7
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AUTOMATIC CHARGING AND BATTERY STATUS
MONITORING:
Battery Tender® chargers are completely automatic
and may be left connected to both AC power and to the battery that
it is charging for long periods of time. The charger output power,
voltage, and current depends on the condition of the battery it is
charging. Battery Tender
®
chargers have several
STATUS
LED
indicators that provide a visual means to determine the operating
mode of the charger and hence the condition of the battery
connected to the charger.
When AC power is first applied to the charger all of the LED’s will
illuminate for two to three seconds before starting the charge
sequence listed below once connected to a battery.
The two battery level
STATES
LED indicator lights are available to
determine whether the charger is operating in one of the four
primary charge modes:
1)
Qualification/Initialization mode:
The Monitor Circuit verifies
appropriate battery voltage levels and good electrical continuity
between the battery and the charger DC output.
2)
Bulk mode
(full charge, constant current, battery is 0% to 80%
charged)
3)
Absorption mode
(high constant voltage, battery is 80% to
100% charged).
4)
Storage/float maintenance
mode
(low constant voltage,
battery is 100% to 103% charged).
When the battery is fully charged, the battery level status (READY)
Green LED indicator will turn solid green and the charger will switch
to a storage/float maintenance charge mode. The Battery Tender
®
charger will automatically monitor and maintain the battery at full
charge
●
ATTENTION: The Battery Tender
®
CHARGER HAS A SPARK
FREE CIRCUITRY.
The output alligator clips or ring terminals will
not spark when they are touched together. The Battery Tender
®
charger will not produce an output voltage until it senses at least 2
volts from a Lead Acid/AGM battery or 6 volts from a LiFePO4
battery. It must be connected to a battery with the correct polarity
before it will start charging a battery. Therefore, if you plug the AC
power cord into an AC power outlet, and if the output alligator clips
or ring terminals are not connected to a battery, and if you touch the
alligator clips or ring terminals together, there will be no electrical
spark.
NOTE:
THE OUTPUT CLIPS OR RING TERMINALS MUST BE CONNECTED
TO A BATTERY BEFORE THE CHARGER CAN PRODUCE AN
OUTPUT VOLTAGE.
8
●
TIME REQUIRED TO CHARGE A BATTERY:
This Battery Tender
®
charges at a rate of 5.0 Amps or 2.5 Amp-
hours per hour. Therefore at 5.0 Amps a fully discharged 12V, 40
Amp-Hour battery will take approximately 6½ hours to recharge to
80% capacity.
●
WORKING WITH A DEAD BATTERY OR A BATTERY WITH A
VERY LOW VOLTAGE:
If you try to charge a dead battery having a voltage below 2 volts,
the Battery Tender
®
charger will not start. An internal safety circuit
prevents the charger from generating any output voltage unless it
senses at least 2 volts at the charger output. In this situation, the
CHARGING amber LED will continue to flash, indicating that a
charge has not been initiated.
NOTE:
If a 12 Volt, Lead-Acid battery has an output voltage of less than 9
volts when it is at rest, when it is neither being charged nor
supplying electrical current to an external load, there is a good
chance that the battery is defective. As a frame of reference, a fully
charged 12-Volt, Lead-Acid battery will have a rest-state, no-load
voltage of approximately 12.9 volts. A fully discharged 12-Volt,
Lead-Acid battery will have a rest-state, no-load voltage of
approximately 11.4 volts. That means that a voltage change of only
1.5 volts represents the full range of charge 0% to 100% on a 12-
Volt, Lead-Acid battery. Depending on the manufacturer, and the
age of the battery, the specific voltages will vary by a few tenths of a
volt, but the 1.5-volt range will still be a good indicator of the battery
charge %.
