Portable battery charger
Looking for a good portable charger for deep cycle 12 volt batteries, something that will desulfate as well as equalize. Having a hard time finding a smart charger. From old posts I see a lot of reco...
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I had a PD9245 with pendant remote wizard. Easy to put it in bulk mode at 14.4V to start charging a battery while dry camping. Not so easy to get my specific gravity above 1.265 on my Trojan T-1275, about 3/4 the capacity of a pair of GC-2's, the gold standard in batteries for dry camping/boodocking off the grid.
What the Trojan owners manual suggested was 14.8V, a few older manuals suggested 15.0V charging voltage at a c/10 rate.
The Progressive Dynamics wasn't going to get me there, daily, ever.
Enter the solution that worked for me, the Mega Watt. Adjustable bulk voltage range. It will always supply the amps, the only limitation is the battery chemistry, and battery temperature while recharging, which is always the limitation.
My Megawatt charges efficiently, to 85-90% SOC, when needed. The solar panel I can count on to top charge to at or near 100% even on a dark rainy day. That last 10 to 15% daily is what is very important to extending battery life, preventing sulfation building up, and avoiding having to do big frequent Equalization charge cycles. I consider daily top charging to be the equivalent of an ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure, in terms of preventing sulfation from ever even starting.
A battery that gets filled up to full, regularly, and stored at full, as much as is possible, is a battery that will live a long, long time.
Battery chemistry determines full, as done with reading specific gravity and dipping with a hydrometer, voltage gauges are nice, but not fool proof, they need correcting, things like items in use and surface charges can give false readings.
What the Trojan owners manual suggested was 14.8V, a few older manuals suggested 15.0V charging voltage at a c/10 rate.
The Progressive Dynamics wasn't going to get me there, daily, ever.
Enter the solution that worked for me, the Mega Watt. Adjustable bulk voltage range. It will always supply the amps, the only limitation is the battery chemistry, and battery temperature while recharging, which is always the limitation.
My Megawatt charges efficiently, to 85-90% SOC, when needed. The solar panel I can count on to top charge to at or near 100% even on a dark rainy day. That last 10 to 15% daily is what is very important to extending battery life, preventing sulfation building up, and avoiding having to do big frequent Equalization charge cycles. I consider daily top charging to be the equivalent of an ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure, in terms of preventing sulfation from ever even starting.
A battery that gets filled up to full, regularly, and stored at full, as much as is possible, is a battery that will live a long, long time.
Battery chemistry determines full, as done with reading specific gravity and dipping with a hydrometer, voltage gauges are nice, but not fool proof, they need correcting, things like items in use and surface charges can give false readings.
