Bike Charger on CAR Battery

[Ingah]

Girlfriend's car battery was too weak to start the car today, so we got her recovery company to jump start her car (she doesn't keep jump leads in the car). All well and good, but it was a pain in the backside as we were let down by the first company and ended up waiting in the cold for a few hours.

She might not be able to get the car battery replaced straight away, so on the short term will i be able to use my spare bike trickle charger (600mA £5 effort from Aldi) to keep her car battery on charge so it will start? The charger states it is for 2V/6V/12V batteries up to a maximum of 12Ah. Her car battery is around 50+Ah (so well in excess), so i wondered if anyone could tell me if it's safe to ignore this instruction, and why/how/if it even could matter how many Ah the battery has?
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-- Ingah

[stinkwheel]

I've charged my transit van battery with a 1A bike charger. Just takes a hell of a long time (24h and it wasn't totally flat).

It's probably better for the battery if anything.

Do the maths. Assuming it's totally flat (or near as damnit) charging a 50Ah battery at 600mA is going to take 83 hours.

EDIT: So in your case, I think the only real worry would be that it might not be putting enough charge in to keep up with the loss. I can't see it actually damaging either the battery or the charger.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[truslack]

Would it not have been easier to bump start it, as it sounds like you were also in the car? (then you could have come across all Macho and saved the day as well)
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Current: Suzuki RG 125 Gamma, Honda H100, Triumph Tiger 800XC, Suzuki SV650 (minitwin)

[Phoenix]

It'll charge it enough to start the car but it won't fully charge the battery unless you leave it on for a few days. Part of the reason I got rid of my Optimate and bought a Ctek was that it will charge a bike and a car battery properly rather than just bikes.

[Ichy]

[Bloggsy]

Buy her some jump leads for christmas

[Phoenix]