Quicker Battery charging
I need a quicker way to charge my Lifeline batteries. My idea is to find a small/light (portable) charger, that I can plug into my gas generator and connect directly to the batteries, to quickly ch...
Forum Discussion
Perhaps with a shallow discharge the time it takes to fully recharge does not matter, but Lifeline does not throw out their 20% figure just to confound the solar only recharger.
Anyone who does cycle to their AGM to 50% and just believes the low and slow solar, and their battery monitor, that the battery is jam packed full, is deluded.
People tend to put 100% confidence in their battery monitors, but the fact is is that they need to be set up correctly, are not 100% accurate even then, and they drift over time, and do not account for decreasing battery capacity.
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/programming_a_battery_monitor
So many people with battery monitors don't even have the shunt wired properly.
Blindly believing the battery monitor as 100% truth, is just as bad as believing a blinking green light for indicating full charge on any automatic charger.
They Lie, more often than not. Just because it is confidence inspiring to believe it, does not make it true.
If you are going to cycle deeply to 50% day after day for many cycles in a row, low and solar only recharges, are not going to keep AGMs as happy as they would be if a higher amp charging source was regularly employed from their most depleted level
How often they require a high amp blast from a depleted state is unknown to me, in such usage. I say mo often mo better.
I opt to almost never rely on my 200 watts of solar to properly recharge my Northstar AGM. 40 Meanwell amps + whatever the solar can make, or 65+ alternator amps+ whatever the solar can add. Solar can finish it off, but That high amp quenching at its lowest level of discharge is my Aim.
I do cycle deeply, and my observations when doing so every day are that voltage under the same loading tanks after 7 cycles of solar only recharge, and yes my controller is flashing the soothing, confidence inspiring green light, and my Battery monitor has also returned to 0AH from full plus some more, after amps taper to ~0.4a at 14.5v in the early afternoon, 3 different indicators that the battery is 100% charged, but it is NOT.
One 40+ amp recharge from 50%, and voltage under load returns to where it was on Cycle one.
My AGm is also my engine starting battery. After a week of ~50% nightly discharges and solar only recharges at a 10% rate maximum, it simply cannot crank my engine as fast as it can after a 40%+ amp recharge.
"Just fine" = just has not failed yet.
One does not have to seek ultimate lifespan of their batteries, but if someone posts a question here seeking ultimate longevity, replies by those who are not seeking ultimate lifespan, are not helpful. Everybody is going to seek a different level of acceptable.
Lifelines are so expensive, one should at least Know what they require to be happiest for longest.
50% nightly discharges for 2 weeks, and a 5% recharge rate is not 'just fine' with these high amp loving AGM's, even if the battery monitor says so and one places high confidence in blinking green lights.
Anyone who does cycle to their AGM to 50% and just believes the low and slow solar, and their battery monitor, that the battery is jam packed full, is deluded.
People tend to put 100% confidence in their battery monitors, but the fact is is that they need to be set up correctly, are not 100% accurate even then, and they drift over time, and do not account for decreasing battery capacity.
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/programming_a_battery_monitor
So many people with battery monitors don't even have the shunt wired properly.
Blindly believing the battery monitor as 100% truth, is just as bad as believing a blinking green light for indicating full charge on any automatic charger.
They Lie, more often than not. Just because it is confidence inspiring to believe it, does not make it true.
If you are going to cycle deeply to 50% day after day for many cycles in a row, low and solar only recharges, are not going to keep AGMs as happy as they would be if a higher amp charging source was regularly employed from their most depleted level
How often they require a high amp blast from a depleted state is unknown to me, in such usage. I say mo often mo better.
I opt to almost never rely on my 200 watts of solar to properly recharge my Northstar AGM. 40 Meanwell amps + whatever the solar can make, or 65+ alternator amps+ whatever the solar can add. Solar can finish it off, but That high amp quenching at its lowest level of discharge is my Aim.
I do cycle deeply, and my observations when doing so every day are that voltage under the same loading tanks after 7 cycles of solar only recharge, and yes my controller is flashing the soothing, confidence inspiring green light, and my Battery monitor has also returned to 0AH from full plus some more, after amps taper to ~0.4a at 14.5v in the early afternoon, 3 different indicators that the battery is 100% charged, but it is NOT.
One 40+ amp recharge from 50%, and voltage under load returns to where it was on Cycle one.
My AGm is also my engine starting battery. After a week of ~50% nightly discharges and solar only recharges at a 10% rate maximum, it simply cannot crank my engine as fast as it can after a 40%+ amp recharge.
"Just fine" = just has not failed yet.
One does not have to seek ultimate lifespan of their batteries, but if someone posts a question here seeking ultimate longevity, replies by those who are not seeking ultimate lifespan, are not helpful. Everybody is going to seek a different level of acceptable.
Lifelines are so expensive, one should at least Know what they require to be happiest for longest.
50% nightly discharges for 2 weeks, and a 5% recharge rate is not 'just fine' with these high amp loving AGM's, even if the battery monitor says so and one places high confidence in blinking green lights.
