Rapid BAttery Charger - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

jbm · 09-16-2010, 06:59 PM

A 1.0C charge is appropriate for most battery chemistries, including Sealed Lead Acid. If you have a 10 amp-hour battery, a 1.0C charge is 10 amps. As Scallywag said, just because you have a 10 amp charger doesn't mean you will get 10 amps during the whole charge cycle. But if you have a 2 amp charger, you are guaranteed you will never get more than 2 amps because the electronics inside it will limit it to that.

The life of the battery is more affected by how the charge is terminated and with lead acid how far you discharge and at what charge level you store your batteries. With cheap battery chargers, the charge termination detection may not be great, and it will overheat the battery which will definitely shorten its life. That's why I said monitor the temperature of the battery. But the stated goal was as fast a charge as possible to minimize generator run time.

If you connect your battery to another battery for charging, it will certainly work. But you won't get a full charge and it won't be fast and you'll be relying on the internal resistance of the battery and connections to limit how much current you put into that battery. If it is very depleted it will likely start heating up pretty quickly. If I recall correctly, lead acid has very low internal resistance.

09-16-2010, 06:59 PM	#13
jbm Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Escondido<->Carlsbad Posts: 81	A 1.0C charge is appropriate for most battery chemistries, including Sealed Lead Acid. If you have a 10 amp-hour battery, a 1.0C charge is 10 amps. As Scallywag said, just because you have a 10 amp charger doesn't mean you will get 10 amps during the whole charge cycle. But if you have a 2 amp charger, you are guaranteed you will never get more than 2 amps because the electronics inside it will limit it to that. The life of the battery is more affected by how the charge is terminated and with lead acid how far you discharge and at what charge level you store your batteries. With cheap battery chargers, the charge termination detection may not be great, and it will overheat the battery which will definitely shorten its life. That's why I said monitor the temperature of the battery. But the stated goal was as fast a charge as possible to minimize generator run time. If you connect your battery to another battery for charging, it will certainly work. But you won't get a full charge and it won't be fast and you'll be relying on the internal resistance of the battery and connections to limit how much current you put into that battery. If it is very depleted it will likely start heating up pretty quickly. If I recall correctly, lead acid has very low internal resistance.