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Trickle charging is the process of charging a fully charged battery at a rate equal to its self-discharge rate, enabling the battery to remain at its fully charged level. This state occurs almost exclusively when the battery is not loaded, as trickle charging will not keep a battery charged if current is being drawn by a load.
A trickle charger is typically low-current (usually between 5–1,500 mA). They are generally used to charge small capacity batteries (2–30 Ah). They are also used to maintain larger capacity batteries (> 30 Ah) in cars and boats. In larger applications, the current of the battery charger is only sufficient to provide trickle current.
Conventional battery chargers use a one-, two-, or three-stage process to recharge the battery, with a switched-mode power supply including more stages in order to fill the battery more rapidly and completely. Common to almost all chargers, including non-switched models, is the middle stage, normally known as "absorption".
Trickle chargers also sometimes connect in this way, eliminating the need to leave a vehicle's hood open, as well as eliminating the possibility of reversed polarity. Most cars nowadays are designed with a battery-negative earthing system and therefore have a +12V positive power distribution.
To prevent cell damage, fast chargers must terminate their charge cycle before overcharging occurs. One method is to monitor the change of voltage with time. When the battery is fully charged, the voltage across its terminals drops slightly. The charger can detect this and stop charging.
The charger provides a constant current, typically the maximum current that the charger is capable of producing. As a result of this current, the battery absorbs a charge and its voltage rises. The charger limits the maximum voltage to U max , a constant or temperature-dependent maximum, typically around 2.4 V per cell.