Smart battery chargers

[garymtx]

Has anyone ever seen a smart charger with an LED screen that graphs the charging information? Just saw this on youtube while researching for a new charger....

 

[ScottsGT]

I have one of the Optima chargers with a readout graph. Stays hooked up on trickle to maintain the charge.

 

[Bretny]

I would rather have a battery CA/CCA and bat health tester than know how charged the battery is. Its not super inportant to know state of charge but battery health is.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Gimmick. “Smart” chargers really don’t do much except reduce voltage to float automatically when current drops to about an amp. The rest of the so-called modes are simply a result of charger limitations and the physics of charging.

 

[Doc995]

I would rather have a battery CA/CCA and bat health tester than know how charged the battery is. Its not super inportant to know state of charge but battery health is.

Check some of the Golf Cart Forums...Buggies Gone Wild is one of the best ones-they talk extensively about batteries, chargers, etc. Just make sure you go to the ELECTRIC forum and not the GAS forum. I'm pretty sure the members there talk about the exact charger you mentioned regarding a state of battery health meter....

 

[Provincial]

The battery on my wife's Honda Pilot would occasionaly not crank the engine. It always came right up when jumped or charged with a 10 amp charger. We were going on a trip, so we took in to a reputable tire shop that sells good batteries. They used their smart tester to check it and said it was in good shape.

Two days later, when we hit the key to start our trip, it would not crank. I jumped the car and demanded that they replace the battery, even though the tester again said it was good. I wish I had been able to take the time to get a real load tester hooked up to the bad battery, as I am sure it would have failed a high-discharge load test.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I have a charger that will read out % of charge. It's nice to know when estimating charging time, or how much I used from a battery. I've used it on small 6V and 12V SLA batteries as well as motorcycle, car and deep cycle. Seems accurate.
It also indicates charging voltage and will show an error if a battery has shorted/bad cells.

A graph might be interesting to look at but really how useful is the information?

 

[garandman]

We use NOCO Genius chargers, which support a number of types including AGM and LiFe.but only LED light displays.

 

[garymtx]

Thanks everyone, I just thought it would be nice to have a graph of the charging process and battery health in general. Still haven't found out what the one in the video is.

 

[Chromdome35]

This is a Hobbyking x200 touch screen charger. Discontinued. It has also been sold under several other brand names such as IMAX. The model number X200 tends to be consistent across brands.

If you google X200 charger you will see it.

 

[garymtx]

This is a Hobbyking x200 touch screen charger. Discontinued. It has also been sold under several other brand names such as IMAX. The model number X200 tends to be consistent across brands.

If you google X200 charger you will see it.

Thanks!!!