Golf cart batterys

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
If speed of charge (length of time) is an issue, then apply 14.8 volts to a battery at 50% depth of discharge and the amount of AMPERAGE you see flowing under that condition sets the OPTIMUM upper limit of the capacity of the charger you should seek. If it's 83 amps, so be it. An 83 ampere charger would offer the optimum fast level of charge for that battery (series, parallel, it doesn't matter).

CONTROL of the amperage is another matter. There's no sense at all, if a charger starts out at 83 amps, then wimps down to say 45 amps with a battery still needing 35% of capacity worth of charging. The 14.8 volt level of charge at 20C should STAY AT 14.8 volts until the electrolyte starts bubbling. Then it can be backed off. The algorithm used in smart chargers seldom even gets close to this optimum,

For forum members foaming at the mouth to contest my recommendation, go back and read the first ten words of my response again.

When time is NOT an issue 20% of the total ampere hour rate is a great compromise. Around 45 amps.

For optimum life 5% of amp hour capacity is excellent. Ten amperes. Around 15 or so hours to recharge 50% depleted batteries.

It all depends on how stupid the smart charger algorithm is.

Now go back and re-read how I phrased "bubbling". Light bubbling is not vigorous bubbling. As batteries charge throughout the protocol, maintaining a slight cell bubbling is the best possible compromise between speed and plate erosion. This is where a smart charger is as dumb as dirt. They can't tell. Only a programmable charger can be tweaked to try and do this.

But if a battery is primarily maintained by shore power a person can get away with near murder, unless the battery charge un-control is something out of Frankenstein's Castle.

Well, damned if I do, damned if I don't. Think I've seen 14.45V out of my PD 9245 in bulk charge mode. But 45 amps capacity is right in line with your optimum R/5 ratio for a 225 amp pair of 6v batteries.

I'm just going to call it "Good enough" for my application. Pulling down 50 -60 amps in a night would be a big night, for me. Seems I have plenty of charging capacity to get it back up to where it needs to be, God Willing, and the sun keeps shining from blue skies. And if it ain't enough, I can always go back to the drawing board and add another 120-130W solar panel.