century battery charger


My battery charger quit working today, when I took it apart I noticed it was smoking on one side of the rectifier the side the neg. cable comes off from. Any Ideas as to what to look for?
 
You know what they say on here, once the smoke leaks out it's all over! Try blowing the dust out of it, look for broken wires and a reset. I have replaced the rectifier with diodes but they don't taper off after that. My favorite charger is a Century but it is made in china.
 
It sounds to me like a diode is probably shorted but it could be wiring.

Every charger I have looked at is wired as full wave bridge. Two diodes and a center tap from the transformer. What confuses me from your post is where you say the negative wire comes from.

I would have to look again but I was thinking the positive side came from the diodes and negative was the center tap.

But I could be wrong on that point without looking again.

RT (my two cents)
 
I would look for matches and cigarette butts.
Sorry couldn't help myself. If smoke is coming out of diode, bad diode.
Diodes in small chargers don't stand when used in the boost mode.
Good luck find cheap replacement diodes.
Chargers usually have 2 diodes. You can unplug the smoking one and see if there is a small output, half.
I ran across a first, a charger that actually used 4 diodes. Charger was beyond repair, junked it out.
 
I have replaced diodes and the charger worked just fine. I can't really think of a reason the charger wouldn't taper.

I pulled a failed voltage regulator out a charger and now the there doesn't seem to be much difference between the 2 and 10 amp setting but the charger is still generally usable.

I guess i just had to comment.

RT (my 2 cents)
 
The diodes can be installed either way (or made with connections reversed), so either the (-) or (+) could be connected to the rectifiers, depending upon how it was made.

He mentioned something to the side of the rectifiers smoking, and I asked if that could be the circuit breaker, 'cuz I have seen many mounted directly to the plate the rectifiers are on.

Like I said, a photo sure would help!
 
You might want to check this out -

www.SurplusCenter.com

Catalog : Page 140

Full Wave Bridge Rectifiers
Item # 22-1206
Model KBPC-2510
35 Amps / 1000 VAC (will handle up to 1000 VAC)
$4.99

:>)
 
That is known as a Silicon plate rectifier. Real old tech. There are several good replys. If you have two diodes that look like tiny black tootsie rolls with a wire out each end. This is a half wave set up. If you have four diodes or a black square thing with four terminals on top, that is a full wave rectifier. Most every charger For cars is only half wave. Very high quality power supplys use full wave and noise filters and regulators and ETC. Hold your head high and go for it.
 
Jeffcat, you wrote:

"That is known as a Silicon plate rectifier. Real old tech."

I'd GUESS you meant "SELENIUM plate rectifier"?
(It's unlikely his "Century" charger is old enough to contain those.)

You also wrote: "If you have two diodes that look like tiny black tootsie rolls with a wire out each end. This is a half wave set up."

NOT necessarily true, as many 12 Volt battery chargers use a center-tapped transformer and 2 diodes.

That makes a full-wave rectifier.
 
Thanks everybody for the replies, In this charger there are 2 round pieces on the rectifier plate. Each has 6 diodes in it I took it apart this a.m. and found 2 burned legs to the diodes. found parts online a whole new plate is 54.00
This is probably the route I will go.

I was thinking this charger was about 5 yrs old but found the tag says 3-26-01 funny how time flies when your having fun. thanks everybody,
 

True selentium rectifiers have a forward voltage drop of about 1 volt per plate and a peak reverse voltage of 20 volts. Silicon diodes have a forward voltage drop of about .6 volts and the peak reverse voltage can be 1000 volts or more depending on the design of the silicon rectifier/diode.
 

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