Batteries with single-stage charger
Our newly acquired TC has a single-stage charger that I plan to upgrade. It operates at 13.5 or 13.6 volts. How long can this charger operate without risking damage to the batteries?
Forum Discussion
- time2roll
Hibernation model MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
My initial response was loaded with "Winter". After that OP is on his own.
"Until" is a loaded word.- IT's THE SMART WORLD
EVERYTHING is done AUTOMATICALLY...
Wrong
Let the clothes drier make a decision when to shut off. It made it's decision last week. The clothes are out hanging on the line.
Smart cooker. Over cooks or undercooks. You need to be smart enough to know how to avoid this in advance.
Smart Driverless cars. You look out the window. You see the lights flash and the barrier swing down. Those bright lights are the AT&SF approaching at 85 MPH. The car isn't slowing. No worries, you return to your whatever pad for the latest news. What's this about a glitch in the same model car that's still doing 50 mph. The blast of the train horn raises the hair on your neck. Hoo Boy. Now THIS is SMART!
Gotta be a pretty fartsmeller to take advantage of all this... - Most chargers that claim to be 3 or 4 stage are really nothing more than a standard charger with a float mode. They start out trying to put something like 14.7V across the battery terminals, but are usually current limited so the voltage slowly rises while the current stays constant. Manufactures call this stage 1. Once the battery is charged enough that the charger max current can raise it to that 14.7V, then the current begins to slowly decrease. Manufacturers call this stage 2. In reality though, what the charger is doing is exactly what a fixed voltage DC power supply will do,and there is nothing special about either one of these “stages”.
When the current being drawn by the battery drops to about one Amp, then the charger actually does something smart. It reduces the output voltage to a little over 13V, which is below the point where most gassing occurs. This stage keeps the battery topped off without causing it to vent or go dry quickly. Some chargers shut down and check the battery periodically after a period of time. - "Until" is a loaded word. If the vehicle suckles on a power post the entire time there will be no problems. If the batteries get cycled and the "until" still hasn't happened, then look for problems. I am comparing this answer to my first one and still cannot see any difference. DEPENDS is a strong word.
- OP already plans to upgrade. Just wants to maintain the batteries until the upgrade is completed. With a Colorado location listed I don't think 13.6 or even 13.8 volts steady on the battery will cause any issues over the Winter. OP is not trying to fast charge on generator or survive a Summer in AZ.
- Not the same as full hookups or boondocking? Please elaborate :)
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Not the same situation.
It'll do fine until it doesn't. This is how a Wifco works yes/no? So why all the nods all of a sudden?- Some seem to wrongly think that as long as you keep pouring water to a battery that is on a steady 13.6-8 charger in hot weather, it is not ruining the battery.
Years of experience says that battery will be short lived. - I replaced my OEM single stage charger with a good multi stage charger, not for the longer battery life but for the much faster charging. I also replaced the charger to battery wire with larger wire. Now, instead of charging at something less than 10A my single battery starts charging at around 40A. Helps a lot if you ever camp with no hookups. The battery I have has lasted a long time too, but I don't really know how long, many years.
