Topic: Automatic charger From Walmart

[momule]

picked one of these up at wally world for $16 bucks today.

just a heads up for anyone that may be in need of one.



SCHUMACHER SE1562A 1.5AMP AUTOMATIC BATTERY CHARGER COMPANION. Since 1947, Schumacher Electric Corporation has been designing and producing battery chargers for the electronics industry. Unique automatic battery charger maintains both 6 and 12 volt batteries keeping them at full charge using float-mode monitoring. Perfect for charging small batteries. Great for maintaining small and large batteries kept in storage.

FEATURES:

1.5 amp charger and maintainer

Automatically switches from Full Charge to Float-Mode Monitoring.

LEDs indicate: Charging, Charged and Trouble.

Reverse-polarity protection

Warranty: 2 yr Limited Warranty

[F.O.Bean]

nice, looks pretty cool, and you could prolly easily put a 4-pin on there, to use w/ 6v and 12v batts, thats hella cool!

[momule]

ya I thought it was a perrttty good  deal.

I have been shopping around for "tender" type of chargers and bout $40 was the cheapest I had found.

Like ys said you could easily put a 4pin on there and charge both 6v and your 12v batt's.
And it's pretty much set it and forget it.

Nick

[ChrisV]

Jeez, what I am missing here?   It does both 6V and 12V and automatically switches to float charging too?  Seems like a damn good deal to me.

[AT853rxwh]

Be careful, 1.5 amps maybe too high a charging current depending on the type of battery.   SLA's (little ones) don't like high current... 

[momule]

im running a couple 12v7ah for my Ua5 >Jb3, for an upcoming fest.

I used both batts the other night for about 4.5 hours and then put thtem on the charger when I got off work last night,  took about an hour and half to recharge the batt.
the batt never got hot nor smelled funny from the gasses.
 so far so good.


I figured 1.5 amp would be kosher as most of the other chargers I was finding were 1amp.

Nick

[AT853rxwh]

im running a couple 12v7ah for my Ua5 >Jb3, for an upcoming fest.

I used both batts the other night for about 4.5 hours and then put thtem on the charger when I got off work last night,  took about an hour and half to recharge the batt.
the batt never got hot nor smelled funny from the gasses.
 so far so good.


I figured 1.5 amp would be kosher as most of the other chargers I was finding were 1amp.

Nick

On the side of the battery it might say what max charging current is, if not you might wanna look it up.  You can still cause the gel to boil or the plates to warp on sla's with repeated charging over recommended rate.  (that means that you won't get as long a life outta the battery)

[momule]

my batts say "Cyclic Use" Initial current 2.1  max on the side (so is the max charging rate I assume??)
heres a half ass pic of my batt's
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40975&item=5704842119&rd=1


thats why i got the 1.5 amp charger ,
as I sent a link for a .5 amp charger and everyone said it would take to long to charge.
and all the other chargers I found that lookd halfway nice were about $40-100



Nick

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

If I remember correctly, SLA batteries should not be given a charge current of more than 20% of capacity.  So a 7.5 Ah battery should not be charged at more than 1.5A.  Some batteries will take more but the generally safe approach is to keep it at 20% or less.  You should probably not use that thing to charge any battery smaller than 7.5Ah.

[momule]

SO then If I charged Both BAtts(12v7ah) at one time this would drop my Amp's in half correct ??
making it safer to charge?

SO how would one go about doing this .

[F.O.Bean]

SO then If I charged Both BAtts(12v7ah) at one time this would drop my Amp's in half correct ??
making it safer to charge?

SO how would one go about doing this .

no, hes saying the HIGHER the amps, the safer it would be to charge your batts w/ that charger!

so youd want higher amps actually, maybe get a couple 12v 10amp batts to be on the safe side!

[momule]

ya I caught that much, But my problem is I JUST!! bought 2 12v7ah batts.
which are WAY over kill for most gig's.As most of the shows I will be taping will 2-3 hour show instead or 2-3 day's . SO I should be cool running the 12v7ah for both the UA5 and JB3.

but My first Real taping Exp is a 4 day fest so Thats why I went with the SLA in the first place,
I dont really think having (2) 12v7ah, and (2) 12v10ah is feesable. Nor do I have the Back strenth or Space to lug around a couple 12v10ah
, These 7ah are heavy enough   

SO charging both batt's at the same time would not lower the amp's? if I was to charge them parallel some how or another?

Nick

[F.O.Bean]

hmmm, lemme think about that.......

yeah, if anything, id sell the 2 7.2 amps, and buy 2 10 amps, but thats prolly a PITA!

good lord 2 of each is some arsenal and i dont think pack mules could carry that!

ummm, if anything youd wanna chagre in series if ya did it i believe, because parallel would lower it i think! and in series the voltage/current would be doubled i believe, so you may be better off putting 2 6v 7.2 amps together then !!that would get you 12v 14.4 amps i believe!

only if your gonna do em in series tho!

im sorry, its been a long day/nite even tho i went to skool for this crap

someone correct me if im wrong

[momule]

 I try again
Would charging them at the same time split the incoming/sharging amps?

ANd hell no theres no way I could carry (2) 12v7ah and (2) 12v10ah.
 Hell Im 6'2 about 250 and I dont think I even wanna try that.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Yeah, a higher capacity battery like a 10Ah would be safer for the battery with a 1.5A charger.

Yes, you can charge two together to effectively create a higher capacity 12V battery. If you put a pair 12V batteries in series, you get a 24V battery.  If you want to charge the batteries together to divide the current between the two batteries, then you would wire the two batteries in parallel, yielding a 12V battery of twice the rated charge capacity. 

However the current will not divide evenly unless the batteries are equally discharged. So I'd be careful doing this if you are discharging the batteries seperately.  If one battery is significantly discharged compared to the other, then the charger will continue to generate the charge voltage until the lowest battery catches up.  That means that the fuller battery gets the charge voltage longer than when it should have been switched over to float.  It might not catch fire, but you battery life will be shortened if routinely over charged.

Go to the SLA battery manufacturer's page and look at the spec sheet for charging recommendations.  I know that I ran into some SLA batteries capable of taking a higher charge current, but unless you know for sure, the 20% rule is the thing to use.

Just as an example, most of these commercially available 6V-7.2Ah power systems seem to ship with relabeled Powersonic PSC-61000 A chargers which produce a max charge current of 1A.  I bought one from a local electronics supply store for about $41.00.

[momule]

thanks for the Answer's Teabag.

I have emailed the maker of my BAtt's and will see what they say.

You also answered my ? on why or why not I would wanna charge both at the same time.

Nick

[AT853rxwh]

By the way the ub1270 is NOT an AGM battery..

You are ok with 1.5amp according to the spec sheet...

ub1270 specs

SLA Battery info

As for suggested charge rate:

(c=ah current rating)

The maximum battery charging rate is often specified by manufacturers as between C/3 and C/5 - where C refers to the ampere-hour (Ah) rating of the battery. Using this terminology, a 10Ah battery being charged at a C/5 rate corresponds to a 2.0A current. Exceeding this maximum rate may damage the battery and should be done only with the manufacturer's permission. Some particularly robust batteries may be charged at a 1C rate (or even higher). However, this usually requires a charger that is custom designed for the battery. The size of an off-the-shelf charger should generally be chosen so that the C/3 or C/5 rate is not exceeded.

So suggested for a 7.5ah is 7.5/5 = 1.5 amps

the max rate is 7.5/3 = 2.5 amps

I would always go with the lower of the two ratings for battery longevity.

[AT853rxwh]

Also, as to charging 2 batteries in parallel, you can do this, but there are a few caveats:

Only do this with batteries that are the same age (generally suggested only for new batteries)

Battery terminals must be clean!

[momule]

well right on
 thanks for the info.


Your sure making me feel much better.

Nick