Transformers, Good or Bad

[Chris C]

Powderburn, don't most "good" chargers have a trickle-down circuit? I just figured I could hook up the charger, and be comforted knowing when I leave the campsite my battery would be charged up fully for the rest of those nights on the trip without shore power.

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Powder

Return from camping, hook up the deep cycle charger, when that drops to maintainance, swap it over to the Tender the tender should be ok to run for months at a time and will ensure your battery is kept at max for when you go away.

Exposed to elements, first thing is that the terminals will corode faster (regular aplications of petroleum jelly will help keep the terminals good) Jacks already mentioned UV's

Now temp effects batteries, too cold and the power available drops hence winter starting problems, but there again keeping them to warm shortens there life, batteries last longest at temperatures we are comfortable with.

Would reccomend at least a small box to keep the worst at bay.

Hi Chris

Depends on that good battery charger if its the Deltrans 6 amp model yes that will work no problems, but it really depends on make and specification. Many good battery chargers could cause you big problems, some are "automatic" they drop the ampage based on terminal voltage, sayyou have a light on when the battery is full, the terminal voltage will drop slightly and the charger will kick in on boost result could be overcharging/ cooked battery as mentioned by Powder, if that goes on for to long thermal runaway can occur and worst case battery plate buckles and short's and boom the old lead acid hand grenade, a battery explodes with the same force as a stick of dynomite, but the dynomite dont spread acid and lead shrapnel.........

Thats why I always want more details when someone says a "good" charger, most are meant only as bench chargers so they may be a great bench charger but not in situ or doubling as power supplies


Best I have seen for USA seems to be the 6 Amp Deltrans as reccomended by Jack, Will fully charge the battery, is safe to use as a power supply $69

[madjack]

Chris, what George says about the chargers is right on the money...I spent a good deal of time researching and studying on this problem for myself, trying to decide on charger/converter combinations and that is why I now recommend the Deltrans Power Tender Plus 5A model...it is almost bulletproof and along with a good battery will do everything that most of us want at a very reasonable price...it'll also make a damn good charger when at home...
madjack

[mikeschn]

Best I have seen for USA seems to be the 6 Amp Deltrans as reccomended by Jack, Will fully charge the battery, is safe to use as a power supply $69

Do you have a good url that gives me all kinds of detail on that Deltrans?

Thanks,

Mike...

[48Rob]

http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=DEL-022-0157-1

Click on the technical specs. (Adobe PDF)

[Chris C]

Thanks to George and Madjack. The Deltrans is the one I'd always planned to use. I've always reffered to it as a "good" charger.

[ARKPAT]

Chris I like the charger/maintainer Madjack had mentioned. The price is right for what you get ( even better ) and it is built to take care of the battery. Most products to be used on automotive 12 volt D.C. circuits will be usable while the battery is not less than 80% charger state and small curent draw like 1% or 2 % of the total charge of the battery could be drawn off. If the state of charge is lower you will have ripple ( little a.c. component present on top of D.C. voltage ) or hum ( in audio / video products ); if large enought could damage electrical products attached.


Pat :-)

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Pat

You will generally not get enough ripple to effect anything, but expecially not from a decent 3-4 stage charger, would have to be a poor bench charger (but if a bench charger is used as per instructions it will not be in use when being charged (ie on a bench!!)

If its an Automotive product then t will be made to withstand AC ripple, because there is loads generated by an alternator....

[absolutsnwbrdr]

I have a question about the Deltran 12v/5a Battery Tender plus. Its probably a dumb question, but ya gotta learn somehow....


I just got the battery tender plus, but do not have a deep cycle battery yet. Can the battery tender act as a 12v power supply, without a battery attached, in order to test my fan and lights?

[Shadow Catcher]

Hook up to the battery in the Subaru. You will be running wires eventually I would bet. I have a battery from our lawn tractor which is on a three stage HF battery tender through the winter and a battery that goes to the Saab Sonett and I have "borrowed" both from time to time to test the computer case fans and stereo used in the MM.

[Cliffmeister2000]

In an automobile, the battery acts as a capacitor and smooths out the ripple in the output of the alternator. I'm not sure of the ripple generated by a battery tender. It will put out approx 13.2VDC or more, to charge a battery, but most electronics can easily handle that amount of overvoltage.

[eamarquardt]

A 6 amp charger can put nearly 150 amp/hours into a battery in twenty four hours. That's quite a bit. I sailed for ten years and had a 100 amp hour "house battery" (actually three, one to actually use and two in reserve to start the engine if the primary went down, no push starting a 40 hp diesel in a sailboat!). I usually ran the engine 20 minutes a day and kept up with my useage. I used fluorescent lights and minimized the load but we did use a vcr and crt tv each night. Never had a problem.

Never had a problem at the dock with the marine charger affecting the vhf radio or anything else with the battery in the circuit to smooth things out.

I'd check out a good marine charger for about a hundred bucks. If you have a good battery in the circuit you don’t need a high powered converter (IMHO). KISS is the way to go.

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-cha ... -chargers/

There you have it, again, the world according to Gus.

Cheers,

Gus

[rwelp]

So, if I put in a Deltran battery tender, do I need a dc power converter? I have an old dc converter from a late 70's/early 80's rv, but I don't know if I want to use it.