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Roger Long Roger Long is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Nov 2006
Posts: 405
Default Battery charger question

I went up to the boat to put a charge on the batteries with the Schumacher
three stage smart charger that's built into the boat. I plugged it in and,
by the time I'd climbed the ladder to check it, it had already gone through
the diagnostics and was blinking that it had gone into float charge mode.

The two AGM batteries have been sitting for a month so I was pleased. I
disconected and headed home. On the drive back, I began wondering if this
is really an accurate indication of a full charge or if the charger flips
into float mode shortly before a full charge.

Should I leave the charger on for some period of time regardless of what the
LED's are doing?

I've always used the time until the lights start blinking green as an
indicator of how far down the batteries have been drawn. A long evening of
lights and running some water results in about an hour to go through the
cycle. Returning to the dock after a long period of running the engine, it
goes through the cycle in about the same time it did today so I've always
figured it was a good indictor of a full charge.

--
Roger Long