Thread: Battery Fighter - thanks Drivesafe!

Dan. why were your batteries down to 80% after the workout they should have gotten on Sunday???
Regards
Glen

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

Dan. why were your batteries down to 80% after the workout they should have gotten on Sunday???
Regards
Glen

I don't think this is indicating the batteries are actually 20% undercharged - from a graph I have showing the unit's operation, see page 2 ....

http://www.master-instruments.com.au...plaination.pdf

The 80% recharge point (as observed on my charger by the red constant and green flashing light) can be seen to be actually at 14.4 Volts across the battery terminals. My battery voltage was 12.72 volts when I got home from work on Monday before hooking up the battery fighter. So it was to all intents and purposes, fully charged - the charger is taking the battery to 100% absolute full charge by doing what is described above and in the graph.

PS - the initial discovery of the low battery voltage was prior to our trip last Sunday!

Good stuff

As discussed on Sunday I have a battery fighter (same as yours) and a projecta battery charger that I recently fitted to the defender.

Our defender doesn't generally get driven as much as it should do - and we were having flat batteries after 3 weeks due to our ERPS system and normal vehicle standby load. Clearly it's not good flattening batteries, and at $300 a pop you don't need that.

So I have fitted the little charger to the roof about the defender. I then just plug it into my permanent 12v power under the back seat and then put a old bottle on the dash so I don't forget it and drive off with it plugged in. So far, it's now plain sailing with no more no-go's and hopefully the batteries will live much longer.

I have the battery fighter on our lotus with of late has been lucky to drive once a year. Still, its battery is kept charged enough to start the cranky old high compression engine. The only annoying thing is that occasionally you need to top the water in the battery (it's not sealed) which requires removal. Still, the battery is still in good condition and it's three years old and still going.

I would recommend either for cars that are driven only occasionally, or under-driven.

Am wondering whether it would be overkill for Daisy and Onslow as they don't get driven at all regularly but then again they don't have any mini computers etc draining the battery when they are idle. At the moment on Daisy, I use a small solar panel that chucks out around (perhaps 'chucks out' isn't the best choice of words here) 1.6amps or so when and if the sun shines and that seems to work at the moment, whilst Onslow just sits in the shed and mopes, waiting for his twice yearly outing!
There is of course quite a lot of similarity between Grover and Daisy and Onslow, they all have the the oval sign at least although mine don't have green ovals!
Glen

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

Am wondering whether it would be overkill for Daisy and Onslow as they don't get driven at all regularly but then again they don't have any mini computers etc draining the battery when they are idle. At the moment on Daisy, I use a small solar panel that chucks out around (perhaps 'chucks out' isn't the best choice of words here) 1.6amps or so when and if the sun shines and that seems to work at the moment, whilst Onslow just sits in the shed and mopes, waiting for his twice yearly outing!
There is of course quite a lot of similarity between Grover and Daisy and Onslow, they all have the the oval sign at least although mine don't have green ovals!
Glen

I for one, am very proud of the similarity between your wonderful Land Rovers and mine - and I appreciate you putting Grover in the same league as the magnificent Daisy!

But I don't think it would be overkill at all for you to get one of these devices for Onslow - if you're finding, as I suspect you would, that you require a jump start to get Onslow moving. As I'm sure you are aware, letting the battery discharge over a long time period is not ideal - the battery fighter can remain hooked up and on indefinitely, so it would not only guarantee you have charge to crank but would also prolong your battery's life. Hey - if it means Onslow gets out more often, I'll buy you one!

They are pretty reasonably priced, I'd have thought.

Thanks Scallops, and folks, while I normally stick to what I make, I have had some many enquires about battery charging for 4x4s and caravan/camper trailer batteries while they are not in use that I am going to be stocking some 240 vac battery chargers.

I’ve used a Projector 10 amp 3 battery multi stage charger for the last 5 years and while it does the job, a little over 2 years ago I bought a 3.5 amp Power Tech Plus battery charger and I’ve been pretty impressed with it’s performance to the point that a few months back, I bought the 7 amp version to keep my Z200 200 A/H Ag batteries maintained.

I did some test and have found that, while the projector has kept these batteries charged, I have been doing some product development over the last 6 months and have been using the 200 A/H batteries a fair bit. These batteries are now over 5 years old and were down to a bit under 80% capacity when fully recharged.

Anyway, long story short, after a few recharge cycles, I’ve found that the two 200 A/H batteries being charged by the 7 amp Power Tech Plus battery charger have now got nearly 90% of their original capacity while the other two 200 A/H batteries being charged by the Projector are still at around 80%.

You can get these battery chargers from Jaycar and Altronics but I’m that impressed with these battery chargers that I am now going to carry them in stock and should be able to sell them at a good price.

So if anybody is thinking about buying a battery charger, drop me a PM, because I won’t be putting these up on my site for while.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Thanks Scallops, and folks, while I normally stick to what I make, I have had some many enquires about battery charging for 4x4s and caravan/camper trailer batteries while they are not in use that I am going to be stocking some 240 vac battery chargers.

I’ve used a Projector 10 amp 3 battery multi stage charger for the last 5 years and while it does the job, a little over 2 years ago I bought a 3.5 amp Power Tech Plus battery charger and I’ve been pretty impressed with it’s performance to the point that a few months back, I bought the 7 amp version to keep my Z200 200 A/H Ag batteries maintained.

I did some test and have found that, while the projector has kept these batteries charged, I have been doing some product development over the last 6 months and have been using the 200 A/H batteries a fair bit. These batteries are now over 5 years old and were down to a bit under 80% capacity when fully recharged.

Anyway, long story short, after a few recharge cycles, I’ve found that the two 200 A/H batteries being charged by the 7 amp Power Tech Plus battery charger have now got nearly 90% of their original capacity while the other two 200 A/H batteries being charged by the Projector are still at around 80%.

You can get these battery chargers from Jaycar and Altronics but I’m that impressed with these battery chargers that I am now going to carry them in stock and should be able to sell them at a good price.

So if anybody is thinking about buying a battery charger, drop me a PM, because I won’t be putting these up on my site for while.

Would I be correct to assume that these higher amperage chargers you mention (mine is only 1.25A) are designed to recharge a "flat" battery, whilst my battery fighter is more to maintain a reasonably charged battery that gets only occasional use?

What I like about the battery fighter, which is just a fluke really, is that it produces 1.25 Amps and has an 72 hour timer. My battery is 90Ah! So even if it was fully discharged, in theory, it might still charge it. Further to this, I gather that the lower amperage charging characteristics of the battery fighter will lead to my battery being recharged slowly, which I understand is also optimal.

Originally Posted by Scallops

Would I be correct to assume that these higher amperage chargers you mention (mine is only 1.25A) are designed to recharge a "flat" battery, whilst my battery fighter is more to maintain a reasonably charged battery that gets only occasional use?

What I like about the battery fighter, which is just a fluke really, is that it produces 1.25 Amps and has an 72 hour timer. My battery is 90Ah! So even if it was fully discharged, in theory, it might still charge it. Further to this, I gather that the lower amperage charging characteristics of the battery fighter will lead to my battery being recharged slowly, which I understand is also optimal.

Actually slow charging does have it's problems. I understand it can lead to a build up of sulphur on the plates. The small chargers tend to have a pulse cycle to try and limit this problem.

The key thing about these automatic chargers is that when the battery is fully charged or close to full they drop the charge back so as to not fry or boil the batteries dry. They call this a float charge and it is about 13.5 ish. This level of charge doesn't charge the battery, but nor does it allow it to flatten.

Yes, small chargers will charge batteries from flat, but it will take days. Say they are actually putting in 1 amp so you're doing 24 amps a day. If you've got a 90 amp battery it should take 4 days.