Re: schauer battery charger
Mike that is one of the best chargers ever made. I have two of them and love them both. It an older charger and the instruction do not say much more that the front panel. They say if a maintenance free (Sealed) then use the maintenance free setting. If you can add water use the conventional setting. It says nothing about deep cycle.<br /><br />The difference is about .4 Volts higher in the maintenance free setting. The way I use mine is mostly in the maintenance free setting. I charge My batteries as soon as I get home and let it run until it reaches 0 amps. Since I have An I/O with a 65 amp alternator batteries normaly only need a short charge to fully top it off. In the winter when I charge one time a month I still use the maintenance free setting for a couple of hours. If you leave it connected all the time then I would use the convential setting.<br /><br />Do not use the manual setting unless you are going to watch closely.<br /><br />Charging batteries with a 10 amp automatic charger will never hurt any Normal size battery. Group 24 or 27. To start with it will only charge at 10 amps for a short time before it starts to drop off. Even a 20 amp charger would not hurt a deep cycle battery. What hurts them is leaving discharge for a long time. A group 27 battery after trolling all day will take over 12 hours to charge. With a low amp charger will take much longer and more damage will occur.<br /><br />As an example I have two group 24 batteries in my 1980 boat, one starting and one deep cycle. I never had a battery that did not last 6 years. My boat alternator is 65 amps and I charge thru a Battery isolator. Every thing is on the deep cycle battery except the iteams need to run the boat. Navigation lights, blower, bildge pump, horn. All the electronic, Depth finder, Loran C, Gps, VHF radio, Night fishing lights, Accessory plugs are on the Deep Cycle. So after fishing all night the deep cycle is in need of a charge. The Starting battery has had no drain until I turn the key on so most of the charge goes to the deep cycle. Still never had any problem with short battery life.<br /><br />I hunt and fish with many friends that have group 27 deep cycle in the campers. They are charged with a 100 amp alternator from the Chev Motor and they also do fine. <br /><br />Bottom line is a Automatic battery charger supplies a regulated voltage in the 13.8 to 14.8 volt range just like your cars alternator does. The battery condition determins how much chrge it takes. When it is very discharged it can draw a lots of amps for a while but as it charges it will taper to 0 amps.<br /><br />Only thing I would not do is charge when your battery it is very hot. Like my boat in the summer it might be 110 in the shade but under my cover with boat in the sun the temperature is 140 degrees inside. I would not charge at this time.
