Battery Chargers

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by cadmanDOM910

I know this is an older thread but it suits my question perfectly so I figured I would use it...

I am currently in the process of designing a battery cart for my team. One of my mentors suggested I look into a battery charger that could charge multiple batteries at once. Unfortunately I know nothing about electrical, so if someone could post some links to good chargers that could charge 9 to 12 batteries at once, it would be greatly appreciated.

The insurmountable problem with charging multiple batteries at once is that each battery has slightly different needs at the moment, and using a single power source for charging fails to meet optimally the needs of any of those batteries.

In other words, each battery does best when connected to its own charger.

There ARE chargers that have several independent charging circuits (which I think is what you are seeking), I have seen them, just note that these tend to be quite costly. This one has 3 banks for $170, a 6-bank is $650+ (but at more than 6A, can't use it at competition), and for that money you can buy a lot of individual chargers like the one Billfred suggests above.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

There ARE chargers that have several independent charging circuits (which I think is what you are seeking), I have seen them, just note that these tend to be quite costly. This one has 3 banks for $170, a 6-bank is $650+ (but at more than 6A, can't use it at competition), and for that money you can buy a lot of individual chargers like the one Billfred suggests above.

The other thing to consider: survivability. If one individual charger bites it during competition, odds are you'll be alright.

If your umpteen-bank charger goes down Saturday morning...

[cadmanDOM910]

Thanks for the advice! I think we decided on one 3 bank just to try it out and the rest will be the individual chargers billfred suggested along with the couple we already had at the shop. Thanks again!

[Molten]

Reported.

[Jon Jack]

After reading about it in another thread, we gave the Auto Meter BusPro-600s a try. After running it for 2.5 years we love it.

It's a little on the expensive side, but it's been worth every penny. Some of the features we like the most are:

• Removes sulfating automatically
• Each battery is on its own charging circuit
• Built-in float control so you can leave your batteries plugged in while in storage and not damage them
• Built-in reverse polarity, short circuit and overload protection

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jon,
That is the one we use. Don, this charger is six independent chargers, one for each output. We had one output die on us last year, an open MOSFET. It was easily replaced and we are back in business. We replaced all of the gator clips with Anderson connectors. We also made a stand out of some 80/20 so we can set it up with the cables suspended.

[BigJ]

1675 also uses that charger, or one that looks very much like it. A few years back we took a dolly/handcart, bolted the charger to one (back) side, and welded pieces of aluminum for the on the other (front) for the batteries to slide into, angled a little less than 45 degrees from vertical. 3 rows, 2 batteries each. Anderson connectors on the ends color-coded to the diagnostic lights, and elastic straps to make sure the batteries stay in place while rolling. Can lay down or stand up (99% of the time ours is standing up), no balance problems because of the flat bottom of the cart being pushed steady by the batteries on that side.

[Dale]

Maybe it's overkill, but we've been using the Guest 6amp marine chargers for two seasons now. What I like about them is they are made to be mounted on a panel and are about as rugged as you can get. (They are completely sealed since they are for marine applications.) No fans, no vents to get aluminum shavings in, a green LED tells you when they are done. Microprocessor controlled. They run about $60 each on line. I also like the redundancy that if one charger dies, we still have the rest.