smart battery chargers

Tries doing searches,getting "403 error" messages,so.......

does anyone have experience of multi stage battery chargers ? I have been reading up on the claims the manufacturers make and am interested in some real life opinions of people who have used them.

The analysis and desulphator functions are very desireable,if they do what is claimed,as are the float charge maintainance. From what I gather the minimum that one would want is a 4 stage,preferably 6 and for christmas 8....all dependent on what functions the stages represent.

So - anyone got one?Bought one,used one?Threw one away? What brands?Models? I have the circuit diagrams to build them (somewhere) but when I priced up all the parts and factored in the time it was a damn sight better to just buy one....but which one ?

We use them all the time on boats where you often need to leave them connected to shore power for long periods. All the ones I have seen are 4 stage switch mode chargers and I usually end up fitting Sterling chargers.
The desulpahting aspect I have heard about. A lot of them claim to recover dead batteries but I've never seen it happen yet. A good charger will obviously stop the battery going flat in the first place and getting sulphated up anyway.
Good ones are expensive but if you can keep a spare battery on permanent charge you can probably get away with a lower output which helps keep the cost oen a bit.

Thanks for that mate,I will have a look at sterling products.The de-sulphator function is by its a nature a switch mode device and relies on monitored pulsing over a long period to have any effect.In other words (I think !) the battery charger would have to be performing this one function and no others for periods of 4 to 8 weeks and thus not doing any charging.It seems to me that it IS possible to desulphate batteries with a pulsing device but to expect a charger to monitor,soak and float charge a battery at the same is wishful thinking.
Thanks again for the real life opinion,if you are interested in desulphators I can link you to some theory and circuit diagrams.

I finally bought a c tek, the number 8 one,for around £70 from Roadpro,free P&P,....and its bloody great. I am going to get the smallest cheapest ones and fit them permanently to all my vehicles and caravans and just use the big one to desulph a couple of times a year....recommended bit of kit !

diver said:

We use them all the time on boats where you often need to leave them connected to shore power for long periods. All the ones I have seen are 4 stage switch mode chargers and I usually end up fitting Sterling chargers.
The desulpahting aspect I have heard about. A lot of them claim to recover dead batteries but I've never seen it happen yet. A good charger will obviously stop the battery going flat in the first place and getting sulphated up anyway.
Good ones are expensive but if you can keep a spare battery on permanent charge you can probably get away with a lower output which helps keep the cost oen a bit.

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:5biagree:

OSD