I bought the following charger because my second Zapino charger blew out in one year's time:
What is the best way to hook it up? I tried hooking it up to one of the batteries because I thought that electricity would flow through all batteries.
Can I use this charger?
Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Danyel
That's a 12v charger meaning it can only charge one battery at a time.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Since your new charger is a 12volt charger, you can only use it to charge one battery at a time. But to do this on a Zapino, you would need to have access to each of the five battery terminals. This isn't really practical unless you install some wiring and a connector that would allow you to charge each battery separately with your new charger. When I first wired my Zapino for bank charging I only charged one battery at a time because I only had one 12 volt charger. But I soon realized that it took too much time to charge the battery pack and too much labor switching the charger leads to each battery. I then decided to buy 5 12 volt battery chargers and all has been well since.
Steve Tanner
Would it be possible to hook up a 12v charger like the battery tender jr. (
http://batterytender.com/product_info.php?products_id=4&osCsid=eeb349ad1a6244307cf72556a5dbc223 ) to each of the 5 12v batteries in the zapino while they are connected originally?
22theman,
What you are describing is Bank Charging. This is a great way to go but there are a couple of things you need to know.
1. The chargers selected for this task MUST be isolated electrically. There is a easy way to check for isolation. Using a meter set to Ohms check the resistance between the input and output wires of the charger. Be sure to check all possibilities including the ground, or third connection, on the input plug. If the charger is isolated there should be NO connection from any of the input to any of the output wires.
2. Each Charger may have a different cutoff voltage even if the same brand and model. If possible it is best to open the units and adjust them so they are all equal. If this is not possible then you may need to purchase extra charges to get them all close and return the ones that don't meet your requirements.
3. If one charger stops working you may have a battery that does not get charged causing it to be discharged very low during your next ride. You really need to be sure each charger is working all the time.
The BatteryTender unit you have chosen is isolated and they are all very very close in voltage so they meet 2 of the 3 criteria. I would want to be sure I could see the LEDs of each charger so I would know each one is operating. I would also check them with a meter from time to time because it takes very little power to operate an LED you could get a false indication of operation.
Grandpa Chas S.
You might consider a different vendor and save some money on the next 4 chargers you will probably be buying.
This one comes with a temperature compensation charge probe no extra charge. This will help you from over charging your batteries on hot days.
http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-chargers/12-volt/gel-cell/BM12248.html
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
It does not say that the output is isolated, so it is probably not, thus, not suitable.
Also, it has a very low charge rate.
Cheers, Gary
XM-5000Li, wired for cell voltage measuring and logging.
Actually I ended up buying 5 Battery Minder #12117 :
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200332201_200332201
I plan to hook each one of to each battery in the zapino while the batteries are interconnected. I am hoping to recover some of the range I have lost on the batteries (7 mile range now) This should work right?
Thanks for all the replies :)
22theman,
I see no reason those chargers should not work. Be sure and test them with a meter to be sure they are isolated. If they are not isolated when connected it will cause a short and damage at least one of your batteries.
Grandpa Chas S.
Yes, it should increase your range if none of the batteries are damaged from a sustained over/under charged state. I had a similar situation where my Zapino range was about 6 miles on a full charge (i.e. the string charger turned off). The problem was that Battery #1 was severely under charged and the stock string battery charger would not correct the situation. I have a PakTrakr installed so I was able to see that Battery #1 was the problem becuase it was in the 9.5 volt range. After switching to "simplified" bank charging the problem battery seems to have come back in line with the other four batteries. I thought that I was going to have to replace the battery but so far so good. The full charge range has increased to at least 12 miles (the longest ride I have taken since beginning bank charging).
Steve Tanner
Also 1 more question:
My 60v Zapino charger was 5 amps. I will replace them with 5 of these 1.333 amp Battery minders. Am I right to think there will be more juice going to the batteries??
It will take 3.75 longer to charge your batteries with your five 1.333 amp batter minders than with your 5 amp original charger. An overnight charge may not charge your batter full if they were well depleted.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
I thought the 5 amp were divided by 5 to get 1 amp per battery. This is 1.33 amp per battery. Isn't this correct?
No you get 5 amps at 60 volts going into your five 36 amp hour batteries which means you would have to charge the batteries at least 7 hours to get them charged if they were completely depleted. Your new charger will charge at 1.33 amps at 12 volts. It will take 27 hours to charge one battery with this charger if the battery was completely depleted.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
I see. Well right now since my batteries are sulphated ( I think), I am only getting about 6 miles a charge. It takes my stock 5 amp charger 2 hours to charge. I would be willing to put up with slower charging if the battery minder could restore my batteries as promised. I am not willing to buy a new Zapino charger because I've had 2 burn out in 1 year's time. At least the battery minder has a 5 yr warranty. I t seems like it is the best choice for me in terms of cost, hassle of setting up (it's automatic), warrany, and how little space it takes up. If you were me, what would you do?
Thanks for your help.
I would hook up the 5 chargers you just purchased. They should work fine.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
SEVERE DANGER WARNING:
DO NOT hook up more than ONE charger at a time if your batteries are still connected to each other ... UNLESS you are SURE that the charger's outputs are ISOLATED! The "specs" for the charger do NOT mention isolation, so ASSUME that they are NOT isolated until PROVEN otherwise.
Cheers, Gary
XM-5000Li, wired for cell voltage measuring and logging.
UPDATE: I bought the 5 batter minder 12v for $200 at RVupgrades.com. I attached them one by one to each battery and hid them by attaching them to the inside frame parts of the Zapino. I also bought the yellow 60v charger posted elsewhere on zapino boards for another $50 online. I have them all hooke dup. Anyway my point is the battery minders are AWESOME! My range has gone from 7 miles to 20+ miles. I thought my batteries were shot but they were just sulphated.
Sorry for bringing up such an old thread, but this is the only one I can find addressing this topic. I currently have a golf cart with 6 6volt batteries. The 36 volt charger does not desulfate. I bought 3 batteryminder 2012 models at discount. My plan is to connect the batteryminders each to 2 6volt batteries in series to make 3 12volt groups. I've learned from reading here how important it is for the outputs to be isolated. However I can't find any mention of whether the outputs are isolated on this model. I don't think an ohm meter would help me as this model charger disconnects from the battery when there is loss of 120v input to prevent back draining from the battery.
There is a fuse on the batteryminder output cables. In the situation where outputs are not isolated, would these fuses protect things if I decided to hook up all 3 chargers to the batteries while leaving them in connected in series within the golf cart.
As a followup to the above question, i tried hooking up the 3 batteryminders as a set of 3 12v banks, while leaving the batteries wired in series within the golf cart.
The connectors had fuses, which gave me some confidence (for some reason they have 15amp fuses though they’re 2 amp maintainers).
I’m happy to report that it’s been over a week, and no apparent issues. From this, I’m guessing the battery maintainers i bought are isolated :)