|
John,
What you have now is a useful manual bulk charger
that will turn into a battery boiler if you don't turn it off at the proper
time. My logs of the Lestronic II charge cycle show that it takes the
batteries to about 45v and keeps them there for an hour or so until the voltage
doesn't rise anymore, and then turns off. With old batteries, the voltage
might not get that high. Look for the time when the voltage quits rising,
and shut it off manually. With my set of two-year-old batteries, the
current has by then tapered to about 5 amps, but this will vary with the set of
batteries. The Lestronic is really designed to equalize the batteries on
every charge. I might suggest that you buy a cheap spring-wound Intermatic
120V wall timer with a 12-hour range, put it in a handybox with a cord on one
end and an outlet on the other. Plug the charger into it. That way,
you'll at least be able to control when it will shut
down.
By the way, I just received today the
Chargetek TPRP0-320, which shows great promise as a replacement for the
Lestronic. It has a true bulk-absorbtion-float algorithm, puts out 20 amps
in the bulk phase, and has three independently controlled 12V charge
outputs for us battery-pack tappers. I have it hooked up right now
to the three 12V sets of two 6V batteries without removing the series
jumpers! (It took a little courage to believe that it could be done, but
it works!). The thing appears to be a truly elegant solution. You
can -- and probably should -- leave it plugged in indefinitely. It also is
totally silent, compared to the annoying razzmatazz that many Lesters
develop. I'll post further findings as time goes on.
Here it is:
Hope this helps,
The lurker with the golf cart,
Paul Heinzerling
Hudson, OH
---- Original Message -----
|