Heads up!!! -- Field Battery Charger.

[Tomahawk]

I have been looking for a charger to charge my two 51ah glass mat field batteries. You shouldn't use a regular car charger on these batteries as they require different charging. I came close to buying a Batteryminder or BatteryTender as they had the special charging for AGM batteries but I would have to buy another charger to charge regular batteries. So this kind of put me off of buying them.
Now wouldn't you know that Friday's Canadian Tire flyer had a new charger in it. (so new it isn't on their website yet) It is called the Intelligent Battery Charger with Digital Technology under the Motomaster Eliminator namebrand. I noticed it said it would charge AGM batteries so I figured I would buy one and try it. If it didn't do what I wanted, I could always take it back.
It has been only been three days and it still has that new shine and smell and I am definitely keeping it.
It can do regular, deep-cycle, Absorbent Glass Mat and Gel cell batteries. 2amp trickle, 30/10amp rapid charge and 60amp engine start. It shows the battery voltage on a LED display and capacity in a percentage. It even states that there is a Desulfation Mode and a build in cooling fan.
This isn't a taper charger like their other chargers. It is a four stage charger where it does the initial charge in stage 1, the final charge in stage 2 then changes to the Absorption charge in stage 3 and then maintains the battery on a float voltage in stage 4.
It is 10"x7"x3" and weighs around 3 1/2 lbs. (pretty light) All cables store inside the unit and it even has a carry handle.
I would have mention this sooner but I wanted to try it out before I posted about it. It is on sale this week $30 dollars off.(Friday is the last day) It is still $100 for it but I figure it is worth the money.

Still can't believe Canadian Tire had this charger!!!


Chris

[rscamp]

Cool.

I don't see it at their web site yet but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

I'm a little confused at the difference between stages 1 and 2. What is the "initial charge"? I'm also not sure why you can't charge regular flooded lead-acid with the BatteryMINDer or Battery Tender. The voltages do not appear to be out of line.

I have both a BatteryMINDer and a Battery Tender. They both work well. The desulphator in the 'minder does work. It is the high-frequency pulse type. Does this "Intelligent Battery Charger" work the same?

BTW. There are a couple of alternatives to a high-power automotive charger. One is the higher power BatteryMINDer. This is only 4A and still takes a while. Another option is to do the bulk and absorption charge with a hobby charger like the Orbit Microlader.

Rob

[Tomahawk]

Since there is no pic on the web of this charger I will post one I scanned from the flyer.

[Tomahawk]

Hi Rob

No nothing on the web but they have them in the stores.

The manual states that the initial charge (stage 1) adjusts the rate for faster charging to a preset voltage and compensates for fluctuating power levels and temps. It also charges to about 75% on the battery.

The final charge (stage 2) adjusts charging voltage based on battery behaviour and limits voltage to a preset max. and also charges to about 85%.

It then preceeds to stage 3 (absorption) and then when finished stage 4 (float).

I have AGM batteries which require a different charging algorthium. Regular batteries use a float of 13.2v while my glass mat requires 13.6v. Also the Absorption Voltage is different. I have no doubt that the BatteryTender and BatteryMinder work great as I have seen them recommended many times. I was complaining that I would have to buy two different models of the BattteryTender to charge my glassmat and regular lead acid batteries. This new charger has it all in one and higher charging amps.

The manual is very vague about the desulphator. It only mentions the charger has it. I did try it out on a deep cycle marine battery that only had 3.5v on it. The charger did detect the sulphated battery and switched into desulphator mode and you could hear it pulsing away. It brought the battery up to about 7.5v when I stopped it.

Chris

[rscamp]

Chris.

Thanks again for the info.

BTW. The desulphator used on the BatteryMINDer takes a long time to work. It can take weeks.

I've had the desulphator on a several year-old wet cell that initially provided only a few Ah when discharged. I discharged it a couple of weeks ago at an amp or two down to 12.0V and it provided over 25Ah. I don't know how much capacity it has now (and I'm not going to discharge it to 0% SOC to find out!) but I would guess about 40 Ah. This would be about 75% of its original capacity. Not perfect, but the battery has gone from being completely useless to quite useful.

Rob

[Tomahawk]

Hi Rob

I don't think any desulphator will bring a battery back 100%. It is good that you can squeak a little more life out of that battery before it needs to be recycled.

I noticed you said that the Batteryminder could take weeks before it was finished desulphating. The manual for the motomaster charger states that the Desulfation Mode could take as long as 10 hours. I wonder how correct they are on their time limit.

Chris

[rscamp]

That's right. The desulphator doesn't bring them back 100% because it only desulphates. Other things deteriorate with use/age too.

I think the desulphation time depends mostly on the method used. You can also use some sort of a controlled, monitored overvoltage charge to desulphate and this takes much less time.

Rob