Myth: A Jump-Start Recharges Your Dead Battery
If your car dies and you get a jump-start from a friend, you might think a five-minute drive will bring the battery back to 100%. This is simply not how it works. A jump-start provides just enough juice to get the engine turning. Your car’s alternator is designed to maintain a battery, not to perform a deep recharge on a totally flat one.
Driving around for a few minutes won’t be enough to fully restore the battery’s chemistry. If you don’t put the battery on a proper dedicated charger or drive for at least an hour or more, there’s a good chance the car won’t start the next time you turn the key. If a battery has gone flat, it needs a long, slow charge to truly recover.
