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Battery Maintainer Not Charging Connected to Cobalt Remote Terminals

alternatoralternator Member Posts: 629
edited September 2016 in Chevrolet
My Schumacher Battery Maintainer has worked fine for several years in keeping the battery charged in my 2014 Honda Civic. The first time I've used it on my 2010 Chevy Cobalt (attached to the remote terminals under the hood), the pulsating green light that indicates "fully charged" has not come on after 12 hours.

Is there something wrong about charging via the remote terminals?
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    Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    If you have one of those small inexpensive battery maintainers, they aren't meant to charge up a fully discharged battery. They work best on a battery that is already fairly well charged up and just needs a little topping up.
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    alternatoralternator Member Posts: 629
    edited September 2016
    I'm just maintaining the charge in a nearly new battery in Cobalt that's spending some rest time in my garage. I only use the maintainer about every four weeks.
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    Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well I suppose it's possible that the length of the remote cables is such that there's more electrical resistance.
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    alternatoralternator Member Posts: 629
    edited October 2016
    The battery maintainer worked just fine when connected directly to battery in the trunk. Inconvenient, but it is what it is.

    I didn't hunt far for a suitable place to make negative or ground connection. Since the Cobalt battery is vented to outside the car, I connected to the battery negative terminal.
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    alternatoralternator Member Posts: 629
    Correction. Although I believed my remote battery terminals (under the hood) were sufficiently clean, it turns out that a vinegar cleaning of the terminals has allowed my Schumacker SC200A battery maintainer to recharge my battery in about 6 hours. Hurrah!
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