RadioBanter - View Single Post

January 27th 05, 04:13 AM

wrote:

Is it bad to leave a charger hooked up to the battery permanently.
Mine
is a 12/2 with automatic operation.

No. Thats the whole point of the "automatic" charger. The old style
"trickle"
chargers should not be left on past full charge for long periods.
I use a 12/2 automatic, and it's on 24/7. But, same for my 706. It's
usually
on 24/7...I bought it in 2001, and it probably hasn't had a full weeks
rest
since then...When a "12v" battery thats on a charger reaches appx 14.4
volts, it's
fully charged. If you unplug the charger, or if automatic cut off, the
voltage
will drop down to about 13.8v. When it drops much lower than that, the
charger
kicks back on, charges to appx 14.4v, and cuts off...Over and
over..This manner
of charging won't hurt a battery, and can be left on all day if you
want.
A trickle charger reaches 14.4, and keeps charging, but with a lower
current
level. It won't hurt it for short periods of time, but after a while,
the battery
overheats, and thats when you start boiling off electrolyte...How bad
depends on
the charge rate...A 1 amp or less trickle charge is not near as bad as
a 3-5
amp trickle charge to a fully charged battery. But after switching to
automatic,
I could never go back to the old style manual chargers...With those,
sometimes
I would forget to cut them off...And sometimes, I would cut them off,
and forget
to plug back in, and eventually, have a dead battery...Thats worse than
overcharging..
MK