Re: (ET) 12V charger recommendations

["David Roden" <etpost drmm net>]

Probably close to 20 years ago, a friend of mine tried using those multi-
bank marine chargers for his road EV with AGM batteries.  I think he had 
12 
outputs in all, in banks of 3, so 4 chargers total.  

I don't recall the brand, but he found them pretty unreliable.  Worse, 
when 
one output quit working, that battery in his pack would be undercharged or 
even uncharged.  He'd drive the car, not realizing for some time that he 
had 
an uncharged battery.  Partway to work the battery would reverse itself, 
which pretty well finished off that battery.  In one case, if memory 
serves, 
the reversed battery exploded.  

After this happened a few times, he threw the chargers into the trash can 
and went back to a big charger with a bypass regulator on each battery.

I don't think this is as likely to be a problem with only 3 or 6 outputs 
(1/2 or 1/4 as many) as long as you get good, reliable chargers.  It does 
bear monitoring however!  I guess I'm mostly saying that I would be wary 
of 
any charger brand that has lots of refurbs available.  That suggests to me 
that they have a reliability problem.

As for what I use, I don't know that I'd recommend my chargers, and I 
don't 
know whether they're even still availalbe.  However, for over 16 years, 
I've 
been charging East Penn (Deka Dominator) 8G24 gel batteries in my ETs with 
simple cycle-dropping type Exide brand chargers, made by Cliplight in 
Canada.  They are regrettably not temperature compensated.  Though 
ostensibly "automatic" they don't ever totally shut off, so I use a timer 
to 
run them no more than 20 hours.

Charged this way the East Penn batteries have held up reasonably well, I 
think, though their capacity has been falling markedly in the last couple 
of 
years.  I just tested them at 25 amps and got a surprisingly consistent 76 
to 80 minutes of RC for them (to 10.6v on load).  They're factory rated 
for 
140 imin RC.  By the standard definition of battery end-of-life.(< 80% 
rated 
capacity) they're theoretically about done for, but they still do 
everything 
I need the tractor for, so I'm not ready to replace them yet.

PS - I'm not opposed to battery chargers that claim to be "desulfators," 
because that's exactly what ANY battery charger does!  However, don't get 
suckered into buying dedicated "desulfators."  The separate gadgets with 
blinky lights are just another way of separating you from your money.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

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