VARIAC....MEX?
Hopefully MEX will chime in but anyone else is welcome, of course. Looking to buy a VARIAC. I have a Harbor Freight manual charger that I use for equalizing and sometimes the finishing charge. The pro...
Forum Discussion
Like voting one way or the other. Personally with all things weighed, sacrificing sixty bucks every six to ten years seems to be not a great issue. If one were to wear out the knob like a stage technician monitoring lights for a Broadway Play then the carbon erosion factor becomes something to note. Speaking of noting, note how few times and little movement (in inches) a complete equalization cycle puts on the variac's carbon tipped swing arm. Little variacs have a larger carbon tip proportionately than large units.
When I was overhauling AC generator voltage reguators (Basler and Delco) I did wear contact tips out. Load the field, tweak, readjust the load, tweak, my fingers used to get tired. The last big equalization I did on a cruising sailboat (22 L-16 batteries), I had to move the ohmite rheostat eighteen times. This was to field the alternator. Wotta hoot! Full disconnect of the batteries and reconnect using 2/0 jumpers to series according to gravity. I was equalizing to 32 volts. The skipper was amazed his Balmar alternator could do that.
When I was overhauling AC generator voltage reguators (Basler and Delco) I did wear contact tips out. Load the field, tweak, readjust the load, tweak, my fingers used to get tired. The last big equalization I did on a cruising sailboat (22 L-16 batteries), I had to move the ohmite rheostat eighteen times. This was to field the alternator. Wotta hoot! Full disconnect of the batteries and reconnect using 2/0 jumpers to series according to gravity. I was equalizing to 32 volts. The skipper was amazed his Balmar alternator could do that.
