Charging ?

Yep

good to go.

Solar is easier.

I'm a big fan of the BatteryMinder line of "float chargers"
They are meant to be left on your battery and help prevent the sulfation that kills battery before their time.

They're available from Northern Tool: BatteryMINDer Plus Battery Charger/Trickle Charger/Desulfator — 12 Volt, 1 Amp, Model# 12117TC

DFord wrote:
I'm a big fan of the BatteryMinder line of "float chargers"
They are meant to be left on your battery and help prevent the sulfation that kills battery before their time.

They're available from Northern Tool: BatteryMINDer Plus Battery Charger/Trickle Charger/Desulfator — 12 Volt, 1 Amp, Model# 12117TC

I have to agree with DFord. A good maintainer will help you get longer life out of your batteries.



If you need to charge a significantly discharged battery I would recommend a mulistage smart charger. Examples would be the Iota DLS or Progressive IQ4 line.

I am reluctant to recommend a "dumb" charger except in a pinch. There is a ton of battery and charging info over on solarpaneltalk.com including a great thread on the perils of cheap auto chargers. Unfortunately I cannot find it this morning..


It's hiding in here somewhere:
https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/off-grid-solar/batteries-energy-storage

I don't think I've ever owned a car battery charger that would be considered dumb. They all taper off.

If spending money I would upgrade the on board converter.

2oldman wrote:
I don't think I've ever owned a car battery charger that would be considered dumb. They all taper off.

Amps taper but voltage keeps rising. Must stop the charge manually (unplug the charger) VS "automatic" type which turn themselves off at some point, so you don't have to be there to prevent the voltage going too high.

2oldman wrote:
I don't think I've ever owned a car battery charger that would be considered dumb. They all taper off.

The old manual chargers would go at 15 volts for as long as you like.

time2roll wrote:

2oldman wrote:
I don't think I've ever owned a car battery charger that would be considered dumb. They all taper off.

The old manual chargers would go at 15 volts for as long as you like.

Depends on the "size" of the manual charger. A small trickle charger on a 100AH 27DC batt will stall out in the 15s, but a bigger manual charger can get one into the 16s.

The 8 amp DC charger on my Honda 3000 gen got the 27DC into the 17s. Might nave gone even higher in voltage, but electrolyte was pouring out from the caps :)

(Back when I was having a hard time getting the 27DCs truly full---I have since learned they like low and slow all the way up to 16v, by when they have reached full SG. I use my VEC1093DBD set to 4 amps and with Equalize on, so it gets them to 15.8 and shuts off--magic!)