In short: could I safely charge the starter battery in my van with the Victron Blue Smart 12/30 charger?
I am converting this van in a camper and I already bought most of the electronics. Now this morning I noticed the car battery had gone dead (cold weather + never driving it, stupid…). But I quickly remember the charger I already have.
Though I got that charger for a 150AH AGM battery and it’s rather beefy. I can’t find any mention of regular car batteries.
Does a classic lead battery charge? Is the current by the BlueSmart too little / too much?
Yes it will charge a regular car starter battery, the AGM preset should be fine. The 30A rating is a bit high as the car battery is likely to be smaller. If there is a setting to limit the charge current set it to 15A for the car battery. If you can not reduce the output, keep an eye on it for the first hour to make sure the battery is not getting warm and if so stop charging for an hour and then restart.
Thanks, I think you’re right. I also found this mention of flooded lead-acid batteries in the manual:
In the end I didn’t test it, I’ll be borrowing a ‘real’ car battery charger from a friend instead (mostly because it’s more compact and better suited to outside usage).
