Battery Chargers

[mcbainia]

Afternoon folks.

I have just had my Numax L110 LB replaced and am looking for some advice on how to care for this thing. I spoke with the folks at Tayna (where I bought the thing) and they are trying to sell me a CTEK 4300 battery charger for £60, claiming that this is the best piece of kit for charging it. I have a normal (halfords) battery charger that has 2 switches on it - one for normal charge / fast charge and one for trickle of full charge. It has 3 lights, 'power', 'charging' and 'full charge'. Am I being a chump here or will that do the job as good as the one that this guy is trying to sell me ?

When I get the battery, I plug it in on charge until the charger reads 'Full 'Charge' and then I stick it in the van....is this the case ? Or should I be doing anything else ?

Cheers

[321Away]

i dont get why so many people on here kepp pulling they're LB's off and charging them? surely your split charge system keeps it topped up?

Julian

[daveblueozzie]

I have a ctek battery charger ,they can be left connected to the battery, not like others chargers.
I have mine fitted in the bongo, when i go to a campsite with hook up i plug the battery charger in to help top up the LB, the split charger on the LB should keep it charged as your driving.

[francophile1947]

The CTEK chargers are classed as intelligent chargers and are better than your normal charger. However, if the battery is new and not flat, you can happily use the charger you already have, but if you keep your eyes open for the Lidl/Aldi specials, they regularly have CTEK clones for about £15 - quite a few of us have bought them and they are excellent8)

[dave_aber]

My L/B seems to stay topped up all the time through driving (even with my 2-weeks offshore rota, where it sits doing nothing).

If I have very bad weather forecast, I sometimes plug in a hook-up cable to run the webasto overnight. Other than that it just works. (Willinton kit)

[g8dhe]

i dont get why so many people on here kepp pulling they're LB's off and charging them? surely your split charge system keeps it topped up?

Its suprising on the number of "leaks" these days, so that when there left for a week or so the L/B ends up flat, and then only gets a little charge put back in it during the short round town runs.
Lets see "leaks"

• Car radio turned OFF, draws perhaps 20mA if your lucky, most about 50mA some can be as much as 200mA
• Game/camera charger left plugged in 50mA
• Radio left in standby, not OFF = 100mA to 500mA
• if you have a vehicle video camera with charger/supply permanently connected another 50mA
• GPS charger left plugged in 50mA

                       

[g8dhe]

As to chargers, check the Maximum continuous charge current rating if its less than 8-10 Amps then its going to take a long time to fully charge the battery from flat. Lots of smaller chargers are rated at 4 Amps Max. if your battery is really flat then given that most batteries are about 95 AmpHour capacity at 4 Amps its going to take 95/4=25 Hours minimum, in reality the charge current will reduce from 4 Amps over the period down to around 1-2 Amps so it will likely take a couple of full days to charge up. A well rated charger 8+ Amps will get a full charge into the battery in 24 hours, but it always pays whatever charger you use to leave it on as long as possible.

[Bin Bongoed]

Can't you overcharge? I use the lidl one, which is only 4 amps but does shut off, but my Halfords 8amp has no auto shut-off, and it's easy to forget it's on. I certainly agree about the length of time to charge up

As regards Julian's comment, my LB quickly goes flat if Bongo not used for a while, as Geoff says, Lidl radio has high drain, inverter needs a cut off switch as it seems to draw current even if nothing plugged in, and lord knows what else draws.

[g8dhe]

Yes you can overcharge, but only by using to high a voltage or to high/low a temperature, any decent charger will not allow that to happen.
The particular charging voltage depends on the specific type of Lead Acid battery and the temperature of the cells whilst charging see here http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/arti ... id_battery for all the gory details, also not charging long enough during the middle phase of 3 phase chargers will cause problems (i.e. taking the battery off to early!).