Trickle charger problem?

Maine Sail · Dec 21, 2011

DAVA390 said:
As some of you may know or emember, over last winter I repaired the lights on my Precision 18 i bought summer 2010. I bouhgt a new trickle charge/maintainer and a new riding mower 12v battery at Sears. Over the course of this summer, probably 3 times on a Sunday morning i would hook up the charger while i was fooling around with reapirs, cleaning etc. prior to mid day launch after the Admiral and various grandkids arrive after church. Every time, the indicator lights on the charger would go from flashing yellow (charging) to green (charged) in less than 2 hours. Not much use on the batteries, occaisional nightsaling back to the marina after dinner out.
Now, last trip out, bring boat home was end of October. Since then , the battery has been on the wooden workbench in the basement until about 10 days ago when I was able to clean up the workbench. Th workbench had been our kitchen since mid September while we completed our "It should take about a month" kitchen remodel ,( this is a whole `nother Dscribner style story). I plugged the battery in 10 days ago, It has been flashing "charging " ever since. Is this an unreasonable time to charge?, or is charger bad? No way battery could be bad after sitting in warm basement 2 Months! Discuss. Thanks, Dave

Dave,

A few thoughts:

1- We really need more info to help. Amp output of trickle charger, voltage set points, size of battery in Ah's, age of battery, type of battery eg: starting, deep cycle, AGM wet cell etc..

2- A warm basement with no charge for two months is bad for a battery. It also may not have been put there when fully charged making this even worse..? Heat = bad & Cold = good for batteries in terms of longevity, self discharge and sulfation. The warmer the temps the more "self discharge" the battery will have. With self discharge, and lower than full states of charge, the battery will both stratify and begin to sulfate. Neither of these are good for the battery. In cold temps, like outdoors in a Northern winter, the effects of self discharge & sulfation slow dramatically.

3- The self discharge on wet cell batteries can range from 1% to over 50% per month depending upon temperature, age, internal chemistry and other factors. A wet cell battery stored at 95° F will self-discharge about twice as fast than one stored at 75° F so even small changes in temp can have dramatic effects on the battery. As you get colder and colder self discharge almost stops. If storing in a house or heated space you'll want to top off about every two to three weeks.

Maine Sail · Dec 21, 2011

That battery is only about 18-20 amp hours in capacity. Therefore a 2A charger should be able to charge it to full, from absolute dead, in about 30 hours +/-. If only discharged to 50% it should take 12-14 hours or so.

That battery is not designed for deep cycling and I suspect it may be toast if the charger won't show it's full.

Disconnect it from the charger for 24 hours and then test the voltage with a DVM..

caguy · Dec 21, 2011

If you have an Autozone there they will throw it on their charger and then load test it.

Bill Roosa · Dec 22, 2011

Or check the individual cells. One of them is probably bubbling like mad cause it is shorted. You can confirm this with a volt meter after letting the battery set for about an hour, measure between the negative terminal and the electrolite (don't probe the plates!!!) in the negative end cell. Note the voltage (2is volts), then measure the next cell down by probing the electrolite in each cell, note the voltage. Continue for all 6 cells and if one is shorted it will show as a significantly lower (almost 0) voltage.

Ron20324 · Dec 22, 2011

DAVA390 said:
Trickle charger Sears DieHard 2A/12v 4A/6v

Hhmmm.. I don't believe I'd consider 2 amps a "trickle" charger. Trickles would be less than a volt- down in the milliamp range- which could be left on continuosly if need be. Guest makes such a unit, or use to.

Benny17441 · Dec 22, 2011

Take the battery to an auto parts retailer and have it tested. They can determine the state of charge, the condition of the cells and wether it can adequately handle a load. Some stores can give you a little computer printout with the results. If the battery flunks, get a new one. Some batteries last a year and some last 4+ years its kind of pot luck that is why the cost and quality of a battery is largely judged by the terms and length of its warranty. If the battery is given a clean bill of health then the charger is no good or the indicator lights are malfunctioning. Next time you run into a good deal for a charger just get it for backup.

Big Windy · Dec 23, 2011

I have not read all 11 posts, but if you get a good, 'smart' charger, you plug it in, keep the batteries up to snuff with water and you are done. Your batteries will not be fried, will not be undercharged, they will be maintained as intended...and there is no need for a "trickle charger" "battery tender" or any other kind of charger.

Maine Sail · Dec 23, 2011

Big Windy said:
I have not read all 11 posts, but if you get a good, 'smart' charger, you plug it in, keep the batteries up to snuff with water and you are done. Your batteries will not be fried, will not be undercharged, they will be maintained as intended...and there is no need for a "trickle charger" "battery tender" or any other kind of charger.

The OP is using a $35.00+/- lawn tractor battery on an 18 footer and a quality charger would cost a lot more than he may be willing to spend on a $35.00 battery.. If he buys a decent deep cyle battery, which would be beter suited and last longer than a garden tractor battery, then he'll do well with a good quality marine smart charger. Many so called "smart chargers" are not worth the corrugated cardboard they ship in so one needs to buy carefully when spending money on a charger..

Maine Sail · Dec 23, 2011

DAVA390 said:
Ok guys, here is an update. I took the battery to work today and turned it over to the shop foreman. Company repairs it `s own Construction equipment, dump trucks etc. According to his tester, it is still good. We then hooked it up to the big manly sized more power charger in the shop for an hour or so. (I`m not sure what he had the timerset for, i had to go to a meeting.
Minutes ago, (8:11 East Coast) I again hooked it up to the "DieHard Battery Charger & Maintainer". The orange "Charging" light is glowing, but not flashing quickly as it was before. I`ll watch this tonight, see if it switches to Green "Charged". The shop foreman thinks the battery is good, charger might be out of wack. If I can`t get this resolved this winter, I will buy a deep cell and good charger this spring,or maybe investigate solar. Certainly no rush and I can drop hints to Admiral about my April Birthday!

Dave,

Forgot to mention this before because I did not assume your battery may have been that deeply discharged, but your charger is likely fine. Many inexpensive small or trickle chargers have a low voltage cut off where they won't charger the battery if the battery voltage is too low.

With price competition many manufacturers skimp on internal circuitry and heat sinking so these small chargers can not be used, and are not intended to be used, to charge batteries from completely dead to full. Doing so would likely cause harm and shorten the life of the charger in terms of over heating. They are usually intended to simply maintain a battery and not necessarily "charge" it. While they will charge it, slowly, they don't like to do it from "dead" and often have a low voltage cut off...

Your guy at work put enough into so that your charger can take up where it left off. I would guess you'll see the green light by morning.