Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

[forrestforrest]

I bought a 3 stage rapid charger and an Optima Marine DeepCycle AGM battery and want to go fishing tomorrow, the manufacturers are closed:

The charger requires me to manually select deep-cycle, regular or AGM/gel cell. I can't pick AGM AND Deep Cycle!
It also has settings for 10A,6A and 2A.

The charger manual was not much help.
I got these spec from the optima site:


Alternator: 13.65 to 15.0 volts
Battery Charger (Constant Voltage):
13.8 to 15.0 volts; 10 amps maximum; 6-12 hours approximate
Float Charge:
13.2 to 13.8 volts; 1 amp maximum (indefinite time at lower
voltages)
Rapid RechargeConstant voltage charger)
Maximum voltage 15.6 volts. No current limit as long as battery
temperature remains below 125?F (51.7?C). Charge until
current drops below 1 amp.
Cyclic or Series String Applications:
14.7 volts. No current limit as long as battery temperature
remains below 125?F (51.7?C). When current falls below 1 amp,
finish with 2 amp constant current for 1 hour.
All limits must be strictly adhered to.

3 questions:
1)I think this means that I can charge this battery at 10A until I hit 15.6V and then manually stop the charger. Is that right?
2) is the proper selection AGM or deepcycle?
3)what is "cyclic or series string applications" mean?

any good advice appreciated

forrest

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

May I suggest that you have the wrong charger for that battery. A good quality smart charger will automatically switch through (up to) eight stages depending on the type/size of battery. What you have requires user input at various stages which will eventually lead to tears when the battery goes south.

Choose AGM. I personally would never take an AGM over 14.8v so for your specific charger I would not choose 'rapid'. Float is good when battery is full. Cyclic is used for a battery that is constantly cycled. For your charger, I would avoid it.

Take a looksee at a ctek 15amp smart charger, absolute best fully auto smart marine charger on the market.

A fully charged and rested AGM should read 13v.

 

[forrestforrest]

Re: Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

Well I am using it for a cyclic application so charging it up to 14.7A and then finishing off with 2A "sounds" right.

I took a look at the 15A ctek charger. It maintains a battery at 2A and that is no good for what I have. The maintenance current is to be no more than 1A.
I did state that my charger is a 3 stage charger but actually after checking out the better descriptions at ctek: I have an 8 step charger. Its a schumacher.

So the only thing I have to do here is watch the battery get to 14.7 and then finish it off with 2A?

forrest

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

So is your charger smart or manual? Why do you say the maintenance charge should only be 1 amp? The ctek pulse maintians at 5 amps when required.

EDIT: The 5 amp pulse specifications are for aussie models, not sure on the 110v units, I'm searching..................

 

[forrestforrest]

Re: Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

Its a smart charger:
http://store.schumachermart.com/sc-1200a.html

It was testing at 12.6V this morning (brand new battery). I plugged it in and put it on AGM. It charged in 3 minutes and now reads13V. What ever happened to the finishing off current I do not know. It may not have been charged already and the 12.6 was a bad reading.


does this sound right?

forrest

 

[forrestforrest]

Re: Charging AGM Deep-Cycle Battery

Why do you say the maintenance charge should only be 1 amp? .

The specs have:

Float Charge:13.2 to 13.8 volts; 1 amp maximum (indefinite time at lower voltages)

To me that says maintence...say for leaving it plugged in over 3 weeks. Am I not educated on the technology so I think I could be wrong.

thanks for the input Dunaruna....the manufacturer is closed on the weekend I am am going fishing today. This stuff is hard to find on the internet. The Ctek site had a lot more info than my manufacturers site.

forrest