Battery charger SALE Repco

[jjohn]

RBC87S2 12V 8amp Automatic switchable.
Will charge lead acid, calcium, gel/agm batteries.
7 stage charging Desulphation, Soft start, Bulk, Absorption, Test, Recondition, Float.
It detects battery condition and chooses which mode to charge in. Also detects if there are weaker cells and charges according to the rate needed so good cells are not overcharged.
The charger can be left hooked up to the battery not in use to (float) top up as needed at 1amp.

$89... $81 off retail.

 

[Old.Tony]

^ that's not a bad price. Little bit of BS in the blurb, you can't individually charge a single cell in a battery that has cells in series. What they do in that instance is an "equalisation" charge, which means they zap the battery with a relatively high voltage to jolt the cells back into life. This reduces sulphation damage too - in the C-Tek it's called "Recovery".

At $89 it won't be a bad unit to have, especially since it floats. Perfect for RV use, or in your tub if you want to invert the incoming power to charge the battery, run the fridge and charge those cordless power tool batteries while you're between jobs.

 

[jjohn]

I may have said it wrong. The way I read it, it tests the battery condition, if a cell is weak it charges accordingly so all cells only receive the a charge it can manage.
It also says it will charge a battery at 0 volts.
I bought one as I only had a 2.7amp manual charger and it would not bring my 650cca calcium battery to full charge. At $170 to replace the battery o thought good value.

 

[happy john]

If a cell is weak John it's better known as a collapsed cell in the industry as Tony said all the cells are in a series if one is shot the battery is cactus. No charger will revive that cell whilst it will operate it will not perform as it should. The disulphate charge basically sends a pulse via a series of capacitors the idea is to remove sulphation from the plates.

In the early days the product was called Megapulse it would connect to the battery terminals and when the voltage reached 12.6 it would begin pulsing.
I have had one for 20yrs still use it today I have 10 yr old batteries that will maintain 12.8volts for 3 wks without a charge.

 

[d22dave]

If it works as good as my ctek, it will pay for it self in no time at all.

 

[308bever]

hi, i have a trickle charger connected to my motor cycle so that the battery stays well charged and it`s worked awesomely, now my question is can i do the same to the truck? it`s a 2014 with the factory dual battery system. do i just hook a trickle charger to the one battery and the other will charge to? or does it have some form of switching in the wiring? i personally think that it should be ok, but thought i`d pick someone elses brain too? help please (((-;

 

[camo.b]

^I did this with a caravan..but their wired in paralelle..bot batterys need to be the same brand and condition for the charger to not favour a battery.need to make sure the other battery isnt isolated (switched)

 

[Old.Tony]

Trickle charging is generally only going to apply a 'float' voltage of around 13.2V to 13.4V. It won't charge the battery in a few hours, it will take a week to get it charged if it's flat, but if it's full it will maintain the battery nicely without doing any damage to the rest of the system.

If you have dual batteries connected together then don't worry, just hook up the charger. If they're connected and mismatched they'll be a problem anyway.

If they're isolated you might have an issue. The VSR in the isolator usually triggers around 13.2V, so it will connect the isolated battery to the cranker and they'll start charging together.

Because you're only trickle-charging them, there's no analysis of the battery voltage so they should charge nicely, but personally I'd seek to disconnect the auxiliary and charge it separately.

 

[308bever]

i was thinking it would be all ok, you know there is so little info on why and how they went to dual batteries, but i assume they were eating up the single battery and it was cheaper to do twin than put a big battery in it, i am just wanting to maintain a good charge as she may be sitting unused for some time ..... thanks for the help again tony and camo (((-;

 

[Old.Tony]

The reason for dual batteries is actually nice and simple: in Europe, cold starts require a lot more amps, so they whacked in a second cranker in parallel. They just didn't bother changing the template for the cars that came over this way.

 

[308bever]

oh, ok, so then it will be no dramas maintaining the charge in both batteries by hooking the trickler on to one battery, thanks again (((-;

 

[ozstickman]

Can I pick your brain for a minute Tony.

I'm going to do like you done with investor etc. I have the inventor connect d to my main battery to be connected to a battery charger in my tub right. Now if I have then wire from my tub battery to an anderson,plug on the back which will connect to the camper batteries when the camper is connected would the battery charger charge my camper batteries even if the are at different voltage to the tub battery? All AGM batteries.

 

[Old.Tony]

It will do the job - the aux battery in the tub will be getting a decent charge. It will affect how the charger operates - because the drain of the camper battery will reduce the apparent voltage, which will cause the charge rate to change. It should still do the trick.

 

[ozstickman]

It will do the job - the aux battery in the tub will be getting a decent charge. It will affect how the charger operates - because the drain of the camper battery will reduce the apparent voltage, which will cause the charge rate to change. It should still do the trick.

Cheers mate.

Having the 240v will be handy to keep drills, saws etc charged between jobs.