"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
100A x 14.4V = 1440 watts. Simply amazing it hasn't boiled them over or
melted the plastic cases or melted the internal structures causing an
explosive short in the process.

Just a hunch, some of that energy (about 85%, I think) actually gets transformed
into chemical energy in the battery. Isn't that the whole point of a charger?


All this going on in a "battery box" that seals in all this heat even
worse.....

Now that you mention it, the box does warn up a bit, kind of like if it had a
light bulb inside.


How long does it charge at 100A? minutes? hours? I've never seen a good
battery that, if you jacked 100A into it, wouldn't rise up to 14V in no
time at all, which should make the charger stop hitting them so hard.

Funny - I've never bothered to watch carefully. It seems to hold the current
fairly high until its aorund 90% charged. However, I have watched many time
while running the engine and charging off the large Balmar with a Link 2000R
regulator. It starts at about 85 Amps, but settles to around 75 after about 20
minutes, and continue decreasing slowly. By the time the bank has been
recharged from 50% to 80%, the rate in the 60's - still fairly high but
"diminishing returns."



You simply CANNOT charge a lead-acid battery in an hour. That's as crazy
as those idiots at the service station "quick charging" someone's car
battery while-they-wait....

I agree, but this is a 4-hour charge rate we're talking about.



Larry

I'll ignore the crack about getting out more, having just come in from the
Gulf Stream last Sunday.


Wow! That's a long shore power cable! ;-}