Mar 29, 2022 Pageview:4717
Reverse Polarity is when there is a reversal of the negative and positive polarity on the battery. When a reverse polarity battery is being connected to a device, the factory installed plug with wires reversed by the manufacturer will prevent incorrect hooking of the same. This is also known as the concept of taking a completely discharged secondary battery and connecting a charger in a wrong way to the terminals, to make the positive terminal negative and the negative terminal positive.
Reverse Polarity Battery Charger
When a battery is being charged, the cables may get mixed up accidentally and these can be connected to the incorrect terminals – a condition which is referred to as Reverse Polarity. The pole reversal happens when the positive cable is connected with the negative and vice versa. When this occurs, the battery as well as various other related electrical components can get damaged.
When the cables and the terminals are connected incorrectly, Reverse Polarity may occur. The current flow happens in the wrong direction when there is a reversal of the polarity. In such kinds of situation, in case the device is touched by anybody, the device can get damaged and electrical shocks can be suffered by a person.
What is the Impact of Reverse Polarity on the Battery?
The effects of reverse polarity include:
Battery Damage – When the wrong cables are connected accidentally with the terminals, the polarity of the battery can get changed and the battery may get discharged. Also, when there is complete discharging of a car battery, it may be considered to be an empty vessel. At such a stage, there can be a reversal of the polarity of a car battery when the cables are connected to the incorrect terminals. In a few cases, batteries have found to remain in this state for years.
But there may be dangers when this happens. If the reverse polarity process leads to any extra heat, any extra heat may be emitted by the battery. On rare occasions, it can result in battery explosion. It can lead to a release of molten plastic and acid from the battery – which can lead to serious injury risks. This needs to be prevented at all costs.
Charger damage - When the cables are incorrectly attached the working systems of the charger as well as the battery is affected. If there is a change of the polarity of the terminals, incorrect polarity could be sent back into the charger. The charger can be damaged permanently in such cases. In some cases, however, there can be partial damage of the charger. It will charge at a gradual rate in such cases.
Reverse Polarity and Electrical Components - The electrical wires, the electronic components and the parts of the vehicle (which contains the battery) may also get damaged due to the reverse polarity.
The alternator could be the component which might be at the biggest risk of getting damaged. It can be quite costly to get it replaced. Fuses in the car might blow up in case other components have reverse current pass through them.
If that is not the case, it might be costly to replace the ECU. However, the nav system and the entertainment system might cost more actually. It might also happen that the computer body and various other components might also get damaged. Any motor or clock (analog) could work backward briefly before they get damaged permanently. But most of the advanced vehicles have reverse polarity protection today on their electronic modules. Thus, apart from maybe a blown fuse, nothing will occur.
Reverse Polarity Battery Fix
In case there is reverse polarity, there will be conduction of the designed diode and the power supply will get shorted so that there is grounding and the fuse is triggered to get blown up. This can keep your equipment protected. In case the equipment has been properly designed, it needs to work well.
It is only in a couple of ways that reversing of the polarity can occur on a battery. The best fix is to get the battery discharged completely. The key should either be left on or the charge is dissipated completely over a few days due to an unnoticed dead short.
Your electronic items can get damaged easily due to Reverse polarity when incorrectly plugged into an outlet, wired. In case there is no built-in mechanism in your electronics to ensure reverse polarity protection in the circuitry, there could be a risk of damage at any time.
Reverse Polarity Battery Protection
The protection features can be either electronic or mechanical. An instance of a mechanical safeguard is a need for the use of instructional symbols and pictures and special connectors. For instance, there are different terminals in a 9-V battery. The rechargeable battery packs are designed physically for insertion from one direction.
Other forms of battery, such as single-cell alkaline, are not protected so easily by mechanical safeguards. Battery powered equipment manufacturers and designers, therefore, need to make sure that any reverse bias voltage and reverse current flow is low enough for damage prevention to the internal electronics of the equipment or the battery itself.
Typically, in order to offer such kinds of electronic safeguards, either a transistor or a diode is chosen for reverse battery protection by manufacturers. Using a diode, BJT or MOSFET, it is possible to build a reverse battery protection circuit.
During some inappropriate operation, accidental short circuiting or reverse battery installation, damage to the internal electronics, some electronic safeguards are what users expect. Generally, it is wise to have a reverse battery protection circuit in use before the internal circuitry or after the battery of any electronics device, to be able to protect the life of the battery as well as the electronic device itself. It is also possible to incorporate a reverse battery protection circuit in a device circuit supply input as well. With reverse battery protection circuit, any back current flow from the battery and damage to the electronics circuit due to that can be prevented.
Leave a message
We’ll get back to you soon