Kmart battery charger

Yep intend taking it back, thought that if it was ok it would be good for the $.

If I were you I'd check the max voltage it may not be like this one but you never know.

Hi,

OK. I thought this might be the case as well. I left it running for about half an hour, it was putting in about 5 amps at 16.2 volts. Battery was ok but to check I ran my good 3 stage charger on it and checked the output, it was around 4+ amps at 14.7 volts when set to lead calcium batteries.

The battery is a sealed lead calcuim so max should be 14.8 volts as per manufacturer's instruction. My concern was that at 16 volts it could cause the plates to distort in the long term and in the short term there would be potential for liquid loss from boiling. I know it's ok to equalize open wet cell batteries up to 16 volts but wasn't sure how well sealed lead/calcium acid batteries would handle it.

Certainly open to your view as for $99 they are a damn cheap unit if they do what they say.

Hi again,

Well, I would not be comfortable with a sealed battery to run that sort of current when the battery is already full.
However, you say that it still draws 4 amps at 14.7 with your other charger. It does sound to me like all is not well with that battery. If it were really fully charged and you applied 14.8 Volts to it, it should not draw much at all, I would think well less than 1/2 amp.

Cheers

Thanks hl,

Could be right about the battery, I put it down to the battery still being quite warm and I only put the better charger on for a few minutes to test the voltage out put so it never went to float, didn't have time. Even so I will recheck the battery. Though the real test for me was to check the max output voltage and I still think it failed. If it had been just over 15 volts and min amps or as you say higher voltage but no current I'd have used it.

On a side note, I know it's been discussed before but can't find a difinitive answer for my particular solar regulator. I have a 20 amp MP3129 charge controller, from ebay/Jaycar. It's rebadged in various names across the world.

Can I buy a cheap 12 volt 20 amp battery charger (no bells and whistles) and run it through the solar regulator which will give me a 3 stage charge?????

Hi again,

I also own one of these regulators and I can't see any reason why you couldn't use it as a 3 stage regulator, in fact, it is very configurable for different types of battery.
I don't think I would use it to the max and put a 20 amp supply on it, but any filtered DC supply up to say 15 amps and 17 to 25 volts should do the trick. Beware that chargers generally don't have a filter capacitor and be sure to check the voltage after you add one, with no load. I think the maximum rating of that regulator is 25V in.

Cheers

"Qualified staff"

Didn't he say he bought it at KMart.

But as someone else said if your quality 3 stage is in float moad at 14.7V and it's still drawing 4 amps then this does not seem right. I'd expect to see under an amp.

Could well be better than the cheap rough charger in most automobiles.

Yes still too high.

My 3 stage chargers once they 'Float' they will float at a selectable 13.2 / 13.5 / 13.8 Volts and drop down to as low as 40mA.

Yes Derek I get the plug. Never said I was charging an AGM. Not really any reason that they should cost much more than $100, the technology has been around for some time and has paid for itself. Poor build quality also comes in dear items.

Rather than the sales pitch you could have offered further info for the forum. The idea behind my test was to see if there was a cheaper alternative to the dearer versions for a mate. Thought I'd pass on the info to others. Doubt it will be long before this error is sorted then you'd be hard pressed to justify paying 2-5 times as much for a similar unit just because it has a few extra bells and whistles.