Hello Everyone,
I have ran into a pondering question with 2 different battery chargers that I have bought, but I don't know if it is my chargers or my batteries. Every now and then I will put the charger on my deep cycle battery and my charger never goes green with a full charge, but sometimes it does. Has anyone come across this problem other than me? If so, any input would be great. Thanks.

Sounds like your battery is retiring on you. You said you have two different chargers. Do you have the same problem with either charger? If so, then it's the battery.

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Is the battery charger a Everlast like is sold at Walmart? If so, I had one doing the same thing. Battery was in good shape, charger was trashed.

I bought a BPS XPSCharger. It's a three bank . I really like it. It's made by Pro Mariner for BPS, and a couple times last year they had it on sale for $99. (reg. 119.) I missed the sale dates when I bought mine but it still rang up at $99. Y E S !

Thanks for the info guys, I really appreciate it. Both battery chargers have done the same thing. I have a new deep cycle battery and the charger goes green every charge so far, so it's gotta be the battery.

I have two dual-purpose Wal-Mart batteries bought on the same day. I am using a Wal-Mart charger that is a 2/10/50 amp charger. The charger can be set for convential or maintenance free type batteries. The charger has a swinging needle to indicate the "percent of charge" and a light that is supposed to come on when the battery is fully charged. When charging these batteries I use the 10 amp position and set it for the conventional batteries.

When I charge on of the batteries the needle will swing over to 100% and the green light will come on to show the battery is fully charged. When I charge the other battery the needle gets to about 75% and the "full charge light" will not come on.

One day I took the battery that never seemed to get fully charged and, using a voltmeter, I found that it indicated 12.24 Volts. I put the charger on it at 10:30 A.M. That night at about 8:00 P.M. I checked it and it showed about 75% charge. The next morning at 8:30 A.M. I checked it and it still showed that it was about 75% charged, and the light for full charge had not come on. I put the voltmeter on it and it showed 13.84 Volts.

My question is, why would the charger work on the one battery and not on the other? Where do you take a charger to have it checked out? Certainly not to Wal-Mart. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

David

From what little I know on chargers...they show full charge when the batteries voltage raises to a set limit( around 14v). If your battery cann't reach that limit, the green light won't trip on. I suggest checking the battery acid with a hydrometer after what you believe is fully charged and has set for at least 1 hour. Batteries do wear out and yours may be headed that way and your charger is doing just what its programmed to do.

Anyone try the new Optima Batteries? I hear good things about them. I wonder if I should invest in one.

I've used optimas for about 3 years now - 2 on the TM and one for cranking - and they are still very strong batteries....the best in my opinion if you want maintenance-free sealed batteries (don't need to check/fill water levels). Before that, I was replacing batteries about every year. They're also smaller and lighter than some of the other high performance batteries. Best prices I've found is at Sams. I hear they make great auto batteries too. Good luck!

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Thanks lunkerman, I've seen them advertised strongly at some car shows I've been to and recently saw them at Sear's (with a price tag) $160 for the blue top deep cycle/cranking battery, but if you don't have to replace them very often, I would think they are worth it. And from what I hear vibration is the main battery killer and these are suppose to cut down on vibration the way they are built. I guess I'll wait until mine konks out on me and have to get a new one.

I had the same problem with my walmart battery and charger. Turned out that one cell was about 1/4" low on water. If nothing else, stick with the walmart battery and exchange it for a new one each year if it's not performing.