Battery charger

CK · #1 22-01-2010, 12:53 AM

Went to charge up some batteries the other day and after a little tampering on account of th damn thing not charging, blew a gasket in my current unit. A bit of a POP and some black smoke got out. So am guessing I'm looking for a new one.

So, as I have both lead acid, & dry cell, or is that gel :huh: I'm after any reccommendations or ideas on what I should be looking for and an approximate cost if possible.

Cheers

Justin Boyle · #2 22-01-2010, 01:06 AM

I have a Projecta 16a charger that seems to do the job fine. Around $180 on ebay. The favoured charger out there is the ctek in either 7a or 15a but cost a bit more!!! You can select 2,4,8 or 16a charging on the projecta. U cant do that with the ctek. The cteks are neater more quality units but I guess you get what you pay for. I like my projecta and the only complaint I have is when charging at 8 or 16a the fan inside is pretty noisy. The ctek doesn't make a sound as far as I know. I think you can mount the ctek also. Projecta have a 15a charger more similar to the ctek but is a bit more expensive than the 16a I have. All these chargers will charge all 12v batteries.

CK · #3 22-01-2010, 01:26 AM

Cheers JB, was actually just reading your thread on a similar subject.
Will take a look at both and see if the price differential between the two is worth it

CK · #4 11-02-2010, 12:05 AM

Still looking into this one guys so bear with me here

I have both gel / sealed batteries and lead acid that need attention periodically.

Does putting the charger onto the sealed batteries after each trip, regardless of the amount taken out of them, damage them / reduce their life expectancy in any way. Charger is an electronic 10amp unit.

Justin Boyle · #5 11-02-2010, 02:07 AM

The Projecta one I have just holds the battery at a constant 13.9v when the battery is fully charged. Presumably this doesn't damage the battery. I don't know what the CTEK does but they do say that you can leave the charger plugged in permanently and you won't damage anything. I would say the CTEK is the same.

Does anyone know what voltage the CTEK's hold the battery at?

BlackBreamer · #6 11-02-2010, 07:20 AM

I have a c-tek charger at home cant remember the voltage they hold Coonta there great chargers mine cost me $160.. I'll let you know when i get back to Adelaide...

deltaranger · #7 11-02-2010, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coonta Kinta

Still looking into this one guys so bear with me here

I have both gel / sealed batteries and lead acid that need attention periodically.

Does putting the charger onto the sealed batteries after each trip, regardless of the amount taken out of them, damage them / reduce their life expectancy in any way. Charger is an electronic 10amp unit.

Be careful with mixing gel and sealed lead acid batteries, both have different needs for charging and maynot be able to be properly charged on the same charger! In saying that, some chargers do have the capacity to charge both types- are they linked together or separate units?

Charging a battery after every use is recommened and when you think about it your car battery is being charged when your driving. What the "pitfall" is with charging is how many cycles of charge has it had, for example a mobile phone that has been put on charge after useing half its battery hasn't been through its cycle till you use up half again and then put on charge again- if that makes sense

CK · #8 11-02-2010, 06:04 PM

Deltaranger, thats where I'm having trouble getting my head around things. "The cycles"

Presumably, the gel/sealed battery is a deep cycle 140ah(i think), I have two. These are my leccie batteries and other than powering the plotter, when its aboard receive no auxillary charge from the motor, which is a pull start. The motor only charges an N70 car battery which is used to run my sounders, bilge/live well pump, & lights.

My trips are generally short, lasting 2-4hrs but the leccie will get a fair use in most of this time, but not enough to pull out a great deal of the stored power. So if I use say 25% of that stored power today will putting it on charge to bring it back to 100% reduce the number of cycles I have left in the battery? ie, would I be better to reduce the charge to 50 or even 75% before charging.

Charger is 10amp scorpion, kindly donated by my good friends @ "Parts Boys" it has a low & high switch, but the instructions are not clear on how/when to use either.
http://www.justtools.com.au/prod4795.htm

The lead acids, of which there are also two are large cranking batteries for my other boat and occassionally I give them a top up if I havent been using that boat much or feel that they need a top up.

Sorry to be perserving with this enquiry guys, but it does seem like rocket science for me, evn though it probably isnt!