Battery chargers

[XJOK2PLAY]

Larry & Jerry:

That's good info there. I learned something. Thanks, guys.

Bob

[Larrym]

Glossy Brochure vs Real World Results

I've never owned an AGM battery but I've known other's that have installed them as the "House Bank" on their power/sail boats.

My boat used a simple lead acid wet cell group 27 deep cycle battery connected to a solar panel with an appropriate charger. No expensive digital monitoring system either. My boat was in a marina only for the bad weather and as soon as the weather changed for the good I'd leave the "grid" and stay out for up to 7 months at a time. The deep cycle battery being the storage/supply for the power collected for the solar panel.

The "other" guys bought the expensive AGMs along with the computerized dockside charger/monitoring systems. They stayed mostly at the dock, connected to the grid except when they took a weekend or weeklong trip.

I'd replace my house battery every fourth year. The other guys never got more than two years of intermittent use out of theirs before their batteries failed to keep their anchor light on all night when they were "off the grid".

A key design factor in regular wet cell batteries is that the lead plates are mounted vertically. As the plates become sulfated, which happens in all batteries which get charged/discharged, the ability of the battery to accept/deliver power when needed suffers. Fortunately the batteries with vertically mounted plates can be charged to "equalization" voltages which causes the sulfate barrier to sluff off and fall to the bottom. This exposes fresh material on the plates and partially restores the battery.

The AGM batteries plate arrangement doesn't allow the "sluffing" to take place and in my opinion was a large contributing factor to the "less than advertised/disappointment" the other guys experienced.

I also totally disconnected my wet cells when I connected to the grid: no "floating/smart charger" attached. I just charged them once a month with a regular charger.

I know this is just anecdotal evidence and will likely be refuted by someone who has owned an AGM for years and is totally content with it. I'm just that guy who is willing to state that the emperor is naked even when everyone else is "oooohing and aaawwing" about how nice his robes are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

[thewright1]

Hi All,

I'm looking for a batter charger for my bike, and I came across this one at Harbor Freight and wanted to know if this was any good:

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...o?itemid=66783

I've been eying it for some time now.

[79XS11F]

I'm using a battery minder as well and got it on e-bay. I have been using it for a few years and it works well. Mine came with a charging system tester as a bonus. I have yet to try that part of it.
Rob

[Jerry]

I came across this one at Harbor Freight

The part that says it is a trickle charger bothers me. That is OK for large batteries where heat is not such a problem, but on a smaller, bike-size battery it is an issue. I ruined a motorcycle battery a couple years ago by putting my trickle charger (1 amp) on it instead of a float charger, the battery overheated and buckled/shorted inside before I looked at it again.

If you go with this charger, check the battery temp while it is on trickle. If the battery feels warm, take the charger off right away. IMHO you should look for a charger that goes to float instead of trickle charge after the battery is at capacity.

[Larrym]

Regular Charging Current Vs Battery

Hi All,

I'm looking for a batter charger for my bike, and I came across this one at Harbor Freight and wanted to know if this was any good:

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...o?itemid=66783

I've been eying it for some time now.

I'd give the thumbs up for that charger. It should do fine for charging your regular car batteries if they ever need it.

It also will do ok for charging the "usual" XS battery as well provided that the charger is set for that lower 2 amp 12 Volt setting. That's kinda important as the regular charging current for XS replacement batteries is 2.0 Amps.

http://www.batteryprice.com/powerson...lebattery.aspx

It's important to note that I said that the charger would be ok to charge your bike battery. Specifically I mean to hook things up to a low battery and bring it back up to the regular charge level. This may take a few hours given the battery size. Larger batteries like used for cars can take overnight to come back up. Not so for the smaller bike battery. Point is that however long it takes to come back up is an unknown and so the idea is to monitor the battery during this time then to disconnect the charger once the charging process is complete.

It is not ok to connect this charger to the bike battery and just walk away from it as if the charger were meant to be constantly connected in a "battery maintainer" mode. This charger appears to me as not that type of charger.

Also during the charging cycle I'd suggest being sure that the battery vent hose is installed and routed correctly. The battery will likely bubble and need to vent any gases along with small amounts of acid away from anything which could be damaged.

Be aware that some motorcycle batteries have regular charging currents of less than the 2 amps your future charger provides. Just because you were able to use the charger on the XS battery doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to use on all small lead/acid batteries.

[thewright1]

What's up guys,

I just came across this battery charger (float charge). I just want something that I can hook up and walk away from for a while as it's charging without worrying about it messing up the battery or blowing my garage up

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42292

Let me know what you guys think of that.

[thewright1]

What's up guys,

I just came across this battery charger (float charge). I just want something that I can hook up and walk away from for a while as it's charging without worrying about it messing up the battery or blowing my garage up

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42292

Let me know what you guys think of that.

Nevermind, I think I'll pass on this one. I just ran across this post: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...=float+charger