Len Salisbury Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 What is the difference in chargers that specify for lead acid batteries only? Will any charger do to charge Gel type or vice versa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 No. If a charger is for flooded lead acid only, it is unsuitable for AGM or gel. The Voltages supplied to the battery vary according to battery type. Most purpose designed charger/power pack devices are switch-able for lead-acid or gel, and must be set accordingly to avoid damaging the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 I would suggest that Brian is talking about the ideal and is correct for fully optimised chargers. i.e. a charger optimised for Gel will have the voltages that get the best from a Gel battery. Therefore an AGM optimised battery charger will quickly damage a Gel battery. However, there are Wet Acid chargers available that can support most Lead battery types, including Gel, but the output voltage will be a compromise. The output ( say a fixed 13.8v charger) is designed to not directly damage different battery technology types, but it won't get the best out of them either. In reality they do tend to damage the batteries indirectly, over time, as they often don't get them fully charged. With this type of charger, especially if it is the typical 10A version knocking around, some batteries won't get above 80% charged. I assume you are asking as you are about to buy a charger? If so when choosing a charger look for one that is big enough to get the battery bank fully charged, usually 1/10th the battery bank size. For example a 18a charger will work well with a 180Ah battery bank. A 7amp charger should not be asked to maintain a bank bigger than about 70Ah, etc. There is a lot of confusion about this because you will see some Car Battery chargers with a 3amp rating advertised as 'being suitable' for a battery up to 110Ah. A car battery charger is not about optimising a battery to 100% of its capability, it is about getting the battery to a position it will start an engine, about a 75% charge. But not necessarily enough oomph to fully charge a Motorhome Habitation battery bank to 100%. Also bear in mind that a car battery charger does not always have blocking diodes so you have to remove the leads once you switch off 240v otherwise the charger saps back the charge it has just applied, eventually running the battery back down. A Motorhome habitation charger will not draw back the power applied to the battery so can remain connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 aandncaravan - 2015-08-26 3:04 PM I would suggest that Brian is talking about the ideal and is correct for fully optimised chargers. i.e. a charger optimised for Gel will have the voltages that get the best from a Gel battery.......................................... Sort of! :-D I know Len already has a motorhome (2009 Autocruise PVC), and was trying to give him a simple answer on the basis that his van will already have an on-board charger unit. I took his question to relate to the necessity to set the charger to a regime appropriate to whatever battery type is already installed (most probably gel or flooded lead-acid), or possibly to the regime appropriate to whatever battery type he may be considering installing as a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Salisbury Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 I have bought a battery for my Honda Goldwing 1800 cc and had to put the acid x2 acid pack into the battery and then charged it overnight. I have put it on the bike and it fired up the engine. Sorry if I mislead you but was enquireing having seen read about the chargers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Len, Glad to see you were sensible enough to charge it overnight. In my younger days I got the same type of Battery for my Suzuki GSXR1100 from a Dealers, put it straight on the bike and rode about 50 miles. I thought the subsequent swollen battery case was from a faulty battery, not my failure to fully charge it slowly before use!! Then did the same with an RF900 a few years later, but the results a bit more dramatic. That's when I found out the importance of a gentle charge before use to get it to full!!. Until then I had always assumed a new battery was fully charged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TannBovet Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 This is not valid. The charger made for flooded lead acid only, it will not work for AGM and gel.Most purpose designed charger/power pack devices are switch-able for lead-acid or gel, and must be set accordingly to avoid damaging the battery. The Voltages supplied to the battery vary according to battery type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 I think you are talking about an ideal World where chargers have optimised battery settings, such as for AGM? Not all Motorhome Lead Acid 'wet' battery chargers are optimised for a wet battery. They sometimes have compromise settings that might charge a Gel battery, but depending on the voltages it may not get the best from it. There are many different manufacturer Motorhome/Caravan battery chargers of varying capabilities, few follow your ideal World. For example you will find that the Sargent EC500 claims to be "compatible with the latest range of Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM) batteries". Despite the claim it is not able to charge AGM batteries at the 14.7v most AGM's like. According to version 2 of the manual it is, "configured to work with standard lead acid leisure batteries". If you check out the charging voltages it is actually a compromise of three technology types Wet, Gel and AGM, yet is optimal for none. It won't directly damage a battery either. If it did have a 3 position switch with optimisation for each type, someone would swap the technology of the battery and not change the switch, with a potentially exploding battery. Someone else would ask, "why does it have to be so complicated?". Sargent are just playing a middle field. Prior to 2008 a common Motorhome fitment in the UK was a fixed voltage 13.5v charger of just 10amps that claimed 'to be compatible with all Lead Acid batteries', when quite clearly it was not optimised to get the best from any Lead Acid battery. We came across one in June 2015 fitted in a 2014 Motorhome. You are making the assumption that a wet acid charger will have optimised wet settings, when some have a compromise just in case someone decides to connect a Gel battery. Or vice versa. You are right that many purpose designed Chargers will have optimised switchable settings, but these tend to be Car Battery based units designed around varying technology batteries. Not one of the Motorhome designed Power Supply/Chargers currently installed by the big manufacturers is optimised for anything other than Wet or Gel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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