Battery charging problem
 

Battery charging problem
 

Eisboch wrote:
"John H." wrote in message
...
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

If your charger is a "smart charger" meaning it will automatically go
through a 3 stage charging process, the battery may be too low initially and
the smart charger thinks there is a problem. It's a characteristic of the
charger.
A way to get around this is to initially use an old fashioned, voltage only
charger to bring the battery up to a level where the smart charger can do
it's thing.

Other possibilities is having the charger set for the wrong type of battery.
Many have settings for regular lead-acid, deep cycle, AGM, etc.

This is one reason I leave a good, "float" type maintainer on the battery
all winter, not to be confused with a "trickle" charger.

Eisboch




If I am not mistaken, the smart charger doesn't come on until the
battery has lost at least 20% of it's charge.

Battery charging problem
 

"John H." wrote in message
...

I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while.
*Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy*. I'm thinking of something
like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.


You gotta get of that crack habit.

Battery charging problem
 

"John H." wrote in message
...

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:45:49 GMT, wrote:


That's not a 3 stage smart charger. You will have a tough time
properly charging a deep cycle battery using that. Walmart sells a
smaller Schumacher "smart charger" for about $75 that is actully
pretty good. It will also properly charge AGM's and Gell Cells if you
ever have the need.


I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while.
Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy. I'm thinking of something
like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.

A true 3 stage smart charger automatically follows an ideal charge profile
for a battery.
The first stage is a "Bulk" charge mode and the voltage is in excess of 14.5
volts. Once the battery starts building it's capacity, the charger switches
to an "Absorption" mode were the voltage is dropped to below a lead acid
boil over rate (14.4 volts). After an extended cycle in this mode the
charger switches to a "Float mode whereby it will automatically maintain the
full charge.

Some smart chargers also have an automatic "De sulfate" mode whereby if it
senses that the battery is not taking a charge due to the plates being
sulfated, it cranks the voltage up to 15 or 16 volts for a period of time,
attempting to "burn off" the sulfate from the plates. It then retries the
bulk charge mode and if the battery now responds, it continues with the
stages.

The little smart "Maintainers" also operate in different ways. Some simply
maintain a voltage below the boil over threshold. Others cycle off every
once in a while, allowing the battery to naturally discharge, then kick back
on to charge it back up.

Eisboch

Battery charging problem
 

"Reginald P. Smithers III" [email protected] wrote in
message ...
Eisboch wrote:
"John H." wrote in message
...
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a
Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger
set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

If your charger is a "smart charger" meaning it will automatically go
through a 3 stage charging process, the battery may be too low initially
and the smart charger thinks there is a problem. It's a characteristic
of the charger.
A way to get around this is to initially use an old fashioned, voltage
only charger to bring the battery up to a level where the smart charger
can do it's thing.

Other possibilities is having the charger set for the wrong type of
battery. Many have settings for regular lead-acid, deep cycle, AGM, etc.

This is one reason I leave a good, "float" type maintainer on the battery
all winter, not to be confused with a "trickle" charger.

Eisboch




If I am not mistaken, the smart charger doesn't come on until the battery
has lost at least 20% of it's charge.


It also won't come on if the battery has dropped below a certain voltage
representing an approximate 80 percent discharge. It thinks the battery is
shot or has one or more dead cells. My experience has been that if you
think the battery is still good, hook it up to an old fashioned
conventional charger (non-smart) for about 15 minutes, then try the smart
charger again. Usually it works.

Eisboch