I am not very familiar with battery technology, and hence my query. A few years ago I designed and built a simple sealed lead acid cell charger. It also had a battery status indicator, and worked fine. It has been sitting in the drawer since then. I was wondering if the same can be used for wet lead acid cells, and if not what modifications are needed ? Thanks in advance for your hints and suggestions.
In general, it should work fine as long as the charger has enough current and high enough voltage capability for the particular size of LA battery you're charging.
Sealed LA (VRLA), Gel or AGM, have a tighter upper and lower voltage charging limits than flooded LA with removable caps for replacing electrolyte. Either versions should be temperature compensated for the finishing charge (Absorption) but the flooded (wet) type will just boil its electrolyte if too high of voltage is applied which should be replenished of course.
Best way to know when it's charged is to watch the curent into the battery terminals while at the absorption voltage and when it falls below a particular level (the ending amps is one name for it), at that voltage, the charge is done. Otherwise, holding the absorb voltage constant for around 2 hours is a good approximation that is used by many decent chargers.
boB K7IQ
You designed and built it and can't figure out the answer to your question yourself? Humm... Makes one wonder whether it was good for anything at all.
Troll...
-- I'm never going to grow up.
It'll be fine as is. But not vice versa, dont use a flooded lead acid charger on an SLA.
NT
Probably. High charging rates could cause the sealed batteries to rupture. Something to watch out for. Make sure the batteries do not get too hot(not good for any type of batteries but more dangerous for sealed than non-sealed.
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