cen tech battery charger cycles on and off

This would cause the whole bank to not accept a full charge.

Also, you can see if a cell has gone bad in one battery due to it's low reading compared to the other cells in that battery. A bank where most cells are at 1170 or so, is sulphated and would return a false high voltage (like 37.5V) when it is only 25% charged, causing your charger to shut off. If so, you're 100% charged and no sulphation. You can tell if the bank really has a full charge by whether all the cells are at 1265, assuming 80 degree temps. Here's the real state of charge for any given cell, (for 80 degrees farenheit): Get actual number readings for the cells. To find out, get a good hydrometer and measure the specific gravity in every cell of every battery, after the charger has been off for 15 minutes or more (shut it down if necessary) and before you run any consumers. If the charger is doing its job but just cycling very fast, the problem is likely in the batteries. Chargers use voltage as a state of charge indicator, but it only works if the batteries are OK. If you don't know or can't find it's spec, it's probably something like that shown above, coming 'on' at 32.0 to 33.0 and going 'off' at 36.5 to 38.0.

If it's coming on and off at it's specified voltage, it's OK. Your charger probably has an 'on' voltage and an 'off' voltage. Now you can compare these to what it should be. Voltage after the charger turns off = 34.5 Voltage right before the charger turns off = 37.5 Voltage when the charger is running = 36.5 Voltage right before battery charger comes on 32.5 Watch the voltage before, during and after when the charger comes on and goes off.įor example, battery bank with no consumers = 34.0 Now turn on some 32V lights and turn on the charger.

Hook it up across from the main neg to the main pos terminals with everything off, including the charger. Get your handheld multimeter and set it so you can see batteyr voltage to at least one decimal place. When batteries are cycled, as in marine use, they can develop hard sulphates which will not accept a full charge and will return a higher voltage reading, which fakes out your charger. I would guess that the bank may not be able to provide as much power as before also. That's a symptom that indicates it could also be sulphated batteries.

Cen tech battery charger cycles on and off