[Vwdiesel] Smart Charger Update

[Val Christian]

Several weeks ago, I posted an inquiry on a smart battery charger.
Since then, I bought the charger, played with it, and I am pretty impressed.
This group tends to be interested in these things, so I figured I'd 
give back with some information.  (No affiliation with either Sams Club
or Vector Manfacturing.)

The charger is a Vector 1095 APOB, nominally called a 2/10/25 amp 
charger with a 75 amp boost (for about 5 seconds, as near as I
can tell).  The charger also has an EQUALIZE feature, a DESULFATE
feature, in addition to smart charge monitoring.  Additionally, the 
charger can be configured for wet, gel and AGM batteries.  It monitors 
120 VAC line voltage, and compensates for extension cord losses (handy
when working in the north 40).

Clips don't spark, and there is reverse polarity detection. 

There is an altenator test feature, which checks the car system with
the engine running, under accessory load, and without accessory load.

There is a digital current meter, which can also be used to measure 
battery voltage.  The same display is used to set charge rates, receive
diagnostics and show the proper operation of the charger.  

Limitations:  Some battery voltage (2V) and normal battery response is
necessary for operation.  Only 12V batteries are charged.

The charger has a fan, which runs most of the time.  The fan is not 
readily servicable.  Also the charger may take a large current 
spike when first receiving AC power.

I bought mine for under $50 at Sam's Club about three weeks ago.

---

After some play, I removed the Group 27 battery from my Ford 1510 
tractor (diesel, if anyone cares), and charged it.  about 2 hours to 
get it into the third phase of charging.  Then I topped the cells with
water.  The battery is 6 years old, and sits most of the time.  I was
having problems with it self-discharging and with reduced capacity.
I ran the desulfate sequence, which gives the battery short high voltage
spikes, designed to clear the sulfate crystals from led acid batteries.
I don't have measurements to offer, but while the cell voltages dropped
during this process (I ran it for 5 days), there appears to be an
improvement, which I haven't quantified.  

I then ran an equalize cycle, for about 2.5 hours.  I'm doing one more
run of desulfate, and then I will top off the battery, and put it back 
into the tractor.  

CAUTION: Run desulfate with the battery disconnected from the vehicle.
The high spikes are short, and may not damage altenator diodes and 
on car computers.  On the other hand, the battery won't get full benefit
if some other electronics are absorbing the energy intended for the 
battery.

----

I charged several small lead-acid betteries from two (diesel) generators,
and found that they came to a float charge after 1.5 to 3 hours.

The documentation is poorly written, but as near as I can tell, the 
charger is a four stage charger:

	-rapid charge	(25 to 10amps)
	-absorbtion charge	(const. voltage, usually 10 to 5 amps)
	-top-off charge	(step down regulation mode)
	-(smart) float charge

Periodically the charger stops, and samples battery voltage.  It also 
appears to sometimes draw high current from the battery, apparently 
to estimate the battery capacity.  

The charger is temperature compensated.

The leads appear to be 8 ga, with serious clamps.  I have found that
if the clamps are not on the battery securely, a fault code for a bad
cell may happen.  

----

I can forward a pdf of the owners manual, if anyone is interested.

Some technical details are available by looking at the US Utility 
Patent # 6,822,425.

----

These details are sketchy; if there are specific questions, I'll try to 
answer them.  My only other battery charger is over 30 years old, and
thusfar I'm happy that I bought this one.  At least I now have two 
chargers to rotate through all the batteries during the dead of winter...

Val