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I feel pretty stupid. I should know this stuff. I was asking some stupid questions and found out that I might have not been charging my system the best way possable. I contacted some people that have way more experiance doing this sort of thing. Big charging system's like RV's and pleasure boat's with large multi battery bank's. I didnt know that Optima's have a completey diffrent charging regimen than other AGM battery's, Gell and flooded batterys aslo have a diffrent charging regimen. Unless you have a SMART voltager regulator/charger your AGM/ or Optima batterys will never reach a full 100% charge. A alternator has a internal or external voltage regulator but it throw's amps/and volts at what ever the batterys will accept and not what they need to reach full charge. Example a to re-full charge a AGM battery it will need a "Bulk charge" of 14.6 volts and lets say 40 amps for 45 min's then 14.3 volts at 30 amps for 20 min's then a float charge for 13.3 volts at 10 amp's for 5 min's These #'s are just a example but you get the point. A regular alternator with a internal or external regulator does not charge the batterys back like this. This is why I was only getting a full charge after my boat was connected to a trickle charger for some times 3-4 day's. My HO alternator wasnt charging me back to 100% not because it didnt have enough power to do so but because it didnt know how. I was only getting about a 50% charge from my alternator because
The charge to the battery's needs to be in a step and set process.
Traditional flooded car batterys/golf carts need a diffrent type of charging routine.
Another thing I found out, I think I need a larger 210 amp alternator. If I want to be able to play and charge back the batterys at the same time
I havent done a test but Im guessing my boat is pulling 50-70 amp's playing the system at mid to high volume. Ill do some testing to find out for sure. But traditionaly we park and play the system the batterys get low and I fire up the boat and start charging the system. This needs to be done for 2 reason's #1 If I let the batterys get to low my alternator will melt itself down trying to re-charge my battery's so I fire up just to prevent the voltage drop into levels that will kill my alternator. #2 Its not good for your equipment to try working at high volumes with low voltage, they get hot ect. IMO voltage and current s like oil for your engine. You run low on oil your engine gets hot and you break stuff The same is true for volatge and current. So the scenario go's You park. You play. Your batterys get low and you fire up to charge your batterys back. and Your still playing. All your doing is maintaining a flat battery, Your HO alternator is throw 70 amps continously, and it might throw max current but ist only gonna do it till it melts down. My alternator is just providing enough to run my system NOT charge back My boats using 50-70 amps just to run and play. So my baterys might be getting a 20 amp charge. Thats like a trle charge. Or if you push it and you run the batterys so low the alternator will do the alternator melt down trying to bring your batterys back to life. Now a larger 210 alternator could maintain my system and throw 50-70 amps back at the batterys all while playing and not going into melt down mode. but Like I said unless you have a smart regulator or charger it dosent even matter you can have a 310 amp alternator and you still not gonn hit 100% charge. Alot of the smart charger/regulators have a heat probe that measures the alternators temp at the case. The more amp's you make the more heet your gonna create. The smart regulators/alternators will or can cut it's output in 1/2 untill the temp drops so it dosnt have a melt down.
Now the bad new's This type of set up is not cheep Like $2500 or more and Im gonna need to upgrade to a dule 1/2 inc pully belt's to handle the extra strain the 210 alternator is gonna pull. Thats another $600 for custom pully's
All in all the system consists of
#1 210 amp alternator
#2 Smart regulator
#3 Duo Charge regulator
#4 Alternator and battery temp sencors
check out www.balmar.net for more informaton
The charge to the battery's needs to be in a step and set process.
Traditional flooded car batterys/golf carts need a diffrent type of charging routine.
Another thing I found out, I think I need a larger 210 amp alternator. If I want to be able to play and charge back the batterys at the same time
I havent done a test but Im guessing my boat is pulling 50-70 amp's playing the system at mid to high volume. Ill do some testing to find out for sure. But traditionaly we park and play the system the batterys get low and I fire up the boat and start charging the system. This needs to be done for 2 reason's #1 If I let the batterys get to low my alternator will melt itself down trying to re-charge my battery's so I fire up just to prevent the voltage drop into levels that will kill my alternator. #2 Its not good for your equipment to try working at high volumes with low voltage, they get hot ect. IMO voltage and current s like oil for your engine. You run low on oil your engine gets hot and you break stuff The same is true for volatge and current. So the scenario go's You park. You play. Your batterys get low and you fire up to charge your batterys back. and Your still playing. All your doing is maintaining a flat battery, Your HO alternator is throw 70 amps continously, and it might throw max current but ist only gonna do it till it melts down. My alternator is just providing enough to run my system NOT charge back My boats using 50-70 amps just to run and play. So my baterys might be getting a 20 amp charge. Thats like a trle charge. Or if you push it and you run the batterys so low the alternator will do the alternator melt down trying to bring your batterys back to life. Now a larger 210 alternator could maintain my system and throw 50-70 amps back at the batterys all while playing and not going into melt down mode. but Like I said unless you have a smart regulator or charger it dosent even matter you can have a 310 amp alternator and you still not gonn hit 100% charge. Alot of the smart charger/regulators have a heat probe that measures the alternators temp at the case. The more amp's you make the more heet your gonna create. The smart regulators/alternators will or can cut it's output in 1/2 untill the temp drops so it dosnt have a melt down.
Now the bad new's This type of set up is not cheep Like $2500 or more and Im gonna need to upgrade to a dule 1/2 inc pully belt's to handle the extra strain the 210 alternator is gonna pull. Thats another $600 for custom pully's
All in all the system consists of
#1 210 amp alternator
#2 Smart regulator
#3 Duo Charge regulator
#4 Alternator and battery temp sencors
check out www.balmar.net for more informaton
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