Spend big money on those deep cycle batteries for your coach? Word to the wise: Maintain 'em or replace 'em. Making sure your batteries are kept charged is a key ingredient to battery longevity. "Smart" battery chargers don't just run juice into your battery--the charge in stages. The bulk charge stage pushes current into your battery at a constant level until a slightly elevated lvoltage level is reached. This allows for faster charging. Then the charger switches to an absorbtion cycle--there the charger swtiches to keep the battery voltage steady allowing the battery to fully charge. Once the fully charged point is reached, the charger switches into float stage--the battery is kept at about 13 volts, keeping the battery fully charged.
Now imagine a smart 3-stage charger with one more added feature: Pulse charging, which is said to reduce lead sulfate crystalization. Lead sulfate crystals can build up in a battery, eventually destroying it. Pulse charging breaks up the lead sulfate, causing it to go back into the battery's electrolyte solution.
Enter the Xtreme Charge battery charger. A three-stage smart charger with pulse charging technology. Designed for 12 volt systems, Extreme works with ordinary "flooded" lead-acid batteries, as well as with gell cell, and AGM batteries. Hook it up, plug it in, and forget about it. Or fuss over it and take advantage of the 12 led status indicator lights that provide information on what the charger is doing, how the battery is doing, and the current battery state of charge.
Mind you, this is not a behemoth charger--the maximum output current is but 2.5 amps, so it could take a while to recharge your batteries, depending on the capacity of the batteries and how deeply they're discharged. Nevertheless, for a small system, or for use charging up and maintaining batteries on the ATV, this may be just the ticket. Xtreme has a suggested list price of $99.95. Get more information by visiting the Xtreme Charger website.
3 comments:
Ok, I don't know anything when it comes to battery or electrical things. Do you leave this on your battery continuosly or only when you need a charge?
Yep; the "smart" part of this charger is that it's smart enough to know when to lay off pumping current into the battery. Non-smart chargers will keep cooking batteries long after they're charged; it boils of the electrolyte and can eventually kill an otherwise good battery.
Why not keep the RV plugged in when not in use and let the converter in the rig do it's job.
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