Eisboch wrote:

"Richard Casady" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 May 2009 23:52:55 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 13 May 2009 22:35:11 -0400, "BetaB4"
wrote:

Thank you all. Well, I sure am glad I posted the question. I am
now in the
middle of looking online for battery chargers to see what is
available, what
they cost, where to buy them, etc. Over the next few days, I'll
check some
auto parts stores to see what hey sell. Obviously, I need a charger
that I
can leave on and not have to worry about the battery being overcharged.

The cheapest solution if you already have a 2 amp charger is to put an
automatic timer on it as gfretwell suggested.

Go to the thrift store and get a 50milliamp 12v power supply for a
calculator or whatever. One of those cubes that plugs in the wall.
In a week, 50ma comes to some 6 AH, not enough to cook the battery.
If you add water once a week, it should be all right. It would be
better to get a smart charger.

Casady

I've had boats and RV's with the old school, voltage controlled chargers
and the newer, 3 stage smart chargers.
The ferro-resonant type used to keep big boat batteries charged
(multiple 8-D's) also have a nasty habit of cooking the batteries if
you don't keep a watchful eye on the water. For many years the newer,
switching power supply "smart" chargers just weren't big enough (current
wise) for this application.

But over the past few years the 3 stage smart chargers have been
improved and increased in capacity.
We have a little 2005 Sprinter based RV built by Pleasure-Way.
Pleasure-Way builds RV conversions with an excellent quality reputation
and use top shelf components. The "smart" battery charger in it has
kept the original 2005 house battery in excellent, like new condition
and I've never had to add water to it in 4 years.
With the older type chargers, I'd have certainly had to replace the
house battery by now.

Eisboch

Water usage seems to be a good measure of proper charging. My old camper
used almost a quart a month in the 2 golf car batteries. It had a
supposedly smart charger that switched modes and when charged it
maintained 13.2V BUT and,a Big BUT, every 24 hours it automatically
switched to desulfate mode (16V) for an hour. I never replaced the
batteries in the 7 years I owned it but I had to be vigilant about
checking the water.
My new camper Maintains the batteries including the starting battery at
13.2V and I might use a couple of ounces of water.
Both units were in converter/chargers.

Why don't they design chargers to charge to 14 to 14.5V and maintain
that voltage, as car alternators do?