AGM Battery maintenance/charging for dummies?

[Borrego60]

I am running a Guest 2026 charger and love it, 3 stage flooded,gel and amg batteries. Been working for about 4 yrs and not one problem.

 

[teotwaki]

As for a specific recommendation:

Well...sooner or later I'll be replacing the charger in my camper van. The charger I'll be using?

http://www.chargingchargers.com/chargers/12volt/sec1215.html

It can do one, two or three batteries (hard wired and internally isolates them from each other), though the 15a of available current is shared between them (fine, my starting battery won't need 15a to top it off anyway).

It can be switched between 3-stage (if I want to do a full 3-stage on either of my batteries) or 2-stage (where it will normally be since it'll be hard wired to both batteries).

It's simple, and bulletproof. Has internal fuses which can be replaced by removing the cover.

EDIT to add: It also has built-in mounting brackets.

And, it's got a nifty analog meter on the front AND a flashy-blinky LED. Woot.

Did you buy the Samlex yet? How is it working out?

 

[teotwaki]

I am running a Guest 2026 charger and love it, 3 stage flooded,gel and amg batteries. Been working for about 4 yrs and not one problem.

I tried looking that one up and it seems that it is the 2620A http://www.marinco.com/product/20-amp-dual-battery-chargepro-charger

Are you charging two batteries at a time?

 

[Beowulf]

Since AGMs are getting a little older in some of our rigs, it seems important to keep talking about how to keep them alive longer. I have the NOCO GEN2 topping mine off now, but sadly, they won't last forever.

 

[moto-treks]

Optima Digital 400

I'm thinking of using the Optima Digital 400. Looks like a nice unit to keep in the JKU

 

[teotwaki]

I'm thinking of using the Optima Digital 400. Looks like a nice unit to keep in the JKU

At $109 it seems awfully expensive. A $69 CTEK multi skips the fancy display and just charges properly for less money.
http://www.techbatterysolutions.com...s&gdftrk=gdfV23665_a_7c1669_a_7c7827_a_7cC003

Or get a Guest dual output charger for $99 and charge both of the batteries under your hood
http://www.wholesalemarine.com/gues...charger.html?gclid=CJv44ZStpLsCFcVFMgodn0sAXA

Both of these are powered by 120 VAC

 

[sovereign]

Since AGMs are getting a little older in some of our rigs, it seems important to keep talking about how to keep them alive longer. I have the NOCO GEN2 topping mine off now, but sadly, they won't last forever.

How old are your batts? My Diehard P-5 is 5.5 years old and the PM-1 is @4.5 years. They have definitely lost a good deal of capacity. I also use a NOCO 7200 to attempt to top them off every so often. Is supplemental solar charging while camped the only way to keep batteries in the best of health?

 

[Jakes01234]

I just use a battery tender Jr like I use on my motorcycles.
I seem to have a large collection of them from years of misplacing my old chargers.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[CKent323]

Enersys makes both Sears Die-Hard Platinum and Odyssey Batteries. According to their literature their proprietary design is a bit different from other AGM batteries and their charging requirements seem to be a bit different. They publish a list of approved chargers on their website "due to the many chargers being sold that are programmed for the vast majority of batteries on the market that prefer low amp charging and lower float voltages that do not fully charge or maintain the ODYSSEY battery properly." (quote directly from an Enersys Technical rep).

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEYapproved12VchargersMay2013_000.pdf

Owners Manual:
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/US-ODY-OM-011_0213.pdf


Regards,

Craig

 

[teotwaki]

Enersys makes both Sears Die-Hard Platinum and Odyssey Batteries. According to their literature their proprietary design is a bit different from other AGM batteries and their charging requirements seem to be a bit different. They publish a list of approved chargers on their website "due to the many chargers being sold that are programmed for the vast majority of batteries on the market that prefer low amp charging and lower float voltages that do not fully charge or maintain the ODYSSEY battery properly." (quote directly from an Enersys Technical rep).

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEYapproved12VchargersMay2013_000.pdf

Owners Manual:
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/US-ODY-OM-011_0213.pdf


Regards,

Craig

I have two Die-Hard Platinum batteries under the hood. One for starting and one Marine style for the fridge. Although my CTEK 250S Dual is not in the "approved" list I am confident that it is performing a stellar job. Same goes for my Samlex battery charger.

Using an approved charger does not mean you can skip trying to understand what charging is all about. Hilldweller and DWH are very sharp on this topic.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/14285-Odyssey-vs-Diehard-Platinum/page22

 

[DaveInDenver]

I don't really see anything in that documentation that indicates Enersys is breaking the laws of physics. They suggest a fairly high bulk capacity, something like 0.2*C, but that's just on the high side of typical and most good AGM batteries would benefit a high charge rate (e.g. the C/3 to C/5 rate from full discharge to 80% SOC principle for VRLA batteries). So wandering off their list of approved chargers just means you have to follow their recommendations.

 

[CKent323]

"...wandering off their list of approved chargers just means you have to follow their recommendations. "

No argument. To be clear my post was for those who do know much about batteries and that there are differing charging requirements that can not only impact battery performance but also shorten battery life. Caveat emptor!

Regards,

Craig