2A12 Battery Charger & Rejuvenator

[admin]

2A12 Battery Charger
2 Amps, 12 Volts

Considered a "trickle charger" by most standards, the 2A12 is more like a "little GIANT" of a charger.

This charger is designed as an automobile battery topper, with its remarkable ability to break through battery sulfation. The 2A12 delivers a slow, but remarkably powerful and revitalizing charge. Can easily restore a vehicles cranking power to start the engine.

Simple, compact, and portable charging power for 12 Volt batteries. Universal power supply plugs into any AC system, world-wide, from 100 VAC up to 220 VAC. Can also charge all other small to medium 12 Volt battery systems.

• Universal portable power supply accepts 110-240VAC input.
  
  
• Easy-to-read LED status displays state of charge.
  
  
• Lightweight and very portable.
  
  
• See owner’s manual for more details.
  
  
• Physical - 3.25"W x 2.75"H x 4.5"D (excluding external power supply)
  Approx. 2 lbs.
  
  
• *1 Year Warranty
  
  GET YOUR 2A12 HERE: ENERGENX 2A12
  
  

[vzon17]

I wonder if one of these can be run off of a solar panel that puts out 21 volts at no load.
I own one and would eventually love to use it with solar panels.
A small one battery trickle radiant charger that runs off a solar panel would be a very handy thing indeed.

[vzon17]

It would be a very hand product. Just think of all those street signs, radar units, solar gates etc that work of a small solar panel and a battery. they would never have to change the batteries them.

[Aaron Murakami]

Hi Vzon,

The 2A12 can't run directly off a solar panel. But if the solar panel went through a Solar Tracker III to a battery, then the battery could power the 2A12 through an inverter.

It is best to either charge or discharge the battery over a period of time, but not both at the same time.

But if you had the solar tracker, then you can just charge the battery direct instead of needing the 2A12.

[vzon17]

OK great thanks for the answer I will eventually be getting one of the solar trackers.

Hi Vzon,

The 2A12 can't run directly off a solar panel. But if the solar panel went through a Solar Tracker III to a battery, then the battery could power the 2A12 through an inverter.

It is best to either charge or discharge the battery over a period of time, but not both at the same time.

But if you had the solar tracker, then you can just charge the battery direct instead of needing the 2A12.

[tesla]

Aaron, or anyone else, if you know what is going on here can you comment:

I purchased a 2A12 charger last fall of 2012, charged with it my 4 Marine "deep cycle' batteries, 2 of which are EVER START 75 amp/h, reserve capacity 100, model 24DC-6 "deep cycle / trolling, and 2 are EVER START Dual Cycle "deep cycle / starting" marine cranking amps 675, reserve capacity 140, model 24dp-4. All of them are 12 volt batteries purchased in 2010, never been used and were sitting in my apartment room all this time until I charged them last fall to resting value of 12+ volts.

One of these batteries 24dc-6 started to lose charge over the last several weeks to 10.7, so I hooked up my 2A12 and charged it for 3 weeks straight, day and night, I took it off charging at 13.45 volts after 3 weeks of charging and gave it a rest overnight. In the morning the value was 8.76 volts! What is going on here?

[tesla]

I also want to ask how long does it take to charge general use batteries, garden type, automotive with this charger? I noticed that upon charging small garden type batteries of 12 volts, the voltage goes up to about 15.15v and stays there, on some batteries it takes 30 minutes of charge (Interstate batteries), on others (EverStart) about 2 hours, however when I let them rest for 1 day or two the voltage drops to 10.5v sometimes even as low as 8+ volts, these batteries are EverStart Lawn and Garden U1-7, CA 275, and Interstate Lawn and Garden batteries 180 CA. The batteries were never used, were sitting idle in my apartment room since 2010 when I purchased them. Why do they charge so fast and discharge fast as well when idle? Shouldn't 2A12 charger detect and break the sulfation of the battery and charge them fully and not superficially? Is there a solution to this problem?

[Aaron Murakami]

What is the lowest voltage those batteries have been discharged to?

The 2A12 is a little small to really push those batteries where they need to be - but if that is what you have, you need to cycle the batteries.
2A12 could work on, but it will take a long time.

Pick one, determine the lowest voltage it has been drained to and then drain it to maybe 0.25 volts below that voltage with a C10 or C20 rate.
Then, put it on the 2A12 immediately until it comes all the way up. After that, I'd drain it to 10 or 10.5 volts but no lower and repeat the charging.
Do that several times and the capacity should increase.

[tesla]

What is the lowest voltage those batteries have been discharged to?.

Well, as per my previous post it was discharged to 8.76 volts the next morning after 3 weeks of charging, and it's not the only battery that loses charge the next morning. Aaron, are you recommending to charge it for another 3 weeks to 13+ volts? I am afraid that next morning it will drop to low again. I am saying this because of my experience with 2-3 days charging the same battery, it would always drop low the next day. It will take me 6+ months to do cycling with this speed.
I just heard from a different user of 2A12 that it took him 3 days to fully charge 400+A/H battery. It makes me think maybe my charger is defective? The week I purchased it, it leaked some oily liquid when heated, then plastic cracked. How much would be to service it?

[Yaro1776]

I have used the 2a-12 charger successfully for rejuvenating small LAB's - typically 12 to 20+ A-H capacity. I have learned a number of things about this charger and most importantly it is patience and good procedure. Here are a few tips that may be of use to a first time user:
1) Always note the starting voltage of the battery for reference purposes.
2) Drain the battery with a suitable load and note the run time - I have used the c10 rate as a compromise versus waiting for c20 (20 hrs). Any of the Auto Parts chains have a wide variety of 12 volt bulbs and sockets, so one can tune discharge rates to a reasonable level - it does not have to be perfect for this purpose. I use a NAPA unit that has a 6 watt and 25 watt discharge rate. Normally the battery is drained to about 10.5 volts (use a meter) as mentioned by Aaron. Note the amp discharge rate if you have the appropriate metering.
3) Let the battery rest for a couple of hours or so and then take another voltage reading - note this voltage level.
4) Recharge the battery with the charger up to a 15.3 volt, more or less, level if possible. The steady green charger light may never come on in the beginning of the rejuve process.
5) Repeat this process a couple of times or as many as necessary to achieve a maximum A-H level.
6) You will observe a marked increase in capacity for most batteries - some batteries will not respond to this radiant First Aid due to internal difficulties.

The above charger has been used successfully on a standard (but NAPA dead) Honda battery (24 size), however it took five charge/discharge cycles to get it up to snuff (note a 55 watt halogen fog light was used for the discharge). At times it took 24 hours of charging. This battery was later used in a V6 Tacoma with no problems for a period of 6 months before being switched to a different application.

For larger batteries you will need the bigger 10 amp charger for positive results. The time required for the 2A-12 would be way too long. I will post data for successful rejuve on small batteries in the near future.

As a final note be aware that there is more to this process than meets the casual eye...

Regards to All,
Yaro1776

[Aaron Murakami]

Well, as per my previous post it was discharged to 8.76 volts the next morning after 3 weeks of charging, and it's not the only battery that loses charge the next morning. Aaron, are you recommending to charge it for another 3 weeks to 13+ volts? I am afraid that next morning it will drop to low again. I am saying this because of my experience with 2-3 days charging the same battery, it would always drop low the next day. It will take me 6+ months to do cycling with this speed.
I just heard from a different user of 2A12 that it took him 3 days to fully charge 400+A/H battery. It makes me think maybe my charger is defective? The week I purchased it, it leaked some oily liquid when heated, then plastic cracked. How much would be to service it?

When a battery is fully charged, it is normal for it to then drop a bit, but if you're talking about a few volts or something, then it isn't holding for some reason. If the capacity is reduced, it may be just charging to that lowered capacity. You probably have checked the water level, but I want to mention it anyway. I'm not sure how a 2A12 fully charged a 400+ah batter in 3 days, but stranger things have happened.

If you're taking about oily liquid leaking from the charger, please send us an email with details. There shouldn't be anything like that going on. If you purchased this from Tesla Chargers, please email it to the customer service email listed on the banner at Tesla Chargers | World's Most Efficient, Effective & Advanced Battery Chargers and if you can email some pics, that would be great. Something sounds strange about that. Just include details when your purchased it, etc...

[tesla]

I posted another result, see here: http://www.energyscienceforum.com/te....html#post6887

When it comes to warranty I believe I purchased 2A12 last fall from Rick Friedrick -"Going Green Saves You Money" Renaissance Charge/Energnx , but since the cover cracked and oil leaked and I had to open the unit to see what is going on. I guess you wouldn't want to have a fire in the house caused by a 2A12 charger, right? Opening the unit voided the warranty according to the manual. And support was appalling for the product that I will never buy from them again. Terrible, terrible support team. I was also disappointed that all parts in the unit are non-user-serviceable and filled in with hard epoxy, so if anything goes bad after 12 months you feel like you made a really bad investment.
I will post some pics here for you to see soon.

[tesla]

Not all pictures were attached, so I am attaching more:

[tesla]

And more. Notice how oily the inside of the 2A12 is in these pictures. Notice how the epoxy has become brown in spots and it is oily as well but not so visible on pictures. I would wipe this oily liquid from outside of the box, but it would come back in a week or two. Also as you have seen, that round hole where the power supply plugs into the unit has manifested by itself, one fine day it just came off just like that, and the crack with that chunk missing also one day came off - beats me, I don't know how it happened, I don't know how oil happened to be in the box, and I don't know, how that round thing came off. The whole unit is a mess, I can't even tighten the screws anymore after I took these pics, probably thanks to the oil again, or corrosive oil maybe. And maybe I am also having a problem with charging my batteries because I got a lemon charger. :

[Aaron Murakami]

At Tesla Chargers | World's Most Efficient, Effective & Advanced Battery Chargers we have excellent customer and technical support.

The circuit is filled with that potting compound to prevent people from reverse engineering the proprietary circuits and there is no need to have user serviceable parts when you have a warranty.

I have seen various chargers returned to EnergenX and out of all of them, it is extremely rare that the problem is from a manufacturers defect. It can happen that there is a bad capcitor or something, but it almost never happens.

Almost every charger that is ever returned is because the user has abused it and used it in ways that it was not designed to be used. Some people have used these to jump start their car, they use them as power supplies, etc... and then complain that they power transformer melted. I'm not saying you abused your unit - this is what we deal with occasionally.

For your 2A12, as Tom mentioned, it sounds like a cap exploded and leaked oil but I'm not sure why you would open it if you knew that would void the warranty. Even if Rick is unable to provide you with customer service and you purchased it last fall, it would still be covered by warranty and you could contact EnergenX direct for a possible replacement unit. Hopefully Rick actually sent you a new unit when you ordered one and didn't accidentally send you one that was returned.