T&T: Battery Charging in hot weather

[David Marchand]

Jake:

>From your description of the symptoms and what you have done, it doesn't 
seem that the charger (before you forced it to charge at a higher voltage) 
is charging sufficiently and at not a high enough voltage. If memory serves 
me right, by Balmar MaxCharge regulator would drive the voltage to well 
above 14.0 v (set for flooded cells and 80 deg ambient) before switching to 
its final 1/2 hour or so topoff setting.

So, what you did is exactly right for the situation you are in: force a 
higher voltage. You won't harm your batteries. In fact if you monitor water 
consumption, I don't believe you can harm batteries by charging at a high 
voltage as long as the temperature stays reasonable.

Charging fast and for a long enough period is much preferrable to 
undercharging and sulfating. Your experience with equalizing seems to 
confirm that theory.

David