Battery Chargers

HunnyBunny · Senior Member

Battery Chargers

Brenda and Alan · Guru

I have had an electro 20 amp charger for some years and have found it to be an excellent unit. To help you with your problems could you give us the model number of your charger. If it is the smaller version of mine you will find on the front and also on the top of the case a series of lights corresponding to the state of charging. Red for bulk charge orange for absorption stage and gree for the float stage also a green light to indicate power on.

Alan

-- Edited by Brenda and Alan on Sunday 11th of December 2016 08:03:07 PM

HunnyBunny · Senior Member

Sounds like it must be the smaller version of yours B & A. Mine does have all that on the front! How can I tell if it is fully charged?

Bill B · Guru

HunnyBunny wrote:

Sounds like it must be the smaller version of yours B & A. Mine does have all that on the front! How can I tell if it is fully charged?

You should have 2 green lights showing.

C00P · Senior Member

The "Float" green light means that the charger has finished charging and is now holding the battery voltage at a level that will simply maintain it in a fully charged state until you start using the power stored in the battery.
If the charger is off, and you use some of the battery's power, when you next turn the charger on it will usually start in "Bulk" mode (shoving plenty of power back into the battery) then when it gets to a certain level, it switches to "Absorption"mode which tapers off the charging rate until it gets to fully charged, and it then switches to "Float" mode.
If you haven't used much power from the battery, the charger may jump quickly through "Bulk" to "Absorption" and you may not even see the red light come on.
My charger also has a small fan that comes on if the unit is getting hot, as it may do on a hot day.
Hope that helps,
Cheers

C00P

macka17 · Guru

Buy a Multimeter too.
It can do a lot more than tell you each battery voltage.

PeterD · Guru

Brenda and Alan wrote:
also on the top of the case a series of lights corresponding to the state of charging. Red for bulk charge orange for absorption stage and green for the float stage

Those lights tell you most of what you need to know. Read this page. It explains the various stages of battery charging cycle encountered with a multi stage charger. I you have an AGM or GEL battery ignore the equalisation stage as it should only be used on flooded batteries.

Basically, when you switch the charger on it will start in the "bulk" stage. If your battery is flat this stage supplies most of (the bulk) of your battery charging. The charger then goes into the "absorption" stage. This finishes the charging with a lower current and allows the battery to settle down. When the charging is finished the charger switches to the "float" stage. This maintains the battery so it does not self discharge. Your charger will go through the stages of lights indication which stage the charger is operation in. When it gets to just the green light on the charger has finished charging, leave it switched on to maintain the battery.

HunnyBunny · Senior Member

Thank you all for your much appreciated answers to my query. This has helped me a lot. :)