wilco wrote: I'm going out on a limb here, but if I remember correctly, the guideline is that you should charge at no more than about 25% of your battery(s) capacity. So, if your bank (ie two typical 6V bats) has at least 220AH capacity then, you don't have to slow it down at all....in fact your charger seems perfectly matched to a pair of 6V bats and you certainly don't need to slow it down if you have more than that.
well 25% is way to much for a deep cycle battery. the 25% number you are refering to is for a standard lead cell battery. charge a deep cycle to fast, and the water-acid begins to boil. this will place pressure against the cell plates, eventually twisting them. when they make contact, they can and will short out. this will decrease the cells capacity, and eventually, the battery loses that cell. one dead battery.
20-35 amps is as fast as you want to charge it. the chargers and converters destroy our batteries. just keep your eye on the water level, and on the corrosion on the terminals.this is the best way to fight the overcharging problem..
Wow, we wouldn't want our deep cycles getting all twisted now would we !
Are you for real ??
When I fire up the alternator, it charges up to 130 amps at times.
And when I fire up my PD9155 wizard, it charges at 50+ amps.
And my 2 6'ers seem to be doing fine.
But maybe I should give then the ole "TWIST" check one of these days
Rich
' 98 Flair, 454, Onan Microlite 4k, Intel PD 9155 w/ wizard, Sta-power 1500 watt Inv, 2 6v batts, ammeters, Oly Catalytic Heat, hauling 2 Bent Bikes and sometimes towing a Tracker F&S boat.
smkettner wrote: Double your battery, then each will see only half the amps.
This is not always the case....the original poster was asking about 6V batteries. With 2 of these wired in series, to get 12V, each battery is seeing the full amperage. If you have two banks of 6V batteries wired correctly for 12V (i.e. 4 batteries), then you will indeed have 1/2 the amperage going to each bank.
This is also why you have to be careful about the charging current in 6V battery setups. Here is an example:
If you have 2 12V batteries for a total of 200Ah, and you are charging at 60A you will have 30A going across each battery (since they are in parallel). Since each battery is made up of 6 cells at ~2V each, you are putting 60 watts to each cell.
If you take the same setup with 6V batteries however (2 6V batteries for a total of 200Ah) and you are charging at 60A, you will have 60A going across each battery (since they are in series). Since each battery is made up of 3 cells at ~2V each, you are putting 120 watts to each cell. Twice the power being applied to each cell in the 6V scenario.
All this being said, I recently contacted the engineers at Johnson Controls (maker of the Sam's Club 6V battery as well as many others) and posed the question to them about what the maximum current I should be charging their batteries at. My inverter/charger had the default charging profile set in it and was applying 60A during the bulk charge phase. After I thought about the above scenarios, I figured I better get a definitive answer. The final answer was sort of non-commital, but they cautioned me that if I was going to charge them in excess of 25A, I needed to ensure that someone was in the immediate vicinity to monitor the charging in case the batteries overheated. They then explained that if they overheated, I was to kill the power to them and not try to unhook or do anything to them until they cooled. I'm sure some of this answer was based on the liability issues, but it still seems sound to me!
Randy
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2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD D/A
2006 Wildcat 27RLWB 5er
This week I bought two Costco 6v batteries and am extremely happy with the quality and price. Trojan T-105's were $130 at the cheapest place I could find but Costco was only $73 each and the specs are nearly identical as is the physical size. I emailed Costco customer service for info first, and they told me they are all Johnson Controls and the same as DieHard, etc. Costco's battery book lists it as GC-2, the only 6v one they make.
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