EVDL Administrator wrote: > > I'm still amazed that this charger, set to a GEL profile, would *ever* > > apply 16V. > > It's hard for me to see that as appropriate for Deka Dominators, too. The > East Penn factory data say to never charge over 14.1v, IIRC. I use 14.3v > and have had excellent results. I would not go higher than that. Maybe > Roger has some insight on the reasons for this.
It really comes down to the difference between constant voltage (IU) and IUI type profiles. The recommendations that people see for sealed lead-acid (gel or AGM) are almost always for constant voltage type charge. The voltage levels specified for these types of charge assume that the battery may be left on charge at this voltage level for extended time, or even indefinitely. As a result, the voltage level is chosen to be as conservative as possible while still allowing the battery to be recharged in a "reasonable" amount of time. The charge profile in question is an IUI type, and while the voltage in the constant voltage step will be quite near to the levels typically quoted for constant voltage charge, the voltage in the final constant current step is allowed to rise above this level. A key detail is that by the time the voltage is allowed to rise above the constant voltage level, the current is at a low and well-controlled level. Deka charge recommendations for their gel and AGM product include IU and IUI type profiles. In the final constant current step, Deka recommends stopping if the voltage reaches 2.7V/cell; below this level charging is allowed to continue. MK battery used to publish these recommendations on their site, however, they no longer appear to have any charge recommendations posted. Cheers, Roger. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
