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greenrvgreen's avatar
greenrvgreen
Explorer
Jul 05, 2015

45A Iota vs AGM bank AH rating?

I've been assembling an ad hoc collection of AGM batts for tent camping, all of them the black Chinee Cheapee on Amazon, which have performed well.

I have an Iota DLS 45 3-stage charger that I have not yet used on these batts, instead using a much lower-amp Meanwell ~13 amps, along with a tiny ~5 amp finishing charger.

Currently, my collection is roughly 100 amps of 33 amp batts, along with another 60 amps of smaller ones. If I wanted to use the Iota 45 amp charger, what would be the minimum AH cap of the batts so that 45 amps doesn't overcook them? Remember, these are not Lifelines!

Thanks!

3 Replies

  • Personally I feel an actual charge rate of 25 amperes is OK per 100 ampere hours of AGM battery

    BUT

    You cannot let those batteries sit around for four pr five days in a discharged state then

    Not fully recharge them until they reach fewer than 1.00 ampere per 100 ampere hours total bank capacity. The combination of Slow Coupled With Incomplete Charging is an AGM sin.
  • 50 to 600 will be fine with the IOTA. Although check the battery charge specs for a maximum charge rate.
  • There isn't an equation that results from using a 45 amp charger and the quantity of amp hours of storage. If you have multiple batteries connected in parallel, connect the charger and observe voltage. Since you may not know the specifications of any/all of the batteries, a middle-of-the-road estimation of correct maximum voltage may be the best approach. I know of no AGM batteries that will be injured with a voltage of 13.5 V. It may be best, also, to charge each battery individually so a full charge is present on all the batteries.