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Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:06 am Post subject: Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

At 11:06 AM 3/18/2010, you wrote:




I have 4 of those maintainers.  Use on one flooded and the rest are 

AGM. I have never seen more that 14.1 at the batt terminals with the 

thing connected. The batts spend most of the time at 13.1.

Suggest you get a proper meter and measure again. I went thru two 

Radio Shack meters before buying a good meter. Turns out teh Harbor 

Freight 3.99 one is as good as you will get for a batter volt meter. 

Your experience may differ?

PW



   Those instruments are a good value. Compared to my first

   purchase of a multimeter in 1961 (spent about $65 on a

   Triplett 630 . . . a week's take home pay for my new

   job at Boeing), about any digital instrument is more

   accurate and they're exceedingly inexpensive compared

   to 1961!



   I've only had two of the 1562 maintainers and one of them

   was given away a couple years ago. I did a plot of output

   voltage for the recharge of a battery on one of them

   and got this curve:



http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/Curves/schumacher_3.jpg



   Not all charger/maintainers are equal. Even amongst

   the Schumacher products, there are considerable variations

   depending on model. See:



http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/Curves/



   Behaviors for several Schumacher products are plotted

   there. We don't know why they all differ but we DO know

   that putting any RG battery on a constant "recharge"

   voltage or "trickle" charge current will kill it over

   time.



   If you see anything that looks like a "top off" behavior

   followed by an extended period of "relaxation" where

   the voltage drops below 14 volts, there is a strong

   likelihood that the device is doing good things for

   your RG battery.



   Bob . . .

==========

At 06:11 AM 3/18/2010, Radioflyer wrote:




After several postings here about how this is the best no-nonsense 

maintainer for Pb-acid chemistry I got myself one from Walmart. Model 

SEM 1562A. I put it on an Odyssey PC625 and checked the voltages. The 

unit was charging at 15.6V. After 3 hrs, the float charge kicked in, 

hovering around 14.6 volts. Later I believe I found a review on 

Amazon from somebody who measured about the same voltages.



    Don't know that I would call it "the best". I have no

    first-hand knowledge or criteria by which I could

    make such a pronouncement.



    What we DO know is that all the time our engine is

    running and the alternator is ON, the battery is being

    recharged in a manner that is slightly abusive but

    necessary. The duration of this "abuse" is no greater

    than the many examples of charger/maintainer performance.

    Further,  time the airplane is parked with NOTHING

    turned on is very high compared to time the airplane

    is being flown. Hence, we see reasonably long lives from

    otherwise ignored batteries be they flooded or something

    more modern.



    So whether your particular maintainer relaxes to 14.0

    or something smaller is not terribly critical. The fact

    that it tops-off first and relaxes at all is 95% of the

    task.



    Bob . . .

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Radioflyer

Joined: 04 Feb 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Boston

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 6:09 pm Post subject: Re: Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

Ok, Bob, you suggested that I monitor the battery over a few days. Here is the summary of the Schumacher SEM-1562A voltages across my AGM battery(Odyssey PC625). (The battery had been already (night prior) charged/maintain by the same device.)



Day 1 - The unit started at 14.6V (yellow light on) and quickly ramped up to 15.2V. About 1.5hr later, the float commenced (green light on). The Voltages ranged (sinusoidally?) from 13.6 to 15.3V over about a 20 second period.



Day 2 - (24hrs later) The unit was still ranging thru 13.6 to 15.2V.



Day 3 - The unit ranged from 13.7 to 15.8V, but there was more loiter time nearer the 13.7V end. 12 hrs later in the day (or maybe less) the unit had stabilized at 13.7V



Day 4 - Values continue to be stable at 13.7V with no indication of any further change. I then disconnected the Schumacher and terminated measurements.



The Schumacher started with a brief topping off voltage of 15.2V, continued with a long float of 13.6 to 15.2V averaging to about 14.4V, and finally settled on a constant 13.7V. The volatges seems high to me. The manual states max charge of 14.6V, maintainance 13.3V, but I don't know if these are "averaged" values. So, is this optimal or reasonable behavior for maintaining my battery? Clearly, this new version of the SEM-1562A is operating quite differently from the original version. 



--Jose

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:20 pm Post subject: Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

At 05:11 PM 3/22/2010, you wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  



Bob,

I too have a new version of the Schumacher. I have not tried the 

voltage checks, but did notice that it took substantially longer for 

the new unit to top off my PC 680. Compared to the older unit. The 

old unit would sometimes go into float in a minute or less.

The new unit was charging for half an hour or longer. I did close 

the alternate buss feed to check volts on the panel. If I remember 

correctly the panel voltmeter was well in excess of 14 nearing 15 

volts. That reading is less that accurate as the graduations on my 

voltmeter are 9,12,15 etc. Bottom line is that I too felt there was 

quite a change from the old model to the new one.




	


   Thanks for that data point. Don't you have a whippy

   little digital multimeter?  If not, drop me your mailing

   address. I've got a wad left over from the seminar door

   prizes stash. I'll send you one.



   Bob . . .

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trumanst(at)neitel.net
Guest

Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:40 pm Post subject: Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

Thanks for the offer. I have two. I will try to get some data on my next airport visit. 

I will record some numbers and get back to you. Is there anything I should be aware of,or a certain protocol, before proceeding?

Kevin

On Mar 22, 2010, at 5:18 PM, Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:

 	  Quote: 	

 At 05:11 PM 3/22/2010, you wrote:

> 

> 

> Bob,

> I too have a new version of the Schumacher. I have not tried the voltage checks, but did notice that it took substantially longer for the new unit to top off my PC 680. Compared to the older unit. The old unit would sometimes go into float in a minute or less.

> The new unit was charging for half an hour or longer. I did close the alternate buss feed to check volts on the panel. If I remember correctly the panel voltmeter was well in excess of 14 nearing 15 volts. That reading is less that accurate as the graduations on my voltmeter are 9,12,15 etc. Bottom line is that I too felt there was quite a change from the old model to the new one.

> 

  Thanks for that data point. Don't you have a whippy

  little digital multimeter?  If not, drop me your mailing

  address. I've got a wad left over from the seminar door

  prizes stash. I'll send you one.

  Bob . . .

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tonybabb(at)alejandra.net
Guest

Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 4:35 pm Post subject: Schumacher for battery maintenance, vote now!

Just one more data point. I bought my 1562A at Wal-Mart maybe 6 months ago

and for the past couple of months it's been attached to my 1980 Camaro in

the driveway which has a one year old battery. Currently shows 13.42 volts.



By the way, they are indeed made in China, per the label.



Tony Babb

Velocity SEFG 62% done, 78% to go

www.alejandra.net/velocity



--

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