MetallicaJunkie

How do you all charger your 12 volt sealed batteries? http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXL370&P=ML

Campgems

Two ways. First, I had a couple old Motorola Flip phones, I mean old. and the wall wart for them put out something like 14Vdc at 500ma. WALa a charger. the other is a simple 2amp charger for the auto store. Either work, just don't forget to take them off after about 12 hours and don't charge untill you notice your starter motor not pulling like it should.

Don

mclina

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXL353&P=M

I just use one of these, but I think mine might be the Hangar 9 version. I probably plug it in 2-3 times per year, max.

rgm762

My Feedback: (4)

i use the wal wart in mclina's post, but you should know those are trickle chargers, 600mah, i use my triton for faster charge

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXVZA8&P=0

Insanemoondoggie

I use aBatteryMINDer http://www.thebatteryminder.com/12v1...29.htmlcharger . the kind use to keep battery,s fresh over the winter on my motorcycles. Been using it to charge the same battery for the last 4 years.
Or this one http://www.thebatteryminder.com/12v1...nder-p-29.html but the one I had did not work as well as the Battery MINDer

goirish

I don't have a motorcycle but can I still use this.

Insanemoondoggie

Goirish , this come in handy up here in the frozen waste land . I have lots of toyz that need the batterys maintained over the winter, I have 4 of them ,that I rotate on the motorecycles, boat , 4 wheeler and trucks. I dont drive my Tahoe in the salt in the winter but leave a battery tender on it , the Battery in it is 8 yr.s old and shows no signs of dieing any time soon. lol They pay for themselfs in the first winter.
HarborFreight has them for under 10 bucks , but I never bought ant thing electronic off them.

Rodney

Your battery will last a lot longer if you use a battery minder (many different choices and brands). The two quickest ways to ruin an SLA or any Pb battery is to deep discharge it (pull it down below 11.7 volts under load) or to over charge it. That means that your charger should have two characteristics, voltage limit and current limit. On SLA's you should never charge at a rate over 0.1C (that means 700 ma for most batteries you find in the typical modelers box:7AMPH units) with a max output voltage of 14.7 volts. Visit Red's battery clinic for some very good advice on how to care for you batteries.

ro347

My Feedback: (13)

I USE THE TOWER CHARGER ABOVE.

MetallicaJunkie

so using a car charger isnt a good idea then? i think i need to buy a batteryminder

would this work? http://store.schumachermart.com/mc-1.html im all about saving money .... i have 2 hobbico batteries wired in parallel

bruce88123

Not good. Most car chargers are too powerful. Nice easy charge like from the wall-wart above or a battery tender is best. Also DO let the battery run down a little and DON"T charge too often. I charge maybe once a month (wall-Wart) overnight and then unhook.

bruce88123

It should be OK but follow the charging limits above. And always charge both batteries together.

tmb55

Sealed lead acid batteries are pretty forgiving. #1 rule is not to run flat. IMO it just don't much matter, get a cigar lighter plug and hook direct to your car. ( that is what your car battery is and how long does it last?). Have it hooked up while your car is running on the way to work every day +/- and you'll be fine.

Rodney

If you are using the proper charger, you can not overcharge. If in doubt," charge" as that won't hurt anything but not charging and letting the battery drop to far will damage it. In short, you can not overcharge with the proper charger but you can sure ruin the battery by not charging often enough.

Mikecam

http://store.schumachermart.com/sem-1562a.html This would be better. Charger and maintainer. You can leave it hooked up all the time. I have one similar and when I unpack my stuff in my hobby room I just plug in my charger/maintainer. If I fly the next day it is ready, if i fly next month it is ready.

The one your showing says manual on it, you want an automatic, for maintaining or also called float charging.

aerofly0610

I was under the impression that unless its a deep cycle lead acid you are supposed to keep it topped off or risk shortening its life. Is that not correct?

rgm762

My Feedback: (4)

see if i can make a long story short, and make sense, lead/acid batteries rely on a chemical reaction between the lead plates and acid in order to make electricty, as the lead plates absores the acid you lose chg, thats how they work, when you chg your battery all your doing is seperating the lead and acid to keep he reaction going, allowing the lead to countionulsy "soak up" with acid will shorten your battery life. will no longer be able to get seperation, these batteries are the same as whats in your car, just not near as many amps, so yea you should keep them fully charged for a longer life

aerofly0610

Ok so I did a bit of research on that.... starter batteries have thin plates so they provide high current for starting, but will become damaged when deeply discharged. Deep cycle bats have thicker plates, thus reducing current but allows deep discharging without destroying the battery. Also its better to slow charge lead acid to get a fuller charge.

rgm762

My Feedback: (4)

you are correct, plus the more plates/size, the more amps. to understand charging, current flows out the positive side, to recharge, you send the current backwards through the battery forcing the acid out of the plates, the slower you do this, the better , kind of like digging in a sand pile, you can dig fast, but sand will fall back in the hole and after a few minutes you have something of a hole dug, the sand falling back in the hole is like the acid going back into the plates, but if you dig the hole slow and easy, sand doesn't fall back in as fast, takes longer, but you have a bigger hole and the sand isn't falling in as fast, does this make any sense?

Tom Nied

Sounds right. Makes me want to dig out the manual/instructions for the battery minder that I use on the motor cycles.

I took a look at what I use. I have the Hobbico 12 volt wall wart that puts out 12 volts 600ma. I use that most of the time giving my fieldbox a good overnight charge and that lasts a long time.

I have used my Schumacher Battery companion that I keep my motorcycle battery charged but it puts out 12 volts at 1.5 A. http://store.schumachermart.com/sem-1562a.html But the good thing about the Battery Companion is that it will switch to "float mode".

Both have worked well for me. The negative reviews are usually when somebody tries to bring back to life a battery that is shot.

rgm762

My Feedback: (4)

that charger will work fine, main thing to remember is that even keeping a full charge in the battery, lead/acid batteries have a short life span anyway, on avg, I'd say two to three years