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Old 18-10-2020, 06:31 AM
astro744
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astro744 is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,244
Note charging a 12V battery can be done with any charger but maintaining battery health and longevity requires a multistage or smart charger. Such a charger will switch to trickle mode to reduced excess hydrogen and oxygen production requiring activation of the pressure release and loss of electrolyte. A smart charger will also boost charge rate when required to prevent under charging and lead sulphate crystals forming on the plates.

Here is some info: https://www.silvertel.com/images/tec..._batteries.pdf

Now the above applies to SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries. I am not sure on best practice for Lithium batteries and I recommend you search the web or perhaps someone else an answer. Note too the initial (bulk) charge rate is important and must not be too high but it does depend on battery type.

I have both a C-tek 2A charger permanently hooked up to a battery box housing a couple of motorcycle batteries giving me 4x 12v ports as well as 1x 18v port for my Losmandy Gemini I. (This was well built by the former owner but I find it a bit heavy). I’ll get a trolley for it one day but in the meantime I got 2x 12V 9Ah deep cycle SLA on Amazon that I hooked up to an OzCharge 8A charger, (set to 2A) in parallel. (I use one for my ‘scopes and I was going to replace a UPS battery with the other but the 9Ah is about 2mm too thick!). (Amazon had the 9Ah for $26 and the 7Ah for $34). I keep both on charge in parallel when not in use.
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