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| I have 2 Cabala's AGM batteries and I've been charging them with a 2-bank 10/10 amp Guest onboard charger, one for 5 years now and the other one for one year. The charger came with the boat in 8/08, so it's not new. I charge them every time I use them, no matter how much I've used them, and I fish at least one day a week from May to ice-up and haven't had a problem. Both are still in excellent shape, so I think the "2-amp max" statement isn't correct, when everything is working properly.
I also agree that leaving a battery discharged is a bad idea. When a new battery is fully charged you have lead metal plates surrounded by a sulfuric acid solution. The electricity is produced by the lead metal and sulfuric acid reacting together to form lead sulfate, initially dissolved in the solution; this only happens when electrons are allowed to flow in an external circuit. Leaving a battery sitting around in a discharged state can result in hard lead sulfate crystals forming (which takes time) either on the lead plates or in the sediment trap; these crystals can eventually kill a battery by shorting between plates. They do not easily re-dissolve, so they can accumulate over time, and each accumulation reduces the capacity of the battery. The best thing to do is to charge it every time you use it, minimizing the amount of time the crystals can form. Your car battery gets charged every time you run the engine, too, and good quality car batteries last for years doing this.
Any good charger monitors the voltage and current (and ambient temperature) during a charge and will regulate things to prevent charging too fast, or overcharging, and have at least three "phases": a constant current phase at the beginning, followed by a decreasing current phase once the battery reaches maximum voltage, and then a "float" or trickle phase. If your battery is only slightly discharged, your charger should sense it and switch to the appropriate phase straightaway.
See http://www.batteryuniversity.com/_img/content/clead1.jpg
If your chargers are working properly, I have no idea why your batteries puked electrolyte. | |
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