Battery Charger

pnichols wrote:

MNtundraRet wrote:
After being sued a few times for damage being done by their charger from miss-use by some fool, the legal department comes into play and all the higher powered chargers (i.e. 40 or more amps) disappear from the market.

It probably isn't the 40 amps that may have made them "dangerous" to ancillary equipment in the wrong hands. It's more likely the high 14's to low 15's voltage that those chargers could go up to that was the cause of component and circuit breakdowns, as they probably weren't clamped at a high of, say, only 14.6 volts.

I'm curious as to whether those old B&D chargers were power factor corrected? If so, I'd sure like a 30 amp version to use with my little 650 watt generator for dedicated battery charging.

The Vectors are not PFC. Seems to be about 0.8 PF when I tried to estimate mine, but I don't have a direct measurement. The older 35 amper (1092A) wants 600w input as its rating.

The newer D models have a higher rated 120v intake requirement than the older As (785w vs 720w for the 40 amper ISTR)

The Vector charging profile is different from the Schu's. The Vector is programmed to be constant amps at current limit till battery voltage reaches approx 13.9v when the program switches over and amps then taper. But battery voltage keeps rising throughout Stage 2 (absorption) until it gets to about 14.8 (newer models) or 14.6 (older models) just before the batteries are charged. It shuts off when batteries are about 97% SOC and says FUL. To get them really full, you have to follow that with an Equalize session till it says FUL again.

That rising voltage during Absorption slows down the tapering so it comes out even with a charger that keeps doing constant amps to Vabs then holds that Vabs constant while amps taper. ( I have an ugly graph showing that )

The newer models have temp comp so that 14.8v at the end can be lower or higher. I have seen 15.2v when it is 32F out.

Only when you push the Equalize button will you see it go to the 15.7 (temp comp) where it could be 16ish at 32F.

So you don't need to disconnect the rig's batteries when using the Vector unless you are doing an Equalize.

The "Recondition" feature does not raise the battery voltage. It is a pulse type desulfation thing that runs for about 20 hrs.