I picked up a Dakota Lithium battery and charger combo at the ice show this weekend. Does anyone know if I can use this charger on my other non-lithium 12v SLA type batteries? It is the only charger I have. The guy at the show said I could but didn’t sound too convincing. I’m afraid the amps may be too high and burn up the batteries. These are the specs for the charger from their website:
Charger rating: INPUT 100-240 volts, 50/60HZ. OUTPUT: 14.8 volts, 3.0 amps
3 amp output is higher then a normal flasher charger, but that is just the current and if it is a auto shut off charger you would be ok. Think of like a garden hose and a fire hose to fill a 55 gallon drum. The garden hose is the .500 ma charger most of use and the fire hose is the charger you have now. It will charge the battery faster, 5 times faster or fill the 55 gal drum faster.
That’s what I was hoping. Thanks for the info!
Interesting as I talked to the Dakota guy at the show as well about chargers. He stated that the Dakota battery had a built in circuit to control the charging so the output at 14.8V and at 3 amps is interesting, I suspect that it has enough voltage to allow the internal circuit to regulate the voltage properly. Most 12V sealed AGM or Gel cells can be charged with that charger however they should never be left on the battery once it is charged. As the battery charges the impedance increases therefore the current will be limited. A fully charged battery will float at the maximum voltage of 14.8 rather than the 13.8 recommended. The only time the 3 amps is applicable is if the battery is low, as the battery charges the current will decrease. Check this spec out http://nationalbattery.com/pdf/upg/specSheets/D5743.pdf
They recommend 2.4 amps but it will only draw heavy current when low so it should be ok.
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