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Old 10-08-2016, 03:39 PM   #1
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battery charging

Just winterized my 19 and took it out to storage. Picked the worst possible day, snow and freezing rain but what can you do when you live in the frozen north.

Anyway, took my dual six volt batteries out and jumpered them together to make 12V, then hooked up my "intelligent" battery charger.

It started at 12.4V and charging at about 6 amps, after 24 hours it is down to 1.5 amps and is up to 14.7 V. But battery condition says 90%. Should I call it quits there or keep going? Can I hurt the batteries if I keep it on too long? It is supposed to have a "conditioning" mode but don't know what that means.

Batteries were new in June 2016.

My plan was to charge the batteries up once a month over the winter. They are stored in my garage which will be above freezing all winter.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Old 10-08-2016, 04:29 PM   #2
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I always thought an intelligent charger knows when to reduce and when to add more, so I'd leave it plugged in, I used to do that with my Harley.
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Old 10-08-2016, 06:55 PM   #3
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The numbers show it's not done, I'd leave it charging. If you're worried about it check the fluid level before you start again. Any idea how low they were when you started?
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Old 10-09-2016, 02:25 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hughharden View Post
... took my dual six volt batteries out and jumpered them together to make 12V, then hooked up my "intelligent" battery charger.

It started at 12.4V and charging at about 6 amps, after 24 hours it is down to 1.5 amps and is up to 14.7 V. But battery condition says 90%. Should I call it quits there or keep going? Can I hurt the batteries if I keep it on too long? It is supposed to have a "conditioning" mode but don't know what that means.
I don't know what you're using to determine the battery condition, but the display of some chargers (such as the GoPower solar charge controller used by Escape) doesn't really show the state of charge. In the GoPower case (as explained in the manual), it start to show 90%
when a certain voltage level is reached, and continues to display a fixed value of 90% for state of charge even though the battery continues to charge, until the Boost or Equalization cycle is complete (based on time).
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Old 10-09-2016, 05:23 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian B-P View Post
I don't know what you're using to determine the battery condition, but the display of some chargers (such as the GoPower solar charge controller used by Escape) doesn't really show the state of charge. In the GoPower case (as explained in the manual), it start to show 90%
when a certain voltage level is reached, and continues to display a fixed value of 90% for state of charge even though the battery continues to charge, until the Boost or Equalization cycle is complete (based on time).

The charger has a setting to display the condition. It goes to 90% then stalls out there, I think I will just stop there and charge it up once a month during the winter.
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