On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:10:47 GMT, "Carl Byrns"
wrote:


"SteveB" wrote in message
...

"Vaughn Simon" wrote

As far as charging goes, most batteries will tolerate a 6 amp charge,
but if you have any doubts, go with 2 amps.


But even a 2 amp "dumb" charger will eventually overcharge and ruin
your battery if left connected and forgotten. The best way I have found
to store any lead acid battery is by leaving it connected to a special
"float" charger. In any case, the battery should always be stored fully
charged.

Vaughn


My charger is a Dayton. A pretty decent charger I think. It has settings
for starting, 10, 6, and 2 amps. But there's a needle to show how many
amps it is actually charging at. You can put it on ten, and the needle
might point to only six. Then as it charges up, the needle drops to zero.
Looks to me like it senses the charge, and tapers off.

Steve

Next time you charge a battery, hook up a voltmeter and watch the volts go
up as the amps go down. High voltages can damage the battery. A smart
charger controls both the charging current and voltage.

-Carl


While there is no question that high voltage will damage a battery, in
real life most battery chargers will be perfectly suitable since a
battery's internal resistance increases as the battery is charged
making the system is pretty much self limiting.

Try connecting a volt meter and an amp meter in parallel with the
battery charger. Turn the charger up to about a 10 amps charging
current and watch the volt meter. As voltage climbs the amperage
decreases. With about a 10 amp initial charging current by the time
the battery voltage reaches about 13.5 volts the current will have
decreased to about 1 or 2 amps. Hardly a battery killing combination.

To put the battery charging cycle in prospective, A "3 stage smart
charger" charges the battery to about 14.2 volts (depends on type of
battery) before dropping back to about 13.4 for the bulk charge.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)