gassing, etc). That's actually one of the things lead acid batteries are relatively good at. 

If it makes you feel better, you can buy one of those <$10 trickle chargers (which will charge a battery in 24 hrs btw) and just try it on your tongue. Once you're not dead you'll probably be mostly over any lingering fears. 

Now if you put a big charger on a 40a setting and go to sleep, well that's something else, but mostly probably a really hot battery with no water left in it. Probably. 

I keep many cars on various types of chargers year around.  I mostly use battery tender brand trickle chargers,  but also have ctek, diehard,  Schumacher,  and a couple of solar ones.  I’ve never had a problem,  but I don’t use any of the super cheap ones either.

Appleseed said:

In reply to Curtis :

Easily one of the best simpsons quote ever. 

The second? “Look in the Tunk? I think he means trunk...”

I used to put batteries on whatever charger I have from autozone in my bedroom and go to sleep or work.  old apartment.

Actually have to yank the truck battery - will leave it in the living room as my outlet that charged to my bill in the basement got yanked for a washer/dryer.