Recently I have upgraded from my costco deep cycle to an AGM. I am scared that I am going to ruin the battery with my current charger, but I cant find much info. Hopefully someone here can help.

Here is my charger:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JMLPP12/ref ... ion+30+amp

I have read the manual multiple times, but nowhere does it mention battery type.

In the Amazon reviews, one mentions that it is compatible. But I would like a little more confidence than that.

It has a temperature sensor, so that is good. I can also manually set the "over voltage disconnect" setting. Right now it is set to 13.8. Is that too high?

Thanks for any and all insight!

Depends on the manufacture of the battery. Seems like the basic number is no more than 14.4 (at the battery) for a bulk rate and 13.5 or just slightly more (at the battery) on the float level. I'd be more worried about the alternator charge but a lot depends on the voltage drop...always measure at the battery. Also temp does matter and temps over 80* might require a lower voltage to be on the safe side.

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For my kinetick kh2000 agm, I have it bulk at 14.4, and float it 14.3. Officially float should be 13.7 but even with my 240 watt panel I dont get a good charge with the float at 13.7.

Batteries with solar will shoot up to 14.4 not to much after the sun comes out, and remain very little time on absorb, then will go straight to float. The battery has to remain at 14.4 volts for hours at a time to get a good charge.

I been doing it this way for about 6 months without any problems, the battery will limit how much amps it will accept, if I'm not using power, i can see the battery floating at 14.3 only taking a little over an amp, about the same as it would do if it were at 13.7 volts.

Agm arent that delicate, you can use them as a engine start battery, where it will be charging at 14.4 volts all day long, and the alternator will put out more amperage than any solar panel will.

The solarpaneltalk forum, has more info on charging batteries with solar.

That's good info^^^cause that's how I'm set up too and seems to be working well with no issues. AGM[emoji106]

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As Dave B. mentioned, I would find out what your battery's mfgr. recommends. Then you can see if any of the charger's pre-sets match it (and if not, see if your charger allows custom setpoints).

Just for example, my Lifeline AGM's call for the following (at 77º F):
Absorption: 14.3 volts
Float: 13.3 volts

OTOH, I have a Full River brand AGM in another rig, and they call for a range (at 77º F)
Absorption: 14.3-14.9
Float: 13.6-13.8

I found that most charger's (solar and/or 110) AGM settings had a float value higher than Lifeline calls for, so I ended up setting custom parameters for it (OTOH, for the Full River brand, the "standard" AGM setting was okay). I have temperature compensation for the chargers, so they handle the variation from 77º F.

Can you get the specs for your brand of AGM?

Call the vendor and ask them what the charge settings are for their controller, you are correct it does not appear to be mentioned in their manual. The over voltage settings should be higher, for that you would look at your battery specs and their temperature compensation chart. The set points go up as you go down in temperature, so 15.5 volts would cover you to around 10 F (your battery may differ)


-greg

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-greg
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"Goldilocks" 2020 Ford Transit High Roof Extended 3.5 EcoBoost AWD Homebuilt

Thank you for all of the responses. I clearly have a lot more to read and learn. It doesn't appear that I have the ability to change float and absorption set points with the current controller. So now I am looking at this:

http://www.amazon.com/Tracer-2210RN-Cha ... controller

I wanted to upgrade to a mppt controller anyways, so this will just hurry me along.

I bought the battery from a guy on craigslist who operates a battery business. It is branded alcatel-lucent and he said to just use "agm" charge settings. Hard to find too much info for the battery itself.

edit: just found this

http://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/wp ... r-1398.pdf

bmerritt: Did you buy the battery in San Diego? They are AGMs and a number of us here are using these with good results.

IIRC, they are rated at 175AH at 20 hr drain rate and have a lower AH rating at 5 hours or something....

I have 2 in my van, the neighbor is on his second set of two after frying the first set with a cheap solar controller (the tops of the batteries were all wavy with gaskets hanging out), and member 1der and a few others here are also using these batteries.

If I remember I'll post a picture of the controller; it was outputting over 15V when it cooked the batts. The controller was an inexpensive Chinese MPPT controller.

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Yup, that's the battery I got. Thanks again for the recommendation. Any Idea what settings you are using and what controller you have?

For the 12AV145ET Lucent Alcatel (175aH@20hr) this is what I have found:

Float 13.5 volt @ 77 deg is on the side of the battery label in the pics.

This PDF has many details for absorb and float. It does not say this battery exactly but it is for Deka's Solar line:

Attached Files

3379Form 1913.pdf (127.5 KB, 4 views)

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