On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:31:06 -0800 (PST), ransley
wrote:

On Jan 11, 6:24*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:05:22 -0800 (PST), ransley





wrote:
On Jan 11, 12:34*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:21:51 -0600, Red Green
wrote:

Anybody got any +/- words about this 3 Stage unit.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=99857

It's a joke. The thing is a 1.5 amp trickle charger. Something with
that low an output doesn't need 3 stages.

You can leave a 12 volt car battery hooked up to an "always on" 1.5
amp charger indefinitely without causing any harm. It will maintain a
charged car battery, but it probably couldn't charge a dead one.

Walmart sells an excellent name-brand (schumacher) 3 stage smart
charger that has custom settings for flooded, Gel and AGM batteries.
25 amps max. Less than $50.

If it is over 13.3v 1.5a will ruin a battery, You dont know how high
or or what voltage the charger puts out, it may be the other case
where it never puts out enough. Until something is tested with a meter
you wont know.

You are wrong on several counts. A 1.5 amp charger is not really even
considered a "charger" It is a battery maintainer. It will keep a
battery that is already charged from self discharging, but that's
about all it will do. The 3 stages of a "charger" that small are
useless. If that 1.5 amp charger is putting out 16 or 17 volts
unloaded, it will be barely able to keep a car battery topped up. When
you connect it to the battery, it won't still be putting out 16 or 17
volts. I PROMISE. And what makes you think anything over 13.3 volts
will harm the battery? At such low amperage, you aren't going to heat
anything up, which is the over-voltage danger with a real charger. Gel
Cells are more sensitive to over voltage than flooded or AGM
batteries, but at 1.5 amps, even they won't be harmed by 15 or 16
volts. This thing is simply not powerful enough to harm a car sized
battery.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

www.batteryuniversity.com might help you learn


Ransley - a 1.5 amp trickle charger will not charge a completely dead
car battery because the dead battery will immediately suck the output
voltage down well below 12 volts, where NO charging can take place.
You can't charge a 12 volt car battery with 8-10 volts coming out of
the charger.

A 1.5 amp charger will also never have enough power to heat the plates
of a fully charged car battery, so all it can ever hope to do is keep
the battery "topped up" and make up for constant battery drains from
things like digital clocks, stereo tuning presets, etc, and self
discharge.

You arguments would apply to small 10-12 amp hour motorcycle
batteries, not 80-100 amp hour car batteries.