The Journal

Battery

Or why the connection sequences of the cables matter: these sequences exist mainly to avoid accidental arcs on the positive pole of the battery that could severely shock you, fry electronics or make a battery explode, why not.

I want to change a battery

To change a battery it's better to:

  1. Unhook the black cable from the negative pole
  2. Unhook the red cable from the positive pole
  3. Switch the battery
  4. Hook the red cable to the positive pole
  5. Hook the black cable to the negative pole.

Et voila, you changed your battery.

I have to re-charge a battery

To re-charge a battery that was drained and you know that still holds charge you may bridge it with another working battery. You need cables and a working car with a working battery.

So you may want to:

  1. Hook the red cable to the positive pole of the drained battery
  2. Hook the other end of the red cable to the positive pole of the working battery
  3. Hook the black cable to the negative pole of the working battery
  4. Hook the other end of the black cable to the negative pole of the drained battery
  5. Start the working car and let it run idle for a little while
  6. Start the drained battery car, it should be ok
  7. Unhook the black cable from the negative pole of the drained battery
  8. Unhook the other end of the black cable from the negative pole of the working battery
  9. Unhook the red cable from the positive pole of the working battery
  10. Unhook the other end of the red cable from the positive pole of the drained battery.

And that's it.

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