|
Hi John, Depends on what you what to accomplish. If you want a 90% to 95% state of charge over many hours and using alot of water (maintance) with lowering the overall life span of the battery, then a regular charger will work just fine. Now if you want a 100% state of charge, maximum life cycles with a fast recharge time with very little water maintance then you want to use one of the new PWM deep cycle chargers. What the new PWM (pulse width modulated) regulators does is pulse the current into the battery as it charges. This allows a high current flow into the battery while keeping the battery cool thus recharge time is cut to just a few hours from 50% discharge to 100% recharge. As the deep cycle battery nears a 95% state of charge, it then trickle charges too 100%. After reaching 100% then it will go into a float charge mode. Float charge mode is where the battery plates are desulfurnated thus will produce many more life cycles that a battery that is not float charged. Water maintance is very high with the old method of recharging. You have to add water about every 30days or so. The water is used up during the recharging during the final topping off charge that creates hydrogen gas and oxygen from boiling the water. The charging also creates a magnetic field that seperates the water into hydrogen and oxygen. With PWM recharging the battery stays cool during the topping off charge and desulfurnating thus water usage is cut to about once per year. What's great about the PWM recharging as it can be applied to wet cell battery's or gel cell battery's with the same regulator. You can get a new PWM 10amp regulator for about $45 to replace the regulator in your old type recharger if you understand basic electicity. T_Bone
|