Hey everyone. I went on vacation and accidentally left my headlights on I must've not heard the tone cause I was in such a hurry to pull it into the garage while my family waited for me to get going. I returned from vacation a week later and my battery was completely dead that the remote key wouldn't let me in. I recently bought a yellow top Optima battery recently since I have a lot of electronics in my car and I heard it was the perfect battery, which it really was. Now I think the battery is so drained that even after a couple of drives around it still struggles a bit to start. I bought one of those portable chargers from Costco that has the cables to jump start it and was wondering...If I left the terminals connected to the portable charger while it was plugged into an outlet for a while to get the batter charged up completely, would that damage the car or car battery in any way?

 

If you are talking about the charger that is just meant to jump start the vehicle, then it is sending more amps than just a regular car charger. This charger is only meant to be used for short term. It would not be a good idea to use unless the battery is completely dead because long term use of such a high amp rate will shorten the life of your battery and could damage other electrical components. You really need a regular charger. As long as you keep the amps @ 12 or below. The best thing to do is charge it @ 1 or 2 amps overnight to get the best charge. Be sure that it is on the deep cycle setting because the optima battery should be a maintenance free battery (no caps to add water). I hope this will help.

 

Those portable chargers have a few settings usually. Switch it to a low amp setting and let it charge the battery. Don't leave the battery connected to the car though while you do this.