[mechman600]

I spent much of the weekend messing around with my charging situation.

First off, my round 2 Kelly charger arrived, this time with a lower charge voltage of 84.0V (instead of the previous 88.2V). Giddy as could be, I swapped it into the place of the old one and plugged 'er in. And VOILA! Nothing. Green light on, meaning it is "fully charged". That shouldn't be when pack voltage is at 75.2V. It should charge and then cut off to float no matter what. So I took the Electric Booger for a hard run around the block. Now the pack was at 74.2V, so I plugged 'er in again: NOTHING.

So Kelly #2 is DOA. After a few emails, Kelly wants to send me another one.

I then meticulously topped up all batteries individually with a 12V charger. Turns out that my batteries have gone WAY out of balance. Some batteries took quite a while to top up. Then I plugged in the 88.2V charger and watched voltages.

What I have concluded is the three odd ball AGMs in the pack have a different internal resistance than the rest, so the pack is unable to keep balanced. After topping up all batteries, these rose to about 13.8V while the rest stayed around 14.8-15.3V. Before topping up, the three odd balls were usually the way-too-high ones. So unless I purchase three more brand new AGMs to match the rest, balance will always be an issue.

I looked all over the internet to find 12V automatic microprocessor controlled chargers that I could buy six of. This way, balance will once again not be an issue. I have one Schumacher 12/8/2A charger. But for some reason it charges batteries to a much too high voltage cutoff - 15.2V on "standard", 15.5V+ on "AGM" and 14.9V on "Gel". Plus, it only puts out around 5A when voltage is above 13.5V. And you have to actually turn a Schumacher on each and every time you plug it in. That would get annoying fast.

I did find a Chinese 12V/10A charger with no buttons - just LED indicators like my Kelly. But do I really want a bunch of chargers purchased online from China?

I decided to ditch efficiency for reliability. I have already sold 5 of my 6 previous 12V chargers I was using. It turns out that Canadian Tire has a 1/2 price sale on 12V/10A chargers, so in I went to buy 5 chargers. And installed them.

These chargers are a newer style than my previous ones. Heavier. Much larger. It took some doing to make them fit. Some testing revealed they are slightly more powerful than the one "old style" charger I have left. Tomorrow's charge at work should confirm this. If this is indeed the case, I will have to buy one more to complete the set.

OI. I am sick of chargers.

Merry Christmas, everyone!