AGM Charging?

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Not sure why you quoted me but... what you said goes for all batteries. Any battery can be boiled if left on a high amperage without watching it. This can also happen with trickle chargers (which can do other things as well). The only battery that is significantly different is gel-cell's. And the charger I linked to is a smart charger like the ones you linked to, just not as high current and cheaper. lower or higher amperage just means how fast the battery will charge. As long as you have a smart charger you can just plug it in and forget it and it will charge it as fast as it can for the particular battery that is hooked up to it. Though Gel-Cell's need specific chargers.

those ones i linked too are $10-20 cheaper than 47 bucks at wal mart. odd too when i change my charger off agm @10 amps it will start charging at 15.1 v and when i set it to agm it goes up to 14.6v. agms are not designed to "vent" like a regular wet cell and wet cells often give fumes under normal use. you get an agm battery to vent you have done a little damage too it that you cant replace. that is why they have chargers with agm modes.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

those ones i linked too are $10-20 cheaper than 47 bucks at wal mart. odd too when i change my charger off agm @10 amps it will start charging at 15.1 v and when i set it to agm it goes up to 14.6v. agms are not designed to "vent" like a regular wet cell and wet cells often give fumes under normal use. you get an agm battery to vent you have done a little damage too it that you cant replace. that is why they have chargers with agm modes.

You reply as if we are in disagreement.

Though I am not sure why your charger is starting off at 15.1v when a typical wet cell needs 14.2 14.5v to charge... where typical AGM is 14.4-15.0.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

my refference is directly from a charger. there are also agm types if you charge over 14.5 they will boil

 

[Notloud00 10+ year member]

i thought i heard someone say over 14.3v will kill a kinetik thats why i was afraid to use my charger. it has a deep cycle setting tho and doesnt go over 14.6v. can i use it safely? i used it once and it charged the batt without getting hot but i dont wont to damage it from to high of voltage .

anybody? audiolife i thought u were the kinetik master lol

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

my refference is directly from a charger. there are also agm types if you charge over 14.5 they will boil

All my reading suggests anything over 16v will boil an AGM and bulk charging should be under 14.4-15.0 (~14.6 typically). Equilizing (if ever needing to be done) is 3 hours at 15.5v however this is risky on a sealed battery. This is why the kinietic's have a warning on them to not let them run too low.

i thought i heard someone say over 14.3v will kill a kinetik thats why i was afraid to use my charger. it has a deep cycle setting tho and doesnt go over 14.6v. can i use it safely? i used it once and it charged the batt without getting hot but i dont wont to damage it from to high of voltage lol.

if 14.3v+ would kill a kinetic then there would be a lot of dead kinetics considering stock alt's charge at 14.4 (mines 14.36) when warm/hot and close to or above 15v when cold...

 

[Notloud00 10+ year member]

All my reading suggests anything over 16v will boil and AGM and bulk charging should be under 14.4-15.0 (~14.6 typically). Equilizing (if ever needing to be done) is 3 hours at 15.5v however this is risky on a sealed battery. This is why the kinietic's have a warning on them to not let them run too low.


if 14.3v+ would kill a kinetic then there would be a lot of dead kinetics considering stock alt's charge at 14.4 (mines 14.36) when warm/hot and close to or above 15v when cold...

thanks. what is the usual float voltage on kinetiks? the guys at my shop say they have theirs sitting at like 13.1. mine is like 12.8 tho:crap: theirs are for comps tho. if u trickle charge it more often will the float voltage be higher or is that not safe.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

thanks. what is the usual float voltage on kinetiks? the guys at my shop say they have theirs sitting at like 13.1. mine is like 12.8 tho:crap: theirs are for comps tho. if u trickle charge it more often will the float voltage be higher or is that not safe.

Mine when I got it was 12.76v. Now been in the car for a week im just over 13v resting. i havent bought a good charger yet to charge it though.

AGM typically float at 13.2-13.8. though audiolife probably has a better idea on kinetics resting voltage. I have heard of people charging them to rest at 14.0 but I dont think that is a very good idea. Trickle charging AGM's is not as bad as trickle charging wet cell batt's but you can easily overcharge it if your not careful... is why I will only use a smart charger from now on... I have killed too many batt's.

 

[Notloud00 10+ year member]

Mine when I got it was 12.76v. Now been in the car for a week im just over 13v resting. i havent bought a good charger yet to charge it though.
AGM typically rest at 13.2-13.8. though audiolife probably has a better idea on kinetics resting voltage. I have heard of people charging them to rest at 14.0 but I dont think that is a very good idea. Trickle charging AGM's is not as bad as trickle charging wet cell batt's but you can easily overcharge it if your not careful... is why I will only use a smart charger from now on... I have killed too many batt's.

what do you mean by smart? mine has a cutoff if that is what u mean. it doesnt just sit there and charge all day.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

what do you mean by smart? mine has a cutoff if that is what u mean. it doesnt just sit there and charge all day.

Smart chargers have microprocessors in them that do a 3 step charge. Some are fully automatic and can detect battery chemistry while others have options that you can set (wet cell, agm, gel cell)

From http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

The first step is bulk charging where up to 80% of the battery energy capacity is replaced by the charger at the maximum voltage and current amp rating of the charger. When the battery voltage reaches 14.4 volts this begins the absorption charge step. This is where the voltage is held at a constant 14.4 volts and the current (amps) declines until the battery is 98% charged. Next comes the Float Step. This is a regulated voltage of not more than 13.4 volts and usually less than 1 amp of current.

Smart chargers can be left on a battery indefinitly and will keep it working like new. You can also get them with a pulse technology that desulphates batteries, as well you can get equalizers for deeply discharged batteries though not recommended for AGM as they are sealed. but if a AGM needs equilization it's already screwed anyway. So it doesnt hurt to try and fix it IMO.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

i thought i heard someone say over 14.3v will kill a kinetik thats why i was afraid to use my charger. it has a deep cycle setting tho and doesnt go over 14.6v. can i use it safely? i used it once and it charged the batt without getting hot but i dont wont to damage it from to high of voltage lol.

nope, even the website says 14.4. that is just a safe way to charge. doesnt ruin the life of the battery. you start charging at 15v i would bet you would take a year or 2 off the life of the battery even though you may never gas it. i have been running mine at 14.78 volts under the hood now since around the 4th of july. its a 3 yr old battery and more than a few times i have driven it more than 8 hours in a day. it has not done anything yet other than read over 13v. when it used to be at 14.2 it would rest at 12.9 ish to 13v. the kinetik chargers from what mechman has stated start charging at 14.8 then work down (i dont know because i was there before they had 12v chargers). When i was working at kinetik we would charge up batteries from a 100+ amp power supply fixxed to 14.4 v. when they were drawing under 2 amps they were taken off. the thing is with an autocharger it will step down as needed by itself..an old school style charger where you set the amps and or set a timer doesnt automatically read the battery and go into a deeper charge mode or change its mode. THAT is where most of the damage done to agm batteries happens from what i have seen. then of course i have also seen the effects of someone charging 12v batteries at 18v-25v:laugh: that was nasty as hell and probably took a year off my life smelling it.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif apparently they used/bought a charger for a forklift and didnt read the instructions nor read where it said 24v on the charger.

talk to Missinglink he has been running kinetiks off his module for a year and thats somewhere in the 15v area i am sure. i am actually debating on just getting one of his modules vs putting in a high amp alt that i have. seems to me it would be easier to install and i cant see me needing all that power from my alt in my truck and i can probably find a better use for that alt. As it sits now i have no room to install a 1000-2000 watt amp ,unless i sit it on the bench seat:laugh: and my 4 channel i have now is too big to fit under the seat. I hosed myself out of a simple upgrade 3-4 years ago by buying an amp that was made in the usa vs a smaller and probably very similar sounding and skinnier memphis amp.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif none of the soundstream amps now that have the power i want will fit unseen under the seat nor on my amp rack, and an alpine pdx amp is the right size but i have a hard time paying 500+ for a 1000 watt amp.

 

[Ali1 10+ year member]

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