All car batteries have required a 12v battery charger. And this is also true of Marine, RV and Power Sports batteries. The high efficiency lead acid type batteries available today require more efficient charging techniques.
The most important factors in the life of your battery, the battery charger is the most valuable tool in saving the life of your battery, getting up and running and cutting your down time. Using the proper charger is crucial to your battery. Some manufacturers of gel cell, solar and AGM batteries will not honor warranties if the proper charger or 12 volt gel cell charger is not used.
High-Quality 12 Volt Battery Chargers
With the change of battery technology the computer chip has found its way into many of the higher quality battery chargers. With the use of microprocessor technology in battery chargers, you could say battery charging has become a science. Your battery will never overcharge and the trickle charge will always be maintained. It is fully automatic with float mode monitoring capabilities and uses high-frequency power conversion technology.
12V Car Battery Charger
Most car battery chargers are simple devices that continuously charge the battery with a few amperes for the duration it is ON. If the charger is not switched OFF in time, the battery will overcharge, its electrolyte lost due to evaporation, and its plate-element will likely be destroyed.
The 12 volt car battery charger circuit below will eliminate these problems by monitoring the batteries condition of charge through its retroactive control circuit by applying a high charge current until the battery is completely charged. When charging is complete, it turns on the red LED (LD2) and deactivates the charging circuit. This circuit is drawn to charge 12V batteries ONLY. Certain emphasis should be taken when wiring up this circuit. They are the connections of the transformer to the circuit board, and those supplying current to the battery being charged. These connections should be made with cables having a large cross-sectional area to prevent voltage-drop and heat build-up when current flows through them. See
Automatic 12V Lead Acid Battery Charger
This battery charger will charge any 12V lead acid battery including flooded, gel and AGM. It is fully automatic and will charge at a rate up to about 4A until the battery voltage reaches a preset point at which it will switch to a very low current float charge. If the battery voltage drops again the charger will begin charging until the voltage once again reaches the cut off point. In this way it can be left connected to a battery indefinitely to maintain full charge without causing damage. An LED indicates when the battery is fully charged.
You may be interested in reading: Power Adapters or Power Supplies
