Battery Charging, 3 or 4 Step? Is there a great difference? (1 Viewer)

[The Meerkat]

Help please!!!!!!!!

As the outdoor season vastly approaches us, I was looking at redoing my "lectrics" on they old Eccles machine, would be looking to install an 18 amp charger and am still currently undecided whether it is best to go for a 3 stage or a 4 stage charger, as there is a credit crunch on at the moment any savings I could make would be most welcoming and any further knowledge would be most appreciated?

Is the 4 stage just a gimmick to squeeze more £ out of people or would it be better to take the hit, pay a little extra for something that would benefit me in the long run

I have had a look at a few on the web, and have came across a few at Aldis, Muvonics/Amperor Europe in Hull and as ever Maplin

Any guidance is appreciated

:thumb:

 

[scotjimland]

`Hi
No, it's not a gimmick, four stage charging will optimise the life of your battery .. but if you only have one cheap FLA battery the extra cost of a 4 stage charger versus replacing the battery sooner has to be considered.

If on the other hand you have an expensive battery bank then it would be penny wise pound foolish to skimp on a charger..

To achieve optimum battery life, a 4-stage charging cycle is implemented. The four charging stages are trickle, bulk, absorption and float. The trickle stage safely charges overly discharged batteries. It protects adamaged or shorted battery from excessive current.
During bulk charge a constant current is applied to quickly restore the maximum battery charge level in the shortest amount of time. The absorption stage applies a constant voltage to the battery to bring the battery to 100% capacity. The float stage tailors the constant voltage output to maintain the battery at full capacity while serving DC operated load.

 

[Tony Lee]

Depends on what type of batteries you have and also on exactly what they mean by 4-stage. Some manufacturers include the equalisation cycle as the fourth stage and that is irrelevant for Gel and most AGM. Some have a pulse "battery-saver" sequence as the fourth stage and that may also be irrelevant for all except flooded-cell type. There is no standard so will pay to check the charger specs against your battery requirements.

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