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Jeff Jeff is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 390
Default Boat battery question???

Capt. JG wrote:
" Tuuk" wrote in message
...
Hi Larry

Thanks for the reply and expertise,,

I do not have a dvm or specific gravitity measurer.

So I should shut it off now because it is lightly bubbling on the 2am
charge because it has not reached the capacity point where the automatic
shut off should have shut off. I tried it on an old 12v deep cycle and it
did charge it quickly (maybe an hour) and green light came on. But these
two new ones which are larger in size and weight are not shutting off the
automatic charger yet. I am a bit reluctant to charge it in the 10amp. The
folks at the C.T. told me to bring in the batteries and they will put a
30amp on them and have them topped up in minutes but I did some reading
and that can't be too good for the deepcycle batteries.

Without the dvm or hydrometer I cannot really do much as I will need to
know the condition of battery and maximum charge coming off that charger.

I will look for those tools,

thanks



I don't think one charge like this would do much harm if you decide to have
them do it. They're under warranty, right? Make sure you document when this
is done, then if there's a problem, you've got some leverage.

After, I would monitor the batteries condition closely for a few weeks, then
check them regularly thereafter.



Actually, the Amperage is of secondary importance, even though every
charger is identified by its max current output. The important thing is
the Voltage. If the charger is gentle (or intelligent) it will keep the
Voltage at a level that's appropriate for the state of the battery.
Your 100 Amp-hour batteries can accept about 20-25 Amps as long as the
charger start tapering off the charge as it gets past about 85-90%. If
it is really putting in 30 Amps, then the Voltage is probably too high,
and the batteries will start gassing. (An undersized charger will
likely not be able to hold the Voltage high on a discharged battery.)

Of course then you have to figure out whether your CT man is just some
bozo who is BS'ing you while he trashes your battery, or a professional
who knows exactly how much the battery can handle and will monitor it
carefully so that no damage is done. Worse, you have to figure out if
that already happened while the battery was sitting in the store all
winter. This unfortunately is a "crap shoot" but I try to maximize my
odds by getting new batteries as part of the Spring shipment to a golf
cart vendor.