Battery Chargers Misbehaving

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I think Victron is probably smart enough for government work (so to speak). It is I who should have been aware that disconnecting and reconnecting shore power would reset the absorption cycle. I didn't even know I could manually put the charger into float mode. Now I know!

I only blame Victron and its competition for misleading people into believing that their algorithms to switch from absorption to float are smarter than what they really are, and keeping them "secret" for practical purposes.

[GrowleyMonster]

FWIW I put all the components together for my manual charger and put a charge on an old 12v house bank battery, then tried it on my 48v propulsion bank, (didn't put out enough current to really satisfy me) and tried unsuccessfully to resurrect a neighbors dead dead dead genset start battery before he replaced it. We did some experimenting with the IR thermometer and high current/voltage into the battery and I think if it had been a deep cycle battery instead of a start battery we might have brought it back to life for a few more months. We gave up after seeing no matter what we did, it would never hold more than 8v or so. There was some sort of crust I had to break in one cell in order to get to the electrolyte so I don't fault the charging system... that batt was toast. Fun afternoon, anyway. Next weekend I will equalize all my 6v propulsion batteries, which are now a year old and well overdue for an equalizing charge. All this simply can't be done with a "smart" charger, and if you let any charger charge your batteries without personally monitoring them, ya takes yer chances. Not a bad thing, cause sometimes time is money and erring is human, but its still true. I'm not giving up my nice solid state smart charger for ANYTHING, but I think the full manual one is a very valuable and useful tool.