In article ,
Ignoramus29935 wrote:

On 2012-05-12, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Ignoramus8579" wrote in message

The stacker comes with a weakened battery, and without a battery
charger. The previous owner charger it with a "car charger". I am
wondering, what should one get to charge this one. It has a 12v
Deka battery that weights, perhaps, 300 lbs.
i

My automatic charger fails on older batteries that require increased
voltage to equalize one or more weak cells. I use a home-made manual
charger with a current meter and a Variac that efficiently adjusts
output voltage. Sometimes "12V" batteries need as much as 16V-17V to
fully charge all cells.

jsw



I have a variable voltage source (military battery charger)

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/PP-1...-Power-Supply/

So, what you are suggesting, is kind of like this

1) Charge it at 14.3 volts until current falls off.
2) At the end of the charge, increase the voltage to 16v and charge
some more, like 30 min.

In general, for wet lead-acid batteries, but I bet the battery maker has
a datasheet and app note, for free.

Forklift makers often also have such data.

Then there is a bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Of-Batteries-David-Linden/dp/0071359788.
University libraries usually have this.

Joe Gwinn