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Author Topic: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.  (Read 3242 times)

roycv

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keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« on: September 14, 2019, 09:28:19 am »

Hi all looking for some support ideas etc.
We have 3 have a go RC boats for public use.  They share at the moment 8 off 6 volt lead acid batteries.  Keeping them separately charged up is getting to be a chore.  I was thinking of setting up a parallel set of connectors and plugging all the batteries in and putting them all on charge, a sort of float system.

Now should I use an intelligent charger or a standard charger and are there any safeguards to bear in mind?

I can see a situation where one battery gives up and might cause problems.

Any comments welcome.
Regards

Roy
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Stan

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2019, 09:52:14 am »

I not sure if this possible I would think all your batteries would have be in good condition. Just like NIMH batteries if one cell is down it affects the rest during the charging process this may be same for gel cell types. This his something I would not do personally  with out advice from battery manufactures and the charger suppliers. I am sure some of our wiz kids will give you the answer

Stan. {:-{ {:-{ {:-{ {:-{ {:-{ {:-{
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Colin Bishop

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2019, 10:18:46 am »

There seems to be quite a bit about this on the internet if you do a searcch. For example

https://sciencing.com/charge-12volt-lead-acid-batteries-7779535.html

In parallel each battery would simply take a proportion of the charging current and should not affect adjacent ones. I can't see that an intelligent charger would be any use unless all the batteries were in an exactly identical state of charge which is unlikely.

There are probably multiple output chargers available which might do the job or you could buy some of the cheap plug top automatic chargers and mount them in a trailing lead socket and connect each battery up individually.

As Stan says, no doubt one of our experts such as Malcolm will be able to give more accurate advice.

Colin
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DaveM

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john44

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2019, 12:44:52 pm »

Dave,Thanks for putting up the thread on parallel charging. A very informative interesting and easy to understand lesson.



John
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malcolmfrary

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2019, 07:45:56 pm »

In real life, huge great batteries were directly conected, but only when it was certain that the voltages were as near as possible the same.  In normal service, they floated in parallel, but were separated for routine cycling which was done as much as anything else to check that the intended capacity was actually there.  The cycling was very, very manual ("More power, Igor" style switches), with a traditional bit of panic about the back end of Friday.
A herd of SLA batteries should be no different, repeating the importance of checking that the voltage of each is the same as that of its mates.
Any differences will be averaged, so poor batteries will gain a bit of false voltage at the expence of the good ones.  When connected in parallel, I would anticipate the use of a nice dumb trickle charger, rather than anything smart and sudden.
Daves link is a good illustration of the need to consider evening out the distribution wiring resistances.
re colins comment - "ex" is roughly the Latin for "has been", - "spert" is late Anglo saxon for "drip under presuure".  So a good call.
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roycv

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2019, 10:44:35 pm »

Hi all, thank you very much for your comments, most appreciated.
I shall proceed with caution and was coming around to putting to use a 'dumb' as Malcolm puts it, 6 volt charger.  I need to make up a suitable tray and connectors and decide where to put them.  Too much out of the way and you would be unaware of any problems but on the other hand not in the way.

Perhaps to have a timer so that for safety they are only on charge during the day.
Thanks again,
Roy
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Paul2407

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Re: keeping Lead acid batteries charged.
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2020, 03:26:35 pm »

I charge all my batteries at once with my shed Solar power light system which has 2 x 12v car batteries as storage packs then I just add the model lead acid packs one at a time in parallel if I charge 6 of them they usually take around 10 hours to fully charge from empty from my 80W solar panel  :-))  and it's free  :}
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