Battery chargers

[dotnmarty]

What's the difference between a trickle charger and a float charger? Can I use either on my stored batteries?

[lloyds]

I have to guess but I would say a trickle charger is a constant, but very low amperage charge, where a float charge is controlled by a sensor that pulses according to level of charge existing in the battery.

[jkidd]

The trickle charger will charge the battery to a full charge at a very small current. The float charger will charge the battery to just below full charge. The float charger can be left on all the time if the battery is in good condition. If the batteries can no longer be brought to a full charge then either charger should not be left on full time. Batteries will dissipate there charge just sitting lead acid 10 percent per month and AGM 1 to 2 percent per month. The best thing would be to store them in a cool place and charge them once or twice a month.

[Overload]

It's been some time since I have posted, but thought I would take a minute to pass on some information that our tax money has provided to deal with this situation.

Having been in the fire service for many years, we have ALWAYS had a significant problem with the electrical systems on our complex pieces of apparatus (fire trucks/ambulances/etc). The single largest problem has been batteries (charging/being dead) and usually at the WRONG TIME.

Nationally our fleet managers, mechanics and the folks who teach electrical systems have come up with a system that is proving to be very successful. In lieu of specifying very expensive charger/conditioners on apparatus, they are starting to switch to a good quality trickle charger. The secret to the operation is to control this trickle charger with a good outdoor timer, such as those used for christmas lights or other outdoor lighting. Those organizations that have made this change over have almost eliminated the over charging and dead battery problems. Even better, the cost is significantly less than a several hundred dollar battery conditioner. I just wish I had known about this a year ago and I would have saved those several hundred dollars !

My .02 worth and good luck!

Doug
Lil' Brother

[Doryman]

[jkidd]

Doug
That is just what I do Except I use a Sprinkler timer and a Relay. I set it to run 1 hour a week. I just use a 6 amp 3 stage boat battery charger. When the timer goes off the charger will start at 6 amps and then switch down to the maintenance mode and then the sprinkler timer shuts off. Then in a week the whole process starts over. My timer is just mounted on a piece of scrap wood with 120 volt outlet. I can use it for the boat or the camp trailer.

[Overload]

Warren,

After talking with our department mechanic who was involved in one of the seminars regarding this, he stated that the "on time" had been an evolutionary process based on the frequency of use by each particular apparatus. But, it sounds like a couple of hours per day was being used fairly frequently. As for our boats, most of them sit for many days without use, like some fire trucks in remote fire stations and would take some monitoring over several months to find what timing cycle would work best.

Again, good luck.

Doug
[/i]Lil' Brother

[thataway]

I have used the trickle charger with a 24 hour appliance timer for a number of years--both on boats and RV's in storage. Works great. We run about 3 hours a day.