How Many Amps Is A Car Battery – Step By Step Guide

In a car, the battery is obviously one of the most important elements to a car but still, the knowledge about a car battery does not tend to be that well talked about. We all probably have in mind that a car battery is around 12 volts.

But do any of us has the idea that how many amps in a car battery? Not this question but there other few questions like “how many amp hours is a car battery?”, “how many amps to charge a car battery?” and “how many amps should a car battery have?” float regarding the knowledge regarding car battery that should be talked about. This article will try to highlight all of these questions one by one.

How Many Amps Is Car Battery

To know how many amp is a car battery you need to know about ampere rating or amp rating. Ampere rating is basically the storage capacity of a battery.

This means that the larger the ampere rating of a battery is the larger its capacity will be. As previously we have mentioned that a car battery is on average is around 12 volts. Now the average capacity of 12 volts battery should be around 100 amps per hour. And the cold crank power will be 650, 750 and 800 on an average basis.

These equations can be discussed further with a more complicated view. If you see thoroughly you will see two ampere ratings in most of the car batteries and they are crank amps (CA) rating and cold cranking amps (CCA) rating.

Cranking amps (CA) :cranking amp rating basically shows the maximum current that a 12 volts fresh and new and having fully charged can deliver for 30 seconds and the other rules are that the voltage should not drop below 7.2V at 0°C or 32°F.

Cold cranking amp (CCA) :Cold cranking amp is also rating also shows the maximum current that a 12 volts fresh, new and fully charged battery can deliver for 30 seconds and the voltage also should drop below 7.2 V but at 0°C or 32°F.

Checking How Many Amps is Car Battery

To check how many amp is a car battery you can most easily check the battery itself. This is also regarded as the easiest way of checking this.

As we know that an average car battery is around 12 volts but the amperage range can change from 40 amperes per hour to be more like hundreds of amperes per hour.

But sadly the fact is that most of the batteries do not have any writing one them from which you can detect their amperage. As a result, you have to take other steps.

As your battery does not have any writings about the amperage on it then you can go for other options and this option of looking at the chart of the battery.

To check the chart first you will need to find out the class of the battery which you will find on the surface of the battery. And once you figure out the class of the battery then using this number and also the model number you can easily look up the battery chart where you will find the amp.

One of the most scientific ways of figuring out the amp of a battery is to use the resistor. You can easily find out the answers by hooking up the resistor to the battery while applying a draw over it.

While you are in this process make sure that your battery is fully charged and this helps you to get the most accurate result. And also the reading of the resistor should be “1ohm, 200 watts”.

Now comes the process of figuring out. After you hook up the resistor to the battery you try to check it after every hour to get the reading and make sure that you have to figure out the fact that how long it takes it to drop from 12.6 volts to 12 volts and this drop is actually the half or 50% power drop.

After you figure out how long it takes the battery to have power drop from 12.6 volts to 12 volts you will have the time and then you will have to find out and measure the current through the resistor.

After you have both the readings then you multiply them to get the end result. For example, if it took 10 hours for the battery to drop to 12 volts then have a 120 amp hour battery.

You should be very careful about the temperature while figuring out the amp. This because the temperature has a huge impact on the figure you are looking for. This testing should be done in a temperature of 77 degrees for getting the ideal result but if you fail to keep the temperature constant or if it gets warmer or any cooler than this you will not get the result because it will discharge the battery.

You will also have to be careful about the power dropping rate. The power dropping rate should always be exactly around 0.1 volt per two hours but if this rate has any change or if the rate gets faster or slower you will not get the accurate result.

For you checking on how many amps is your battery you can use another scientific tool. This tool is known as a voltmeter. To check the amp of you battery here you will have to connect the voltmeter with your battery first.

There are some good voltmeters which have clips on hook, as a result, you can easily connect them with the battery but some other types are also there which have metal rods that you can hold on to the battery to check the readings easily.

Once you have connected the voltmeter with the car battery your voltmeter will give reading of 12-13 volts and make sure that your battery is fully charged.

One thing you should know that each of the cells of a battery holds around 2.1 volts and six of these cells ends up having 12.6 volts but this reading can also be bit varied regarding how old the battery is.

While reading the numbers one thing will come forward is that there are mainly two types of display of voltmeters. One is the digital display which directly will show the number but there is another type has a niddle by through you get your numbers and this niddle type is bit hard to figure out your results.

Now the thing is that there will also be a type of voltmeters which will have an extra option a spot to read the amp of the battery but there also will be another which will not have it and this where you will have to do some maths to figure out the exact number of the amp.

How Many Amp Hours is a Car Battery

The electrical capacity discharge of most of the batteries is around 20 hours. As a result, a 20 amp per hour battery has the ability to provide 1 amp of current for 20 hours and then will be discharged. But it will still show a voltage but still will not functioning properly and if rechargeable then it will be great in need of a quick recharge.

There are also smaller batteries used in specialized cars like HandiTalkies which uses ratings in milliamp/hour. The thing that here the concept is also same but milliamp is used instead of amp. This because the batteries are for lighter use. A regular rated battery can be around 1200 milliamp/hour which is equivalent to 1.2 amp/hour.

A small size car battery can have 45 amp per hour and this means that two amps for twenty hours. If you want to achieve the maximum capacity of a battery then you have to keep in mind that you will not discharge it in a higher current draw or you will not ask it to deliver current more than its amp per hour divided by 10. For example, if your battery is 45 amp/hour then you should not ask it to deliver more current than 4 amp if you want to get the best use.

How Many Amps to Charge a Car Battery

The fact is that most regular car battery works in a way of sending two amps of power per hour. As a result, it can be said that it takes around 24 hours to charge the battery fully and the fun fact of here is that the charging rate of this kind battery is very low and this keeps the battery safe from getting overcharged. As overcharging can harm the battery by reducing its lifespan.

But there are some car owners who look for fast charging options and for them there are other options like 20 amps to 10 amps batteries. But using more than 20 amps will not give you the result you are looking for. A 10 amp battery will give you a quick charging option and will also be very safe regarding the use of the battery.

But make sure that you remove the charger as soon as the charging is complete. They are also batteries which have 48 amps per hour which mean these type of batteries deliver 1 ampere for 48 hours. There are also 2 amperes for 24 hours and also 8 amperes for 6 hours, here you will have to do the math right and that is all. And a fully charged battery can serve as a starter for 10 minutes or can also the headlights for eight hours and also heat the rear windows for 12 hours.

How Many Amps should a Car Battery Have

If you are looking for this particular answer then you have to go through the whole of this part of the article. The fact is that there is a standard procedure and also a conditional procedure when it comes on the point of both the voltage and amperes.

First, let us talk about the standard procedure. In a standard procedure that a battery of any vehicle like a car, a motorcycle or also can be boat will need a “stable running charge” or you will need a low voltage around 25 percent (voltmeter reading) to be safe from the position of getting discharged.

And in this case, you can use any charger which has a good ampere supplying ability will be enough to take the charging option its expectation. The fun part is that it will not take the whole of yours or most of your times rather it will take somewhat 2 hours more or less.

Now after the standard procedure, it is time for the conditional procedure. In the conditional procedure, the results and expectations will definitely be different than the standard procedure. To talk about the conditional procedure we need to figure out the conditions first.

• The suitable voltage for car battery charging should between 12.2 to 12.9 voltage. But if you insist in charging the battery in 12.9 voltage then slow loads can be one of the obstacles you may face but still it is considered as a safe option.
• The levels should be monitored thoroughly or it can take a dangerous turn being overcharged. The caution wave should be around the threshold of (15 volts) but still, you can use it to be the ground of charging but still, one should very careful regarding this.
• When the charging is in the optimal position you will find that the charging spectrum load is around (the threshold of 13.6 volts to 13.8 volts in energy) and this leads to the fact that the need for monitoring will be less but still you have been careful.

As we have discussed the levels of both the standard and the conditional charging voltage levels, we also should go for the amperage flow/current of charging.

This answer depends on two of the basic components of charging. One of them is the speed of charging and another is the charging load.
To charge your car battery you will specifically need two basic kinds of sources. These two sources are :

• Firstly you will need a standard charger which is also known as special charger.
• Secondly you will need a car alternator and while choosing this you have be careful that the speed can slower.

In charging the battery both the type of the charging source and also the fuel type is very important fod the charging speed but the amperes per hour comes very handy where the owner has a wish to increase or decrease the charging speed.

If you choose the alternator as the charging source you will find that for the alternator the charging time takes around 1 hour.
When you try to charge your car battery from the outset you will find that the (C-C-A) also known as cold, crank, amperage gives more strong and significant performance by giving a strong reading in the process.

The high rating of C-A-A is very important because this high rating has the potential of giving the expected amperes per (the unit of time is used) and this will further lead the the fact of fulfilling current-voltage demands of the system. But you should know that this will depend on the choice of the voltage range.

This is why the market demands the manufacturers regarding high C-A-A is relevant for both the chargers and the batteries. This demand ratio is around 800 C-A-A and this is because a high rating in the C-A-A has the tendency of fast recharges.

Now this high cold crank rating effects in reducing or cutting down the amperage per hour which is very important regarding a batteries satisfying reaching of the voltage level.

While charging both a new battery and also a new charger has a positive importance as both of them makes sure the matching between voltage and ampere happens very quickly and also perfectly.

The answer of ideal amperage that we are looking for is dependent on some factors, for example :

• Choosing the voltage rage, the voltage range you want on your battery.
• The charging sources, from where you get the charging currents like alternator and the charger.
• Quality matters a lot. Quality of both the batteries and the charger is very important regarding this also different ratings like C-C-A has a impact on it .

Conclusion
Batteries are like the lungs to the engine of the car and as a result they are very important to the whole system. But still being that important many people has a very vague understanding of the battery. And there are certain questions regarding the battery floats around without being answered properly.

Questions like “How many amps is the car batter? “, “How many amp hours is a car batter? “, “How many amps to charge a car battery?” and “How many amps should a car battery have?” and this is why this article comes forward trying to explore all these questions and giving a good and satisfactory answer to all of these.