Very Inexpensive Battery Maintenance Charger
1.0 ampere output. 13.8 volts regulated charge limit. This unit is good for 100 amp hours worth of batteries. IMO the voltage is a tad high for a high antimony RV battery with temps 60F or higher but ...
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And I'm going to toss another one in your lap. Some of the last contacts I had with BCI concerned their mania about "recyclability". They were pushing all major manufacturers to STANDARIZE their alloying materials in the plates. Same composition percentages, same materials. This is when I noticed a marked slumping in the quality and lifespan of car jar deep cycle batteries. It costs a tremendous amount of money and energy to re-refine lead for re-use in a battery. It's so critical that most AGM manufacturers insist on using virgin lead. The rest of the industry gets the commercial recycled slop because it costs substantially less per lb.
Go to a commercial battery recycling yard, see how they cull authentic deep cycle batteries from the herd and palletize them. These batteries are standardized with 5% antimony. Again, it's active resource conservation because these batteries are destined to be reconstructed as a similar type battery.
Calcium batteries are culled and palletized.
I began to get suspicious in the early nineties (I was sicker than a dog then) when so called car jar deep cycle batteries started behaving differently. They no longer exhibited the characteristics of original 5% deep cycle batteries. Antimony levels were reduced to 2.75% and god only knows where it is now. Total reliance was put on using plates that are 50% thicker than engine starting plates. When engine starting plate thickness dropped to .040", deep cycle .060" plates became a joke, a cruel joke on consumers.
Deka East Penn has it's own lead smelter. But it is unknown if the smelter output is solely to obtain virgin lead for their line of AGM batteries. Wouldn't it be nice to learn East Penn is fully re-refining all of it's lead for use in it's entire line of batteries. Doubtful, the process is a money eater.
Super premium batteries can afford to use virgin lead (you can bet your butt Rolls battery does not use recycled lead). Bean counters analyze to the extreme the lifespan of their car batteries. Free replacement for X number of months, after that the pro-rata is so skewed a battery 2 months out of warranty will cost almost as much as a new battery.
Something to chew on. My 29 lb. group 34 replacement battery is going to cost 111 dollars for the toad PLUS fifty dollars for gasoline PLUS a full day's time, tire wear, etc. I would purchase an AGM in a heartbeat if I could because standard batteries are now, absolutely a ripoff, value wise IMHO.
Go to a commercial battery recycling yard, see how they cull authentic deep cycle batteries from the herd and palletize them. These batteries are standardized with 5% antimony. Again, it's active resource conservation because these batteries are destined to be reconstructed as a similar type battery.
Calcium batteries are culled and palletized.
I began to get suspicious in the early nineties (I was sicker than a dog then) when so called car jar deep cycle batteries started behaving differently. They no longer exhibited the characteristics of original 5% deep cycle batteries. Antimony levels were reduced to 2.75% and god only knows where it is now. Total reliance was put on using plates that are 50% thicker than engine starting plates. When engine starting plate thickness dropped to .040", deep cycle .060" plates became a joke, a cruel joke on consumers.
Deka East Penn has it's own lead smelter. But it is unknown if the smelter output is solely to obtain virgin lead for their line of AGM batteries. Wouldn't it be nice to learn East Penn is fully re-refining all of it's lead for use in it's entire line of batteries. Doubtful, the process is a money eater.
Super premium batteries can afford to use virgin lead (you can bet your butt Rolls battery does not use recycled lead). Bean counters analyze to the extreme the lifespan of their car batteries. Free replacement for X number of months, after that the pro-rata is so skewed a battery 2 months out of warranty will cost almost as much as a new battery.
Something to chew on. My 29 lb. group 34 replacement battery is going to cost 111 dollars for the toad PLUS fifty dollars for gasoline PLUS a full day's time, tire wear, etc. I would purchase an AGM in a heartbeat if I could because standard batteries are now, absolutely a ripoff, value wise IMHO.
