Breaking in new batteries?

Almot wrote:
Completion of all 3 stages with correct voltage at each stage is the objective, not high amps.
Amps can be low if cycle is shallow.

I vaguely recall that conditioning is recommended for some dry cells, NiCd in particular. Li cells that are replacing them now, don't need conditioning.

I will agree that even with quite a bit less than optimal amperage, a triple stage smart charger will do the batteries much better than a single stage high amperage charger.

and for some, a smallish charger may be fine, but for batteries that get heavily used and drawn down close to their reasonable limit, or beyond in most cases, a stage charger that can deliver at least the maximum amps that the bank size is capable of taking is a much better choice than a charger that is limited by its maximum amperage when operating at its full capacity.... and this is only more important as the amp size of the bank increases (more batteries added)....

having a quality charger that is capable of an overkill of 100amps is better for the batteries, than one that is undersized for the ampacity of the bank, as it allows the smartness of the charger to do its work to maintain the batteries in the most efficient way, as opposed to one that is waiting for the batts to fill enough so that it can change to the next stage.

with reasonably good batteries, its the size of the bank itself that allows how much of the available amps it can uptake.... the stages of the charger only limits the voltage, or "force" that the amps are being delivered at... a super large bank being charged by a smart charger, when in absorbtion mode, it will still be delivering around 14.2 volts, but it can absorb a lot of amps at that voltage... a charger that is smallish, wont bring the bank back to its potential nearly as fast.
and to an extent, the amount of time it takes to bring a battery back to full charge has some bearing on its potential life span.

and the beauty of it is, with a smart charger (no matter the amp rating) it doesnt matter if its a single little motorcycle battery or a large multiple battery solar bank, the charger will sense and deliver the required charge profile (to its maximum capacity) to the battery(s)... so if there is an option, a bigger charger is better.