battery&charger

[geoffrey hicklinParticipant @geoffreyhicklin29639]

[geoffrey hicklinParticipant @geoffreyhicklin29639]

hi can anyone tell me the best 12v battery and charger i could buy. as the one i have might be the wrong ones. the charger i have is a brookstone 12v 4amp. and the batterys i have is power sonic 12v 7.0amp.hr . and the other battrey is a fulibattrey 12 7.0ah. As each time i charge battreys up they seem to be getting weaker each time. thanks geoff

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

I have used PowerSonic 12v 7Ah SLA batteries for about 2 years without any problems. Use a charger that has a setting for SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) – they are widely available (eg Halfords). If you have other nonSLA batteries you might want to consider a more sophisicated charger such as Fusion Elysium LX60B Pro (I only quote this as an example as that is what I use – there are many manufacturers out there – do a Google search). Batteries need to be kept fully charged so don't leave them in a partially discharged state. Also, I use a large wirewound power resistor (I think it is about 150 wattt rating) mounted on a heatsink to do a charge-discharge-recharge cycle occasionally – I monitor both current and volts during this process – I discharge the 12volt battery to about 10 volts and then recharge. These charge-discharge-recharge cycles can sometimes help to re-establish the battery capacity (Ah) if the battery doesn't seem to recharge fully.

Also see **LINK**

Ian

[geoffrey hicklinParticipant @geoffreyhicklin29639]

thank you shipwright for that .i think i will change my charger . someone did tell me if i use a car battrey charger it would reck my batteries is that true thanks again geoff

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

Yes – the cheapest form of car battery chargers will probably still attempt to pump quite a bit of current into the battery when it is fully charged – and persistent overcharging is likely to damage the SLA. These batteries are designed for applications that are "stand-by" eg in house security alarm systems – they are in continuous "trickle charge" mode until the alarm is triggered or the mains supply is interrupted when they then deliver the necessary power to the system. The "sophisticated" chargers are able to sense when the battery is fully charged and then automatically cease charging. The SLA is quite a robust battery and not too sensitive to the charging process. At the other extreme is the LiPo battery where the battery must only be charged with a LiPo compatible charger – each cell in the LiPo battery must have its terminal voltage measured through what is termed a balancer connector (ie there are many connections to the LiPo battery rather than the 2 connections to the battery terminals).

Ian

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

Although SLA batteries are quite robust, they are not car size batteries. The max safe charge rate for any lead acid is the 10 hour rate, this is a great many more amps for a car battery than one of ours, and that is the rate that a car charger will try to shove in. A car battery, with a liquid electrolyte, can often be topped up if any is bubbled off because of excess charging. A sealed gel cell does not allow for this, being a) sealed and b) gel.

The right charger is usually cheaper than the replacement battery.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I use the MFA 2-6-12 battery charger, wot they make for charging SLA batteries. It is non-automatic, so just watch the little green light and have a listen for the onset of bubbling. Ashley

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

one last point – there is useful article on this website – just enter the word "batteries" into the 'search this site' box at top left and there you will find a link to an article entitled "Batteries"

Ian

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