Battery charger at Lidl

Is it about 2 inches high, half an inch depth, and 5 inches wide? I bought something that sounds suspiciously similar from Lidl recently. It's really good in fact, and has far surpassed more expensive consumer chargers I've had in the past.

Thought it was recommended these days to remove the battery from the vehicle when using a charger. No?

Arse covering by the marketting department.

All sorts of things are 'recommended' Doesn't make them so, though. Or perhaps it's best to remove the battery while the car's own alternator is charging it? ;-)

Talking of arse covering, I have a Ctek switched mode 3 stage charger (sounds similar to the Lidl one but cost me a load more than 13 quid!) and when you switch the mains on the the unit, it tells you to, and I quote, "Always use safety goggles and turn your face away from the battery when turning it on and off".

Now we all wear safety goggles when we turn our battery chargers on... don't we???

It's all wonderful advice and would avoid 0.000000000001% of the accidents involving batteries.

If I've been using a winch with it, you bet I do!

You only need to see one battery explode a cell. If you're lucky you get to see more than one.

There aren't many conditions that will cause a battery to explode. But if it's likely to be in one, and I'm going to make sparks around it, then yes I'm careful of the things bursting. Doubly so if the cells are glass - then I'd use the blast shield that's already on the front of our battery rack.

Year ago I worked for BT. Anyone else rememebr the course on battery charging? Lots of exciting photos about how to smear yourself over the scenery...

Of course they can be dangerous things, but in a car far more likely caused by shorting a spanner across them or to ground. Connecting and disconnecting a charger isn't high up the list - unless in very badly vented premises. The real danger spot was battery rooms in garages etc.

A spark's a spark. If you've already got plenty of flammable mixture around (the think that changes the hazard), then a small spark from a charger is just as capable of igniting it as some gross gorrillation with a spanner across the posts.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "BobC" saying something like:

Maybe the battery's shy and only like to get charged in the dark.

Yep, the don't wear rings or metal watch straps piccys.

If you're facing away from the battery, presumably the goggles are there to give the exploding acid a chance to be caught in the goggles and blind you...