One of the worst feelings you can have when getting behind the wheel of your car is turning the key in the ignition, and hearing only, “click, click, click, click.” That’s right. Your car battery is dead. And you may not have a charger nearby.
How do you charge a car battery without a charger? Usually, this isn’t a problem. More often than not, there will be a good samaritan around who will be willing to help jump-start your car, assuming one of you has jumper cables (though a jump-start won’t help if your car stops while you’re driving it). And there’s always roadside maintenance, though that can be pretty costly without a membership. Or else we need to get a little creative to give our car battery a little juice to get going — even if it’s just to drive to the nearest car repair shop.
Whatever the case, it’s important to take care of our car batteries so we can keep the car running. Whether it’s being mindful of turning the headlights off or simply cleaning the car battery terminals, there’s a lot we can do to avoid a dead battery. Otherwise, you might find yourself looking at the following options to recharge yours.
How to charge a car battery without a charger
As we said above, the usual go-to option is to ask someone for help. If you’re in a parking lot, this shouldn’t be too difficult. All you need is the kindness of a stranger, some jumper cables, and you can get your car juiced up. Usually, the battery will spring back to life after a few minutes.
Another option for recharging a car battery is solar power. A solar-powered trickle charger can keep your car battery alive when it’s not in use. This is more of a pre-emptive measure to keep the battery topped up and full of power. Of course, if you don’t need to be anywhere and the sky is clear, you can maximize the available sunlight and recharge your battery.
Lastly, we found an option for vehicles with a manual transmission. Although rare, there are drivers that still swear by them. If their car dies, there’s a trick only owners of a manual-transmission car will know. It’s time to get out and start pushing. If you can, place one hand on the steering wheel to keep it steady. Place the car in first gear, and engage the clutch. Once you get the car moving as fast as you can, you can release the clutch and start the car in the gear closest to its current speed. This should be sufficient to get the engine running again. From here, maybe bring the car in for maintenance, just in case.
