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Posts: 100
| I need a new battery charger any opinion on 10 amp vs 15 amp chargers? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks
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Posts: 865
| It really depends on how much your battery is being drained each time you go out, and how many hours the boat will be on charge before you are going out again. If you return and your battery is almost depleted then I would get the faster charger. If when you get back home and you still have 50% battery capacity then I would get the slower 10 amp charger...I myself have always used a double 10 Amp one for each battery.. Batteries should be discharged to 1 volt per cell occasionally so the battery does not build up a memory.... This also prevents premature battery failure which will occur if the battery is only partially discharged each out and then charged up again..Mike Sr. |
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Posts: 100
| So the only main difference is the 15 amp will charge faster. |
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Posts: 865
| Correct.............If you have a 150 amp/hr battery and it is uncharged and you now want to charge it, If you put it on a charger that charges the battery at 15 amps it will take approximately 10 Hours to fully charge it....If the battery charger only charges the battery at 10 amps it will take approximately 15 hours..... If you come in from fishing with a dead battery at 8PM and you have to go out again the the morning at 5 AM you only have 9 hours to charge your battery....Now if your battery is a 120 amp battery and DEAD then your charger must put 120 amps totally into that battery...... So Hrs before you go out X Charger amps = Total amps put into battery.....10 hrs X 10Amps =100 Amps this is an approximate chart. Mike Sr. |
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Posts: 139
| Exactly what Cast4 musky said. I have 10 amp banks on mine and it works great. I wouldn't go over that personally because i prefer it to charge a little slower. 10 amp per bank has served me well on a 24 volt trolling system. Fished in a few tournments and always charged by the next morning.
The only thing i my disagree with is the memory effect. I don't believe lead acid batteries will form any memory. Its more important to have charged batteries especially if you are letting the boat sit for a week at a time. I charge mine after every use even if its only a few hours. Never had an issue and my batteries are still testing great after 3.5 years.
Edited by hunter991 10/1/2012 2:13 PM
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Posts: 5874
| Correct. No memory on these batteries. I think the memory was on NiCad batteries.
Also agree with 10A per bank being plenty. Anymore, and you can start creating heat at the posts, and that can have an adverse affect on the battery longevity. |
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Posts: 100
| Thanks for the input. All very helpful. |
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