Battery charger opinions

[biggest_kid]

Hey guys,

Chasing a battery charger for my new 130Ah deep cycle AGM battery (plus mine and my girlfriend's car batteries) and have been doing a bit of research. Was hoping to stick to a budget of $200. Having some trouble deciding so any opinions are appreciated.

So far I have been looking at these smart chargers:

1) The Ozcharge 12A charger from battery world for $220 that comes with a massive 5 year warranty! Also has all the stages and what not.
2) The CTEK M200 charger from Edisons (https://www.edisons.com.au/ctek-12v-15amp-m200-smart-battery-charger/) which also has a 5 year warranty for $250
3) The KickAss charger (https://www.australiandirect.com.au/buy/kickass-12v-charger-12-amp/KACHG1212) with a 2 year warranty for $120

What do you guys think? How long do these chargers normally last? Is it worth shelling out for one with a 5 year warranty, or just go cheap and hope for the best (still with a reasonable warranty though)?

Cheers

[raging]

Had no issues with my ctex

[Guest Guest123456789]

If you don’t mind waiting 12 hours for a charge the ctek mxs5 is great and will leave you enough change for a case of crownies 

[Nolongeramember]

I would get a Ctek 10amp charger for the batteries you said. 

I have 2 Cteks for about 6 years now and no problems at all. 

[biggest_kid]

3 hours ago, flatheadluke said:

If you don’t mind waiting 12 hours for a charge the ctek mxs5 is great and will leave you enough change for a case of crownies 

Isn't charging a battery with too low a current bad for it's longevity? I thought that was what the 10% rule was all about? In which case that charger would do me no good as its only 5A.

[Nolongeramember]

1 hour ago, biggest_kid said:

Isn't charging a battery with too low a current bad for it's longevity? I thought that was what the 10% rule was all about? In which case that charger would do me no good as its only 5A.

As far as I know, slower (less amps) is fine it just takes longer to charge. The charge voltage affects  battery longevity. If you get a quality charger it will be fine. 

[fragmeister]

19 hours ago, biggest_kid said:

Isn't charging a battery with too low a current bad for it's longevity? I thought that was what the 10% rule was all about? In which case that charger would do me no good as its only 5A.

Hi,

The 10% rule for wet lead acid batteries is all about making sure that the battery is not damaged through excessive heat which causes plate warping, electrolyte degradation or plate material loss.

It certainly is not ideal to charge a battery too slowly as depending on where it is in the charge cycle it responds best to different charge rates and in the perfect world having a quality smart charger capable of a charge rate at least 10% of the Ampere Hour rating of the battery is ideal. Remembering that this will be a smart charger which will ensure constant current/constant voltage at the appropriate stage of the charging process.

So.. if you had a 130 Amp Battery then a 13 Amp Charger is ideal but that is not to say that a 10 or 5 Amp Charger will do the job perfectly well but just in a shorter time.

BTW, a 20 Amp Lead Acid Battery Charger wold also be fine as the charger will not the use the full 20 amps but simply regulate to  the correct charging current for any sized battery ( assuming a average to good quality charger.)

Lead acid batteries are quite a science so its no wonder that the whole subject is a little mysterious.... I think its more mysterious and complex than fishing!

Cheers

 

Jim

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2017 by fragmeister
Typo

[Nolongeramember]

6 hours ago, fragmeister said:

Hi,

The 10% rule for wet lead acid batteries is all about making sure that the battery is not damaged through excessive heat which causes plate warping, electrolyte degradation or plate material loss.

It certainly is not ideal to charge a battery too slowly as depending on where it is in the charge cycle it responds best to different charge rates and in the perfect world having a quality smart charger capable of a charge rate at least 10% of the Ampere Hour rating of the battery is ideal.

 

 

 

You get excessive heat from charging with too many amps, maybe over 25%.

Does anyone know what specifically is not good with charging at a rate slower than 10% other than it takes longer? Will the battery be damaged or lower capacity or something? I can’t find any information on that. 

[fragmeister]

18 hours ago, Hateanchors said:

You get excessive heat from charging with too many amps, maybe over 25%.

Does anyone know what specifically is not good with charging at a rate slower than 10% other than it takes longer? Will the battery be damaged or lower capacity or something? I can’t find any information on that. 

25 percent is way too high a rate to charge a wet cell lead acid battery.  You can achieve higher with other lead acid batteries such as gel batteries.

As far as I am aware ( I worked with Excide Batteries when I was in the Materials Handling Industry) there is no real impact on battery life from using very low charge current.

You are correct that it is very difficult to find information regarding charging a battery too slowly and that's probably because it not really a problem and people don't write articles about things that are not a problem.

If you want to charge a battery you should have a quality charger. Poor quality chargers or chargers not designed for lead acid batteries are a greater danger because they may not regulate correctly through the 3 stages of battery charging.

So, if you accept that you should be using a decent battery charger then they are almost certainly going to be at least a 3 Amp capacity and therefor the whole issue about whether the charge current is potentially too low is gone.

BTW. Let me know if you need a battery charger as I may have a spare one hanging around.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

 

 

[Evets]

Nothing wrong with slowly charing the battery. HOWEVER if it is too slow between uses you may find that the battery sulfates and will not properly hold a charge.   So long as the battery is fully charged next time you use it it should be fine.  Nothing kills a battery faster than discharging and not properly charging it before the next use.

So how do you know  how charged your battery is? The only real way is find out the batteries specific gravity  by usinging  a hydrometer - but you cant use this with a sealed battery. You can also use a multimeter to give you an idea. A fully charged battery will be at least 12.7 volts. At 12.2 volts (depending on the battery) the battery  will be around 50% charged. At 12 volts the battery is about  25% charged and at around 11.9 volts the battery is close to dead flat. 

 

[Fab1]

I've been using my high tech charger for years now with no Il effect on everything and anything.My question is how did you guys charge your batteries before the cteks etc hit the scene?

[raging]

Too young to know what it was like back then.

Next you'll be telling me they didn't even have Bluetooth voltage meters you can connect your iPhone to ?

[Fab1]

1 hour ago, raging said:

Too young to know what it was like back then.

Next you'll be telling me they didn't even have Bluetooth voltage meters you can connect your iPhone to ?

I'm still using the old candlestick telephone.

[SquidMarks]

 

On 18/11/2017 at 11:28 PM, Fab1 said:

I'm still using the old candlestick telephone.

whats this thing you guys call a 'telephone'?

Edited November 22, 2017 by SquidMarks

[Welster]

I use a battery fighter charger o think it charges at around 1.5amp.   Pretty much when in storage the boats on charge.   The last boat the original battery was over 10 years old.