The charger is 1.8A 24V output. I am thinking about putting it on a timer, how long should I have it charge per day? 15min? 30min? 1hr?
I leave my 24V trickle charger on the batts constantly and continuously.
Have been using this charger for the past 2 years, bus always starts (even during Idaho winters), doesn't appear to have damaged the batteries.
Chris
I thoght that leaving it on all the time was bad. I did have some watter bubble out of the caps but they may have been overfilled.
It kind of depends on the charger. some low amp chargers are designed to be on all the time, some are not. I would say the biggest difference is the voltage that the charger reaches when the batteries are fully charged. If the voltage is 13.5 volts or so, then it can stay on all the time. If it is 14 volts or higher, then it shouldn't stay on all the time. I have one little 1 amp charger that peaks at about 15 volts - it starts to boil the battery dry after about 24 hours - really slowly, but it will kill the battery after a couple of weeks. I have another one that although it's tiny, smaller than a laptop power supply, it has a computer controlled voltage regulator that does the full three stage charge thing. It can stay on all the time.
Brian
I THINK I measured it at 13.5V. I will have to check again. I think its a single stage. Its the kind that has a little green blinky light when its charging, and solid green when its charged. But ONE of the batteries started to have water bubble out of it before I could get the light to come to solid green so I unplugged it.
Quote from: Oregonconversion on January 30, 2010, 11:10:23 AM
I THINK I measured it at 13.5V. I will have to check again. I think its a single stage. Its the kind that has a little green blinky light when its charging, and solid green when its charged. But ONE of the batteries started to have water bubble out of it before I could get the light to come to solid green so I unplugged it.
That could very well be a heads up to a problem with that particular battery. I would use both a hydrometer and accurate volt meter to check the battery condition.
If it's not an automatic charger, then I would think 3-4 hours a week would serve to maintain already fully charged batteries.
Personally, if you don't know, I wouldn't risk it. Good quality trickle chargers are not expensive.