12V Battery chargers?

[difflock]

My 50 year old Halfords special, has finally lay down. After long and loyal service.

This after the £80.00 "smart" Ring brand charger ( bought some 15 to 20 years ago!) shit itself just outside the warranty period, this despite very little use. I am still sore about that expensive( for me) mistake.

Which kinda, however irrationally, makes me distrust so called smart chargers, because when it was working, it did not appear to do anything the basic wee Halfords transformer charger did.

I only charge 12V lead acid batteries.

So do I even need a so-called smart charger? Thoughts?

 

[GarethM]

Ctek with the hard wired battery monitors.

 

Nice little traffic light flashing light, fitted to forklift and tractor.

 

No disassembly required if a bit low from top much short useable, as I have the light/quick connection dangling outside the battery cover.

[Dan Maynard]

A charged battery is a charged battery, so yes in a way the old fashioned charger does do the same job, except that you can't leave it on the battery once charged.

 

For me the real issue smart charger solves is battery self discharge while not used - I have a small one which I leave on my Spitfire all the time, this keeps the battery in good condition for years - before I had that I'd only get one or two years out of a battery as they don't like being let go flat while you're not using them. In that way the £40 charger has paid for itself many times over.

[Whoppa Choppa]

Victron Blue Smart IP65 25/10A.

 

The end.

[difflock]

Ah, yes Dan.

Well spotted, my proclivity to forget about stuff. Incl battery chargers.

Though oddly enough only a month ago, I had been very intermittently using the wee Kioti, without issue over a few weeks, then after a 3 day gap, the battery was completely dead. 

Refused to take a charge, so I swopped it with another one.

And then I tried it again with the wee basic charger, and after violent full needle deflections and various other non charging  aberrations, I  finally got it to take a charge, it however took a full week before the battery, a Yausa showed the green light, and the battery once swopped back into the Kioti has been preforming  faultlessly ever since.

All most odd.

 

Edited Wednesday at 13:49 by difflock

[skc101fc]

I find the 'smart chargers can't cope with seriously discharged batteries (I use them for electric fencing and will leave them on til they cant operate anymore - usually less than than 9v) and fail to recognise them as 12 v and will instead take them down to 6v.  3 or 4 minutes with jump leads off my quad bike (not running) or any other mostly charged battery brings the charge up to 12v for long enough for the smart charger to accept it and consequently charge at full rate, to completion. 

[AHPP]

Exactly that.

[Mrblue5000]

1 hour ago, skc101fc said:

I find the 'smart chargers can't cope with seriously discharged batteries (I use them for electric fencing and will leave them on til they cant operate anymore - usually less than than 9v) and fail to recognise them as 12 v and will instead take them down to 6v.  3 or 4 minutes with jump leads off my quad bike (not running) or any other mostly charged battery brings the charge up to 12v for long enough for the smart charger to accept it and consequently charge at full rate, to completion. 

You can 'trick' a smart charger into charging a flat battery by using jump leads connected to a good battery and the flat battery. I have to admit though that solar power is the way to go for battery fencers.

[kram]

"Smart chargers" I have found to be cheap rubbish and often dont appear to do work. Single button and a few LED's doesnt make it smart. Lead acid batteries are extremely basic to charge anyway.

 

What I'd recommend is a lipo charger from the RC world - these actually are smart and can do nearly every different battery type. The advantage is they also do discharge, most have a screen and can tell you exactly how much charge has gone in or out of the battery, so you get a fair idea of its condition.

 

As a general rule, manufacturers over spec lead  batteries about 4x what they need to, as they degrade over time. When they get down to a third or quater capacity, its time to replace.

Edited Wednesday at 22:09 by kram

[difflock]

Well, when I opened the Ring charger up, hoping to fine a failed fuse or something obvious, since it stopped working with a distinct "pop", the only fuse I found beside the 230V input, was 100% good.

But, good Lord,  2 full circuit boards with a shocking( & pun fully intended) amount of electric/electronic  components mounted thereto.

Cheers

Might just buy myself a stupid=unsmart Draper one.