Just to reiteterate: the info from Hayne's which stimulated this thread
initially; states that: the green LED functions at 12.5 volts and above;
the yellow below 12.5 volts and the red between 12.5 volts and 12 volts.
So both Harmon and Derek are right: a battery below 12 volts is in danger
of not being able to start the car, still it seems that 12.5 and above is
sufficient and perhaps a little less would be ok...DC

David Schwarze writes:
> 
> Harmon Seaver writes:
> > 
> > On Sat, 26 Nov 94 21:28:44 CST, DerekDrew@aol.com wrote:
> > > 
> > > You all know that 11.9 volts is a dead battery; 12.25 is half charged, and
> > > 12.6 is fully charged, right? 
> > 
> >     No, that's not true. A battery in good shape, fully charged would 
> > read about 13.5 volts, not 12.6. Any battery that only reads 12.6 after
> > a good charging-up is ready for retirement. And anything reading only
> > 12 or less is junk. In fact, I wouldn't dream of keeping any battery
> > this time of year that read anything less than 13v after a charge.
> 
> Harmon,
> 	I think you will find that as soon as you attach a small load
> to that battery, or leave it sit for a few hours, the voltage will drop
> down to around 12.7.  I wasn't sure of this myself until I got a decent
> digital multimeter.  The 13.5 reading that one gets briefly after charging
> a battery is pretty meaningless.  I have had old batteries that read 13.5
> after a charge, but dropped to 10.5 (or less) within a few minutes when they
> were put under a 5 amp load (da fridge).
> 
> -David
> 
> =============================================================================
> David Schwarze			'73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat)
> SAIC Comsystems, San Diego	'73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast)
> schwarze@nosc.mil		'87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (Da Bruiser?  Soon...)
> =============================================================================
> 

-- 

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David Carment
School of International Affairs
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 5B6
voice - (613) 788-2600-6662
fax - (613) 788-2889
Email address: dcarment@ccs.carleton.ca
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