PD 9260 how long to charge?

I recommend charging for one more hour after the converter hits the 14.4 volt target.

If you have a SMART MODE BAttery charger with ay least DC Current between 17AMPS to 20AMPS DC available then any deep cycle battery will charge up somewhat like PROGRESSIVE DYNAMICS states in all of their brocures...

"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.

14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.

13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.

13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."

battery science at work here - not many ways to get around the times listed above.

The battery will demand how much DC current it will draw from the charger. Doesn't matter if you are using a 60AMp or 80AMPS battery charger as the each battery you are charging will only draw 17-20AMPS each when hit with up to 14.4VDC charging voltages.

My three 12V 85AH Interstate batteries in parallel seems to charge at 52-53AMPS DC from my PD9260C Converter/charger and they get to the 90% charge state in approximately three hours time.

If you use more than 14.4VDC charging voltages then you will run the risk of boiling out battery fluids when being charged for a few hours. Starting out with 14.4VDC for two hours then dropping back to 13.6VDC for another one hours time period will give you the 90% charge state and NOT boil out any battery fluids.

Roy Ken

oops

Who knows how long to BOOST charge your batteries.... The Wizard knows (Sorry Mr. Cranston)

Though the 9260 is capable of 60 amps. Rarely will you get full output.

Here is a formula, you will need to plug in the proper numbers, Amp hours are at the 20 hour rate.

(Total amp hours) * (100%-(State if charge)%) = (amp hours to replace)
(Amp hours to replace)/50 is a good estimate.

Example: pair of GC-2 230 amp hour at 60% state of charge

230*(100-60)% = 230 * 0.4 = 92 amp hours

92/50, a bit less than 2, so 2 hours (you may round)

Seriously though, the Wizard may take over when the proper level is reached even if you initially overrode it and forced bulk.

From the point where it goes to absorption, another 2-4 hours to fully charge, but if you are boondocking,,, You may wish to skip that last 10 percent SOC.

On generator you stop the charge at 80 or 90%. the last bit top "full" would take forever.

How to tell when to stop? the boost lasts four hours when you put it there manually so that is longer than you need as seen above, so you stop at the amps marker for 90% (5 amps per battery) so when amps taper to 10 amps with two batts.

If you want to stop at 80% or 85% just look at the above graph and see what the amps are for that SOC and adjust for the number of batts you have. it is proportionate. Four batts you stop at 20 amps instead of stopping at 10 with two batts.

If your charger does not have an amps read-out and you don't have an ammeter Trimetric, whatever, then use the ugly graph times and just stop when you have run that long.

Another way to do it is suggested by smk on here, that you let it run till your batts reach 14.4, then run it for one more hour and stop. You can see that would work by looking at the ugly graph