Yes - that was my ultimate plan. Use the GE charger with Landis controller to get the batteries close to fully charged, then switch the soneil charger on to get them the rest of the way and maintain the charge while not in use. Although it would be a lot simpler to just get the high current soneil charger.
Yes - the 3610sr is just a trickle charger, maintainer, restorer, but the price is right and it's been great.
I've got to sell the EGT-150 and E-20 I already restored in order to have money to keep experimenting!
From: "David Roden" <etpost drmm net>
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 2:33:21 AM
Subject: Re: (ET) Batteries
On 28 Apr 2014 at 18:18, Jeff Antonucci wrote:
> Have you looked at the Soneil 36V charger?
> http://soneil.com/content/3610sr
That's really too small - its output is only 4.5 amps. I'd recommend a
charger that can deliver 0.15C to 0.2C, with 0.1C as an absolute minimum.
Thus, for a 220 amp hour golf car battery, a 16-22 amp charger is
reasonable. I wouldn't go below 11 amps.
Part of the problem is the time a small charger takes to get the battery
full. On a 220ah battery, just to get from 20% SOC to 80% (bulk charging)
would take that little 4.5 amp guy almost 30 hours!
That may not seem like such a big deal with a tractor you use only once a
wkee, but there's also the fact that lead batteries sort of get lazy if they
don't get that initial "kick" when they're charged. Some need it more, some
less, but they all need it to some extent or they really do lose capacity.
I'm not an electrochemist, far from it, and I've never understood the
science behind this. I've heard it explained as "you need to blast the lead
sulfate off the plates" and similar images, but I don't think that's what
high initial current literally does.
One way you could use a low power charger like that would be to use the
blunderbuss GE charger for most of the bulk phase charging (to 70% or 80%
SOC), then let the little guy take over and treat the battery nicer where it
counts. The only problem with that is how to automate the changeover,
because if you're like me, you WILL forget to do it manually.
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
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