Using a battery charger

[mattc]

Having flatted the estates battery doing multiple starts on the drive I need to re-charge it. I don't have a charger and my neighbour has one but is says min 20ah max 50ah. What is the technical reason why I should not use this to charge the battery in the 124 estate (56ah I believe)?

Surely it cannot do too much damage (famous last words) especially if I run it through the circuit breaker sockets in the garage.

I realise I could just jump start it and run around in it for an hour but I need to be doing other stuff today (I should be stripping walls as I type this) and there is Qualifying at the moment then 2 rugby games

 

[jaymanek]

im sure it will be fine..

my charger/conditioner also says for up to 60 Ah but my battery is 100 Ah.. never had an issue and its constantly connected.

 

[mattc]

Thats what i thought...but wondered why such an instruction was put on the device..was hoping for a technical explanation.

I will now use it and set the car on fire!

 

[1nevster]

The reason is fairly simple.
The chargers circuits have a Nominal constant supply rating at which they will run fine.
Go above there rating and you could blow the charger or shorten its useful life if you continuously draw more current for longer periods than the design was for.
As stated though already, most of the time you get away with it.