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creeky
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:13am
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Charging your battery is my current topic.  I purport that higher voltage charging is
safe
"If the battery is not fully charged you can use much higher voltages without damage because the charging reaction takes precedence over any over-charge chemical reactions until the battery is fully charged. This is why a battery charger can operate at 14.4 to 15 volts during the bulk-charge phase of the charge cycle." -- from powerstream.com
faster
higher voltages result in faster charge times. whether you use solar or if you are using a generator to charge your battery. getting more power into your battery quicker is a good thing.
can extend your battery life.
I have been unable to resource a document I found last winter. It dealt specifically with the chemical changes inside batteries during charging. What I remember is that high voltage charging was found to actually draw material that had sloughed off back onto the battery plate as well as refresh the plate coating. In effect extending the probable lifespan of the battery.
This is of course not just my opinion. Current solar chargers use higher voltages when charging. My morningstar is doing the monthly "equalize" charge over the next few days and, due to the battery temperature, is headed to 16v.
So if the mainstream charger manufacturers are saying high voltage charging is safe and practical... so am I.
http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Tech-Doctor/Universal/Tech7-Universal_V2.pdf
http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm
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Dillio187
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:19am
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a good equalization is a good thing every once and a while. Doing it constantly will probably end up ruining the battery.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:39am - Edited by: groingo
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Odd this should come up now as I was just speaking to the Schumacher people yesterday getting details on the new chargers when they told me about their new generation transformers they are using that for their 15 amp 12 volt charger they are now able to use 1 amp less power to do the same job, so to charge a 12 volt battery at 15 amps requires only 2.9 amps from the charger rather than 3.9.
They said you can tell the the chargers that use the new generation transformer by the code W in the model number.
Every bit helps.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2013 04:46pm
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Dillio187, that's right. Morningstar (solar charge controller) equalizes my battery bank once a month at 15.5v as per Crown battery specs. And charges daily at 14.5v @ 25C. Again. This is the Crown mfc specification.
Some consider this high voltage. But it is safe. And reliable. There is no fear of ruining your batteries. Quite the opposite. This is good for your batteries.
Crown actually says that 14.5 doesn't fully charge the battery. That's why, once a month, you need to fully charge at 15.5. This seems to have an added benefit in that it restores the chemistry/plate material ... but I'm not an engineer on this point.
I run my genny based charger at 14.7. This is a reliable and safe method of boosting my batteries during this limited sunshine / cold weather period in my area and getting the biggest bang for my gas dollar. I give it about an hour in the morning. Then I let the solar charger take over. Today it was headed for 16 (equalize with temp. compensation). But only made it to 15.41. If it's a sunny day I don't need the genny charger. And indeed. Did not use it at all from the beginning of March until late Oct.
I'm not trying to beat a horse here. Just trying to clear up the air on higher voltage charging. It appears that battery mfcs are saying 13.6 and 14.1 are too low a voltage to charge a solar/large battery bank properly. So why waste gas. Turn up the charge voltage. Right?
Interesting groingo. "Every bit helps" for sure.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2013 05:12pm
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Creeky:
What Crown batteries are you using, I have been using the CR235.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 13 Nov 2013 08:38am
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I'm using the cr395.
monster batts. 120 lbs of hulk power lead. each.
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