Converting to Solar/AGM

full_mosey wrote:

I thought deep cycle, like your wet Trojan L16s, required 'top charging' to reach full charge. What is the 'fully charged' spec?

Let's clarify some terms first. Top charging is a Mex term for occasional stirring of the acid. For my batts, it's 15 mins at 14.7V (77F/25C). Doing this fairly regularly nearly eliminates equalizing which is MUCH more destructive. I haven't needed to equalize since performing this. This is more important for my batts because they are tall (they stratify). I don't know if AGMs require this or not. It seems they would not or maybe not nearly as often. Finish charging to probably a better word for ensuring a full charge and has been adopted by some of us here. Can't remember if that's another Mex term or not. :) A finish charge is just bringing up battery specific gravity to "baseline" or full to keep it simple. Many manufacturers are now changing their charging specs to reflect what quite a number of us already figured out. Trojan shows a chart reflecting what appears to be a finish charge at the end of the charge cycle. On my batts, low 15's for two hours after the converter goes to float seems to do the trick. Now that I have the power supply, I expect that process to go faster (more amps at higher volts from the start...no charger voltage ramp up).

PS - I posted the chart in another thread. Let me see if I can find it.