Question for Energex

[tesla]

Would it be recommended to charge Lead acid batteries with a regular 'off the shelf charger' and use a tesla charger to keep sulfation at bay? The problem is that I have a 2A12 charger and 4 Marine Dual Cycle batteries of 12 volts and just recently I was charging one battery for 3 weeks continuously, only to find out the next morning that the voltage dropped to 8+volts on that battery! It perplexes me, really bad!
How does anyone feel about charging a battery conventionally and then keeping it in shape with a 2A12 charger since I can't afford to buy a 10A12 right now. Shouldn't 2A12 do the job for 12 volt batteries? How long does it take to charge a marine deep/dual cycle battery Ever Start 24DC-6 with a 75 amp/hour, 100 reserve capacity, and EverStart 24DP-4 with a 675 marine amps and 140 reserve capacity? Isn't 3 weeks enough for one battery?

[Mike Klimesh]

Isn't 3 weeks enough for one battery?

There is something wrong with your battery. I charged a pair of my L-16's (420ah) with a 2A12 a couple of years ago to see how it would do, It took 3 days but charged them fine.

Mike Klimesh

[tesla]

There is something wrong with your battery. I charged a pair of my L-16's (420ah) with a 2A12 a couple of years ago to see how it would do, It took 3 days but charged them fine.

Mike Klimesh

Did your charger ever leak oily fluid, upon drying of which created white residue on the black box? Mine also cracked right where the power supply connects to the 2A12 and this housing just came off. Were they made in China and designed in the US? How do I check if the charger is working properly?

[Tom C]

cap is blown

Did your charger ever leak oily fluid, upon drying of which created white residue on the black box? Mine also cracked right where the power supply connects to the 2A12 and this housing just came off. Were they made in China and designed in the US? How do I check if the charger is working properly?

if anything oily came out of your charger, you have blown a capacitor. it will charge a battery if it is working correctly. they are designed and manufactured in the united states.

Tom C

[tesla]

Tom,
the charger is blinking and seem to charge as I see voltage rise on the battery upon charging. Now, is it charging as it should? And how to check if the cap is blown, maybe became defective or half-blown? I am new to electronics so I appreciate when it is elaborated. If it's not a capacitor, where is the oil from, it is almost orderless. Can anyone take a look at it, and how much would it cost?

[tesla]

After another 3 weeks of charging a marine deep cycle battery with my 2A12 Radiant charger and reading at 8.5V the next day, I bought a Black and Decker smart charger for 12 volts and after 2 minutes it gave me a message: F01, meaning Internal Shorted Cell Battery. Remind you, this is a battery that has never been used and was sitting in my apartment for a couple of years.
1. I wonder why 2A12 coulndt desulfate the battery if Shorted cell had possibly resulted from sulfation build up. Wouldn't 6 weeks be enough?
2. And if the battery was Shorted, why the 2A12 didn't give any indication that something was wrong and continued displaying the flickering faint Green LED light and solid Red LED light, as if doing a regular charge.

[tesla]

Won't it short the battery doing this way or even the charger? I would like to hear Tom C or Aarons opinion on this if this would be recommended. If I had my own rig I would try but frying expensive tesla chargers to experiment is not for my pocket.
But how do you know if the battery won't blow up or get damaged?
Thanks

[Tom C]

Won't it short the battery doing this way or even the charger? I would like to hear Tom C or Aarons opinion on this if this would be recommended. If I had my own rig I would try but frying expensive tesla chargers to experiment is not for my pocket.
But how do you know if the battery won't blow up or get damaged?
Thanks

I use a dedicated DC adjustable power supply to apply reverse voltage to a battery, not a charger. so now we see why you blew up your charger you let it sit on a shorted cell battery for 6 weeks!!! and it was a deep cycle marine battery ! thats a 2 amp charger!

at 8.5 volts you have more than 1 shorted cell. a radiant charger can return sulfation to solution, its a rejuvenator not a repairer.... shorted cells can be from sulfation buildup OR from true physical plate destruction I.E. plate material drops off the cells and sits on the bottom and shorts across the plates, or sulfation actually pushes the plates in an adjacent cell together, or the plates are so warped they are touching. nothing can fix that.

you have a doorstop, or since its a marine battery it's a boat anchor

Tom C

[Tom C]

Mikey,

if your battery is truly at zero volts then any charger can be put on it, it wont care, because the battery is dead. the problem comes from putting a semi charged battery on a charger, some chargers have diode or fuse protection, some have the charge leads come right off the rectifier nothing in between..... so reverse voltage with a charger is a ???? thats why I use a power supply after, like you mentioned the battery is dead dead dead.

Tom C

[tesla]

I use a dedicated DC adjustable power supply to apply reverse voltage to a battery, not a charger. so now we see why you blew up your charger you let it sit on a shorted cell battery for 6 weeks!!! and it was a deep cycle marine battery ! thats a 2 amp charger!

at 8.5 volts you have more than 1 shorted cell. a radiant charger can return sulfation to solution, its a rejuvenator not a repairer.... shorted cells can be from sulfation buildup OR from true physical plate destruction I.E. plate material drops off the cells and sits on the bottom and shorts across the plates, or sulfation actually pushes the plates in an adjacent cell together, or the plates are so warped they are touching. nothing can fix that.

you have a doorstop, or since its a marine battery it's a boat anchor

Tom C

Nowhere does it say that 2amp charger is not for layman people, it should give an indication that something is wrong, but all it does is flash that ALL is perfect and charging good! RED is solid and GREEN is flashing. I go by instructions that came with it. You should review it. There are no sparks flying as if you are shorting the contacts on the battery. Besides you can't be for SURE the battery is shorted until you personally do some tests, it's all assumptions, anectodal. All I know it started leaking from the START when I got it from Rick Friedrick and when I started charging small garden batteries. Only months later I started charging deep cycle batteries and noticed that something was wrong. If you think it's a design flaw, you should say it, according to you there is no polarity protection and short protection, then there should be a fuse. Besides that those blinking lights don't tell what is wrong with a battery, they just happily charge away, to illustrate the point I have a small garden battery with a constant 10.5 voltage, once you put it on a 2 amp charger for 40 minutes it goes all the way to 15+ volts, then a day later it's back to 10.5 volts, no matter how many times I tried. When I tried to charge it with with a conventional charger it doesn't say the battery is shorted. The charger never gives any indications that the battery is fully charged if you go by the manual that came with it, open it it up and see the different indications for light for FULLY CHARGED and FLOATING. You could keep your battery this way with lights blinking all year long not knowing when to take them off charger, that is the point I wanted to make when I charged it for 40 min and the battery dropped to 10.5 volts when it was blinking and same blinking you can see after charging same battery type for weeks without a 'DONE' indication.