What settings to use when charging a lead acid battery?
 

Just checking to see what settings I would use to charge a 12V 7Ah lead acid battery. Can I just set my Hitec multi charger to 12V and 7 Ah or should it be something else?

I have used my Hitec X2 charger to charge my lead acid battery.. Just set it to the lead acid (Pb) setting, then set it for 6s (12 Volts) and if your charger is like mine, it won't go any higher than 5 amps.. Even then, it will only charge the battery at the rate that the charger decides is best for your battery.. Personally, I wouldn't charge my lead acid battery any higher than C/10 in your case, I wouldn't charge a 7 Ah cell any higher than .7Ah, 1Ah Max!!

Craig.

Yes, definitely set the charger to the Pb (lead) setting. I've charged many Power Wheels 6v & 12v batteries over the years with my "RC" battery charger; not to mention the battery in my full sized truck also. The overnight charger thing just wasn't cutting it for me or my kids. Depending on how fast you want to charge your battery will determine what amperage you want to use. Having used an 80's huge clunker automotive charger (borrowed) to do the work, before I acquired my LiPo/multi chemistry chargers in 2010, there were only two settings on the "automotive" battery charger...2amps and 6amps. That being said, I've never gone over 6 amps when charging my Pb batteries, and that was when my truck wouldn't start; I was in a hurry to get to work :p. If unsure, a conservative setting is usually better for the longevity of the battery. The Power Wheels batteries I only charge @ 1~4amps with having checked the first couple of times to be sure they were not getting warm during charging. A 6v Pb battery peak voltage, at the end of charge, should be around 7.3v, and a 12v Pb battery will be around 14.7v after a peak charge.

Great. Thanks for the information!

On gell cells are any sealed Pb battery; limit the charge rate to 0.1C. They do not like a fast charge. Always recharge as soon as the loaded voltage falls to 11.9 volts on a 12 volt battery. Deep discharge kills them fast as does to fast a charge.

Lets see - -
An automotive Pb battery is about 13.6v or so at full charge Maximum charging voltage is about 14.6-14.7v
The charge rate is usually no more than a few amps if the maximum charge voltage is observed.
The charge current might be 6A, then reduce to an amp or below during charging.
A 7AH PB should have a maximum charge rate of 700mah or so.

It's also useful to remember that an automotive battery can be used as a load during Lipo discharge to storage.
The PB will only accept up to about a 6A rate, due to the voltage limit for safe charging.
So, about 80-90 watts is the safe charge rate limit for the PB battery.