Community Forums

buddy110 · 03-16-2017, 01:39 PM

Hi folks,
A couple weeks ago it was explained to me about the three states of battery charging. Bulk is the initial, flood is when it's fully charged, but what I forgot intermediate status. Does anyone know?

Victory Blue · 03-16-2017, 02:19 PM

Float

buddy110 · 03-16-2017, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

Float

That's it. Thanks!

twinboat · 03-16-2017, 02:29 PM

Bulk, Absorbsion, Float.

757driver · 03-17-2017, 01:40 PM

Bulk is the first stage that a discharged battery enters and is current controlled. The current is limited by the size of the charger in the inverter and by the charge rate. For a 100 amp charger set at 80% charge rate will give 80 AH. If you have more than one inverter the two chargers will combine their output to charge the batteries.

The second charge phase is Absorbtion which is triggered by the programmed voltage setting in the Magnum inverter panel. The change over is a non temperature compensated value. If your Absorb setting is set to 14.7v as soon as the inverter panel sees 14.7v it will switch from Bulk to Absorb. If the BTS ( battery temp sensor) is significantly below 25C or 77F the absorb voltage will increase proportionately. The Absorb phase is at a constant temperature compensated voltage which is held there by slowly decreasing the current to maintain that voltage. The Absorb phase is a timed phase and is either controlled by a setting called " Absorb Time" or in older inverter panels and the Vegatouch panel it is controlled by the size of the battery bank setting. The larger the battery bank entered the longer the Absorb time.

Once the preprogrammed time expires the battery bank enters the Float stage which holds the battery bank at the voltage set in the Magnum inverter panel, for example 13.5v. This voltage is temperature compensated so if the batteries are cold the Float voltage will be higher than programmed and if the batteries are warm the Float voltage will be lower than programmed.

Depending on final charge settings and other factors the batteries will either stay in Float indefinitely or will go to Full Charge after 4 hours where the charger shuts off and waits for the battery voltage to drop to 12.6v at which time the charger turns back on in Float mode and charges the batteries for another 4 hours before turning off.