Best Battery Chargers 2016

[ajay16]

I don't know the make and model off the top of my head (I can tell you in a few hours as I'm going to the shop to meet with people about this issue) but the weird thing about the chargers breakers were that it only happened when we first got them running and it would only trip the breaker at competition so we put one in our cart ad to not any teams near us. We had a professional electrician look at the cart and the chargers and he could not find anything wrong but it kept happening. We honestly felt that since they had been around for 6+ years now and that previous members had not taken good care of them that we should buy new ones. The really strange thing iso I have been working with these chargers for years now and only this year did problems occure. We had a couple matchest where we could barely move our robot at half speed because of it (we got really lucky on some of those and a replays were called due to other non-related reasons). We have had a lot of issues with alliance partners putting in dead batteries in the past and would hate to let down our alliance like that. As of right now we are considering doing as a previous post alluded to and using them as 2A chargers for storage of batteries at the shop.

Once again thanks to everyone who had contributed, and best of luck in years to come

[Ether]

I had a battery charger from the 1960s that started behaving erratically last year. After some (too brief) troubleshooting and soul-searching I threw it out but saved the output cable (the one with the clamps on it).

Recently while setting up some motor tests here at home, I had occasion to use that cable, and discovered to my chagrin that the reason I was getting erratic voltage at the clamps was that the clamp-to-cable crimp joints had corroded. I probably threw away a perfectly good charger.

It seems every time I throw something away I wind up regretting it soon thereafter. Must be some variation of Murphy's Law...

[swootton]

The chargers I posted about are designed for automotive use. I've used some form of this charter for 5+ years with no problem. The do have three selections, 6v/12v, std/agm/gel, and 2A/6A. Then when the light turns green as fully charged they switch to trickle mode. Best bang for the buck. We are able to keep 12 batteries fully charged at events with 4 chargers.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by swootton

Then when the light turns green as fully charged they switch to trickle mode.

From the description in the user manual, it sure doesn't sound like it uses trickle charge. What they call "maintenance mode" in the manual sounds like float, not trickle.

[swootton]

Originally Posted by Ether

From the description in the user manual, it sure doesn't sound like it uses trickle charge. What they call "maintenance mode" in the manual sounds like float, not trickle.

You are technically correct. Both serve exactly the same function but a float charger is a "smart" charger that can turn the charging circuit on and off based upon the state of charge of the battery which is obviously better.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by swootton

You are technically correct. Both serve exactly the same function but a float charger is a "smart" charger that can turn the charging circuit on and off based upon the state of charge of the battery which is obviously better.

Because of the differences, they don't serve exactly the same function.

You can leave a battery connected to a properly designed and configured float charger for months without harming the battery.

If you do the same thing with a trickle charger, you run the risk of destroying the battery.

[GeeTwo]

Edit: My post is intended not so much for OP, as to document our learned battery charging rules for benefit new teams. If we're doing something wrong/not quite right, I'd love to hear it.


We have used a wide variety of chargers over the years. The #1 key feature is to get something which explicitly supports gel/AGC batteries. The other "nice" feature is the "float charge", which keeps batteries topped off, more important if your team takes a serious break outside of build/competition season. [Edit 2: That is, if the batteries are not kept on float chargers, put each one on a charger every two weeks or so until it is "topped off".)

Based on my reading (and not contradicted by experience), at least as important as your charger is your usage/charging rules. During competition, change batteries between every match, and put the battery on a charger stat. During practice and demo, do NOT wait for your batteries to fail, but replace them on a schedule. If you're actively driving and shooting and such, it may be as often as every five or ten minutes. If you're just shooting balls using pneumatics, but doing little driving (as our robot is doing this year at many demos), you may be able to go to a half hour or more on a charge. If your batteries ever get below 12V with no load, you've let them work way too long. We currently try to get our battery changes for relatively low draws around 12.5V (or pereferably higher). Also, after use, put batteries back on a charger as quickly as possible. Lead-acid batteries sitting discharged are batteries heading for recycling.

[Janna3]

With these chargers are you then adding the Anderson connectors to them yourselves or are you just using the clamps to charge? I am interested in these in expensive single port chargers.

CHARGE IT! 4506 6/12V (6/2) Amp Smart Charger


Our team has a DualPro 2 port and 3 port charger so in theory we could charge 5 batteries at a time. We are now down to only two working ports. The mentors were talking about going to single chargers so that we don't lug around dead ports.

[maxnz]

We got a Noco Genius G4 6V/12V 4 Bank charger at the beginning of last year. It is a little expensive, but is slightly cheaper than the Andymark 3 bank charger. (Also, it was on sale for about $75 off when we got it)