Charging a Battery Bank
I am planning on upgrading my batteries to 4 6v batteries wired in series and parallel to have a 12v system with plenty of Amp Hours. There is a ton of information on how to wire things up but nothing...
Forum Discussion
The voltage dial is also an amperage dial. If one wants to limit a 60 amp adjustable voltage charger to 40 amps with an adjustable charger, they startout with a lower voltage, and bump it upwards in steps to maintain the desired amperage. Kind of a Pain in the ass to keep bumping voltage upwards though. I prefer batteries that gobble huge amperages without issue.
I've been rather surprised at battery temperature rise during higher amp charging.
While I have an automatic charger, i can't trust it, and I spend more time trying to get it to do what I want. tricking it, restarting it, manipulating it, just to get it to do the job it claims to do automatically.
Twisting a dial is so much quicker, simpler and more effective.
For example, last week a neighbor's battery group49 Deka flooded, refused to start his engine.
After a jumpstart, when he returned I put his charger on the batteries, a 2/10 amp manual transformer based schumacher. All he had was a voltmeter. After 10 minutes voltage had barely crossed the 12.6v mark with a 12.32 starting point.
Irritated that i could not see the amperage, i go get my clampmeter. The schumacher on the 10 amp setting is outputting 4.2 amps.
The possibiity of rain was high, I did not want to get my Meanwell wet, so I got my 'Smart' Schumacher and my wattmeter.
25 amp setting skyrockets voltage well past 15, and I shut off charger.
12 amp setting, same result
2 amp setting and voltage continues to drop back to ~12.8 and hovers. making this 'smart' charger essentially useless.
Go get my Meanwell, set voltage to 14.9v(50f battery) plug it in. 9.2 amps.
not a good sign for the battery, but the ability to get it to 14.9v and hold it there without voltage rising further or an automatic charger shutting off and throwing a green light, is pretty essential.
When amps tapered to 2 amps many hours later, with 32AH counted on my wattmeter, I got hydrometer. well under 1.200 on all cells.
Bump voltage to 15.3v, amps tripled and held. Never tapered.
Not a good sign. Let it go for 3 hours, amps increased, SG remained the same.
bad sign for battery.
Disconnect battery terminal from vehicle, bump voltage to 16.2v, it requires 14amps and starts slowly rising, as is battery temperature. Specific gravity does not respond.
I declare battery as a goner. Owner shrugs and says he will just carry his jumper pack and replace it when it can not reliably start the vehicle.
3 days after this, without use, he starts diesel engine with it without issue, and even used the disgusting term 'Just fine'
Sub 1.200 specific gravity is anything but, yet it still works.
Head in the sanders would wholeheartedly agree "just fine, seeeeee?". Those holding measurement tools disagree. It is however a matter of time, or abnormally cold temperatures.
I would have saved time and determined more if I had used my Meanwell right off the bat, instead of other battery chargers.
My personal hard working AGM battery at ~450 deep cycles, still maintains impressive voltages in overnight loads, nearly as good as when new, but the amps required to reach Absorption voltage are much less now, than when new.
If I did not have an ammeter I would be blind to this. If I did not have an adjustable voltage charger I would be mostly blind to this. If I could not control the voltage which my alternator is allowed to hold, i could not see the instant absorption voltage amperage if it required more than 40 amps.
if I did not have these tools, watching voltage alone, comparing cycle number one to cycle number 450, I might even be so bold as to declare it works as good as new.
It is not. It is also taking a lot longer for amps to taper to 0.5% of capacity.
Think any auotmatic charging source would extend its egg timer allotment of absorption voltage on an aged battery?
Perhaps a few would, those inteh 500+ dollar range.
I guess my rant is do not fear the manual adjustable voltage charger. in this day and age of automatic everything, the mindset is that the only good things are automatic, but with battery charging the there are moving targets and nothing automatic can achieve ideal every time anyway.
I understand not wanting to babysit a charging source, but in my experience it requires less effort doing so, than an automatic charger which does not complete the task and sends a battery to an early grave instead while flashing that serotonin inducing green light in blissful ignorance..
I've been rather surprised at battery temperature rise during higher amp charging.
While I have an automatic charger, i can't trust it, and I spend more time trying to get it to do what I want. tricking it, restarting it, manipulating it, just to get it to do the job it claims to do automatically.
Twisting a dial is so much quicker, simpler and more effective.
For example, last week a neighbor's battery group49 Deka flooded, refused to start his engine.
After a jumpstart, when he returned I put his charger on the batteries, a 2/10 amp manual transformer based schumacher. All he had was a voltmeter. After 10 minutes voltage had barely crossed the 12.6v mark with a 12.32 starting point.
Irritated that i could not see the amperage, i go get my clampmeter. The schumacher on the 10 amp setting is outputting 4.2 amps.
The possibiity of rain was high, I did not want to get my Meanwell wet, so I got my 'Smart' Schumacher and my wattmeter.
25 amp setting skyrockets voltage well past 15, and I shut off charger.
12 amp setting, same result
2 amp setting and voltage continues to drop back to ~12.8 and hovers. making this 'smart' charger essentially useless.
Go get my Meanwell, set voltage to 14.9v(50f battery) plug it in. 9.2 amps.
not a good sign for the battery, but the ability to get it to 14.9v and hold it there without voltage rising further or an automatic charger shutting off and throwing a green light, is pretty essential.
When amps tapered to 2 amps many hours later, with 32AH counted on my wattmeter, I got hydrometer. well under 1.200 on all cells.
Bump voltage to 15.3v, amps tripled and held. Never tapered.
Not a good sign. Let it go for 3 hours, amps increased, SG remained the same.
bad sign for battery.
Disconnect battery terminal from vehicle, bump voltage to 16.2v, it requires 14amps and starts slowly rising, as is battery temperature. Specific gravity does not respond.
I declare battery as a goner. Owner shrugs and says he will just carry his jumper pack and replace it when it can not reliably start the vehicle.
3 days after this, without use, he starts diesel engine with it without issue, and even used the disgusting term 'Just fine'
Sub 1.200 specific gravity is anything but, yet it still works.
Head in the sanders would wholeheartedly agree "just fine, seeeeee?". Those holding measurement tools disagree. It is however a matter of time, or abnormally cold temperatures.
I would have saved time and determined more if I had used my Meanwell right off the bat, instead of other battery chargers.
My personal hard working AGM battery at ~450 deep cycles, still maintains impressive voltages in overnight loads, nearly as good as when new, but the amps required to reach Absorption voltage are much less now, than when new.
If I did not have an ammeter I would be blind to this. If I did not have an adjustable voltage charger I would be mostly blind to this. If I could not control the voltage which my alternator is allowed to hold, i could not see the instant absorption voltage amperage if it required more than 40 amps.
if I did not have these tools, watching voltage alone, comparing cycle number one to cycle number 450, I might even be so bold as to declare it works as good as new.
It is not. It is also taking a lot longer for amps to taper to 0.5% of capacity.
Think any auotmatic charging source would extend its egg timer allotment of absorption voltage on an aged battery?
Perhaps a few would, those inteh 500+ dollar range.
I guess my rant is do not fear the manual adjustable voltage charger. in this day and age of automatic everything, the mindset is that the only good things are automatic, but with battery charging the there are moving targets and nothing automatic can achieve ideal every time anyway.
I understand not wanting to babysit a charging source, but in my experience it requires less effort doing so, than an automatic charger which does not complete the task and sends a battery to an early grave instead while flashing that serotonin inducing green light in blissful ignorance..
