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Re: Maintenance Free Batteries & Chargers???
[Re: 62BT409]
#758973
07/27/10 09:09 AM
07/27/10 09:09 AM
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,822
Colorado
denfireguy
top fuel
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top fuel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,822
Colorado
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Quote:
OK, who on the board is a battery & charger expert? When you call any manufactures....it's always the same double talk but no concrete answers. I have chosen to use Maintenance Free in 4 of the Classics. 3 of them I have no problem with and have gotten more years of usage than planned, but 1 of them there is a problem. Having 4 different battery chargers I use the one (which I thought would be the better. There is a NAPA 85-300A mounted in the trunk. This charger i have never used (I know...why not). Because I thought the M/F batteries need a special type of charger.
So who knows which would be a good battery charger for M/F?
By maintenance free, do you mean the Optima style battery? The Optima uses technology that wraps the lead plates into a cylinder with a seperation barrier that is soaked in battery acid. The first of this style that met commercial success was made by Gates Rubber Company. They were built in a plant on South Broadway in Denver. When the Gates family decided to get out of manufacturing and become a holding company, they sold the technology and patents to Optima. The advantage of the spiral wrap was to prevent the biggest killer of lead acid batteries: plate warpage that caused cells to short out or tendrils of lead that would grow on the plates toward each other and short the cell.
Other "low" maintenance or "maintenance free" batteries use the old plate technology but add more acid so that in normal use, no topping off is needed. The caps for the cells can be removed to add distilled water but usually it isn't required.
All of them use the same chemistry. Lead plates and sulfuric acid. All of them have vent provisions to outgas hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) that occur especially when overcharged. Two of these are explosive whle the third is oxygen which promotes burning.
Since they all use the same chemistry, they all use the same charger. The only difference is that rapid, high current charging is dangerous on the maintenance free batteries. They are not recommended for any lead acid but the old batteries could tolerate it with easily removable cell caps taken off the battery.
Any charger with less than 25 or 30 Amp output will be fine for charging any lead acid battery as long as you watch charging times. Lead acids like constant voltage chargers. Simple photovoltaics on the dash work fine on cars that are seldom driven if they are outside in the sun. Low current wall warts will also keep the battery topped off. Neither is good for charging a dead battery.
This may be too much information but just select what you need.
Craig
2014 Ram 1500 Laramie, 73 Cuda
Previous mopars: 62 Valiant, 65 Fury III, 68 Fury III, 72 Satellite, 74 Satellite, 89 Acclaim, 98 Caravan, 2003 Durango
Only previous Non-Mopar: Schwinn Tornado
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