On Sun, 24 Apr 2016 07:55:52 -0500, Ignoramus7945
<ignora...@NOSPAM.7945.invalid> wrote:
Nope. Over the years, I've found cause to blame the battery, the
owner, the dealer, and the charger. Sometimes, it's bad combinations
of the two. For example, the charger clearly says that it's for
lead-acid flooded batteries, but the owner insists that it should
charge an AGM or Gel type battery. I've lost count of how many times
I've run into people trying to charge batteries that are obviously
dead, leaking, or dry. Sometimes (not often) the chargers are just
plain junk:
<
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dead-battery-chargers.html>
As I vaguely recall, all but one of these blew up in service. The one
that survived and another that was not in the photo, were
pre-emptively replaced.
Smart chargers are actually better than crude chargers because they
take the decision making responsibility away from the owner. Plug it
in, walk away, and it's done. In 95% of the situations, that's fine
and will work as advertised. However, you can get into situations
where a smart charger can be fooled and will screw up. For example,
it can't tell the difference between a shorted battery and a totally
discharged battery. In order to protect itself (from fire and
liability lawsuits), smart chargers refuse to charge such batteries.
Yet, the battery is still good, but needs to be brought up slowly
until the smarts in the smart charger decides that it's worthy of
charging. If this is your problem, you can buy a charger that will do
that automagically, or you can bring it up slooooowly with a simple
trickle charger until the smart charger is happy. There are other
situations that might cause problems, but I don't want to burn the
time right now.
You can also create problems by having the battery and charger at
different temperatures or using corroded or rotten battery leads. Both
of these can fool a smart charger.
With the LiIon family of batteries, you have no choice in chargers.
It's going to be a smart charger or forget about charging. Lots of
reasons but the big one is that one tiny mistake with a LiIon type
battery and it's toast or you start a fire. Again, the smart charger
takes the decision away from the owner. LiIon also adds the need to
use a "balance charger", which equalizes the voltage of each cell.
"Equalization" can also done with flooded lead-acid cells if they get
out of balance, but for LiIon, methinks it's a necessity. Of course,
a balance charge requires a smart charger.
Basically, you have to evaluate each battery, battery charger, and
user combination together. If one part doesn't fit well, it's not
going to work. For example, you can have the worlds best battery and
smart charger, but if the owner doesn't follow the instructions, it's
unlikely to work. If you do decide to do your own thing, ask yourself
"are you really smarter than the smart charger"?
--
Jeff Liebermann
je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS
831-336-2558