A question about Top Charging?
To be clear, I am referring to the high voltage charging on already near full batts; NOT "absorption", "finishing", "top", etc., all terms used to refer to 80-97% charging. ??? When setting the cha...
Forum Discussion
I attempt to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground when recommending things. A six hundred dollar golf car charger is aimed at a specific market, specific battery, and specific usage.
I know of few folks who can afford to throw hundreds upon hundreds of dollars at a task specific mechanism. So it is "Do the best you can with what you've got" or for as little money as intelligently feasible.
Top charging came about as a regimen to effectively minimize the frequency of full bore equalization events. Top charging is far easier, less stressful to the battery plates, less stressful to devices left connected (halogen lights excluded - 15 volts means death), and last but not least least stressful to the battery owner.
Frequency of discharges, depth of discharges determines the necessity of using top charging. Two weeks of RV park hopping vacation means the least as far as top charging value. Boondocking for weeks on end on the other hand makes top charging almost mandatory unless a person doesn't mind babysitting an equalization cycle.
Pick on the weak sister cell. Throw spitballs at it. Move and orient the weak sister cell battery so it is easiest to get to. I moved my 2-volt cells Chinese fire drill so the 2 cells weakest bookend my power shed's work bench. I have a place to lay my hydrometer and DMM. I have a 3-volt analog meter that I punch across each cell. I disassembled the meter and painted a red line then a black line. One is at 2.666 volts (equalization limit) the other at minimum allowed discharge (24.00) volts. My tour of the power shed has me grabbing the meter (a 17" spread across the terminal bar) and jabbing the points into the cell connectors. Bang bang bang. I'm done in under 3 minutes. I grab my coffee cup and walk to the garden. Every week to 10 days I go to the week sisters hydrometer in hand. 3 minutes later I'm done. If the weak sisters are moaning, I'll start the Kubota, set the timer for 30 minutes, dial down the ferroresonant charger to 3, and walk off. 130 amperes at 28.0 volts. The charger tapers amperage just like any other manual charger. The charger unloads 30 seconds before automatic shutdown. I use the genset rather than public power to exercise it. Also public power means 90-132 volts which does not affect ferroresonant charger output, but it slaps around and yanks the shorts down on the digital CFE kWh demand meter. The freakin' thing goes into high demand rate for the next eight hours. The 160 lb transformer in the charger makes unity power Alice In Wonderland.
The point of all this is a little planning makes battery maintenance simple and easy and reduces time spent by magnitudes. Some of you, god knows how many have battery banks with weak sister cells in poor position to be checked. Troublemaker students were forced to sit in the front row when I went to school.
With a lot of batteries in a bank how hard is it to fit a digital or analog panel voltmeter, a rotary switch with enough positions to check all the batteries. Click click click click click click click click checks 8 golf car batteries or L-16's or 12-volt car size batteries. 20 gauge cable is plenty big enough. Use a 2-pole switch and wire individual negatives. An afternoon's worth of work, dirt cheap and it'll save your butt later on guaranteed. Don't forget to slop-on the grease on the battery terminals.
Managing a battery bank is only hard if you insist that it's going to be hard. It's so simple it's criminal to believe otherwise.
I know of few folks who can afford to throw hundreds upon hundreds of dollars at a task specific mechanism. So it is "Do the best you can with what you've got" or for as little money as intelligently feasible.
Top charging came about as a regimen to effectively minimize the frequency of full bore equalization events. Top charging is far easier, less stressful to the battery plates, less stressful to devices left connected (halogen lights excluded - 15 volts means death), and last but not least least stressful to the battery owner.
Frequency of discharges, depth of discharges determines the necessity of using top charging. Two weeks of RV park hopping vacation means the least as far as top charging value. Boondocking for weeks on end on the other hand makes top charging almost mandatory unless a person doesn't mind babysitting an equalization cycle.
Pick on the weak sister cell. Throw spitballs at it. Move and orient the weak sister cell battery so it is easiest to get to. I moved my 2-volt cells Chinese fire drill so the 2 cells weakest bookend my power shed's work bench. I have a place to lay my hydrometer and DMM. I have a 3-volt analog meter that I punch across each cell. I disassembled the meter and painted a red line then a black line. One is at 2.666 volts (equalization limit) the other at minimum allowed discharge (24.00) volts. My tour of the power shed has me grabbing the meter (a 17" spread across the terminal bar) and jabbing the points into the cell connectors. Bang bang bang. I'm done in under 3 minutes. I grab my coffee cup and walk to the garden. Every week to 10 days I go to the week sisters hydrometer in hand. 3 minutes later I'm done. If the weak sisters are moaning, I'll start the Kubota, set the timer for 30 minutes, dial down the ferroresonant charger to 3, and walk off. 130 amperes at 28.0 volts. The charger tapers amperage just like any other manual charger. The charger unloads 30 seconds before automatic shutdown. I use the genset rather than public power to exercise it. Also public power means 90-132 volts which does not affect ferroresonant charger output, but it slaps around and yanks the shorts down on the digital CFE kWh demand meter. The freakin' thing goes into high demand rate for the next eight hours. The 160 lb transformer in the charger makes unity power Alice In Wonderland.
The point of all this is a little planning makes battery maintenance simple and easy and reduces time spent by magnitudes. Some of you, god knows how many have battery banks with weak sister cells in poor position to be checked. Troublemaker students were forced to sit in the front row when I went to school.
With a lot of batteries in a bank how hard is it to fit a digital or analog panel voltmeter, a rotary switch with enough positions to check all the batteries. Click click click click click click click click checks 8 golf car batteries or L-16's or 12-volt car size batteries. 20 gauge cable is plenty big enough. Use a 2-pole switch and wire individual negatives. An afternoon's worth of work, dirt cheap and it'll save your butt later on guaranteed. Don't forget to slop-on the grease on the battery terminals.
Managing a battery bank is only hard if you insist that it's going to be hard. It's so simple it's criminal to believe otherwise.
