Battery Charging Question - Calcium Calcium 12V Batteries

[Chavbo]

Dear SXOC

As Mark & Stidi may have noticed on FB this week, I am utterly useless at anything to do with car electrics. Or electrics in general. Or cars in general.

I have 4x 12V Calcium Calcium type batteries I'll need to charge on a reasonably regular basis over the next few months, I'm sure they're of the marine variety.

I've been looking at a few chargers and most only mention they charge Lead-acid or Gel type batteries, but very few mention whether or not they can charge a Calcium Calcium battery. From an endless amount of Googling (and even asking a live human in an actual shop, apparently they still exist) I am still none the wiser... Well, I know roughly what Calcium Calcium means, but still clueless about what will actually charge one.

Basically, if a battery charger states it can charge a Lead-acid battery, does that include a Calcium Calcium battery? Or would trying that be a recipe for a long vacation to the Burns Unit?

Yours cluelessly,

Sam.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Basically C/C batteries replace the Antimony in the grid with Calcium as this reduces the amount of gas given off so the acid/water level doesn't drop.

This means a regularly used battery will remain charged and have a longer usable life.

The downside is they don't like being allowed to go flat. The coating on the grid becomes uneven when they recharge as the lack of gas means the acid doesn't get mixed around and they stop working as well as before.

Some chargers are able to recover flattened C/C batteries using a recondition mode that basically rebalances the coating allowing it to become fully charged and able to release the charge evenly and make it less inclined to go flat again of its accord. It does this by giving a discharged battery a 15.8V wack of charge for 4 hours (which causes gassing and the mixing of the acid).

In short, my recommendation would be to get a CTEK battery charger with a RECOND feature.

An MXS 5.0 for around £60 should be good for the job.

* This comes from research I did when checking out the feckin huuuge battery on my Jaaaag

[MEL]

You should do to the jaaaaaaaaagggggggggg what Sams car has had done to need the charger. If I'm guessing the right reasons for the charger

[Chavbo]

Thanks Jonny, that's brilliant These batteries have no connection to the alternator, so will regularly be run down and recharged. They are all brand new though, so hopefully can take a bit of pain.

Mel is indeed correct

[Jonny Wilkinson]

They're probably not the best type of battery for running total loss systems as they are designed for regular use and a charging and discharging pattern rather than a discharging THEN charging pattern.

You should be OK as long as you remember to recharge them as soon as they have been discharged and don't leave them a few days then try to recharge them.

I ran the same 12V lead-acid battery as the power source on a total loss setup for my race bike for 13 years, just keeping it on a trickle charger when it wasn't in use and it was fine.

All it had to do in a day was start the engine a dozen times and supply sparks though. No indicators, lights, horn, stereo etc.

I'd be interested to know what Amp hours they are and what will be draining the juice - if its not a secret project...

[piman2k]

I use a maintenance charger on my Calcium battery. Leave it on all the time.

[Chavbo]

They're probably not the best type of battery for running total loss systems as they are designed for regular use and a charging and discharging pattern rather than a discharging THEN charging pattern.

You should be OK as long as you remember to recharge them as soon as they have been discharged and don't leave them a few days then try to recharge them.

I ran the same 12V lead-acid battery as the power source on a total loss setup for my race bike for 13 years, just keeping it on a trickle charger when it wasn't in use and it was fine.

All it had to do in a day was start the engine a dozen times and supply sparks though. No indicators, lights, horn, stereo etc.

I'd be interested to know what Amp hours they are and what will be draining the juice - if its not a secret project...

Thanks, very good to know - the only real issue is that the car doesn't live at the house, it's in a lock-up with no power. Will just need to make sure the batteries come straight out for a charge when not in use. I didn't have a clue about the type of battery when I picked them up, but they were pretty cheap and this is very much on a tight budget...

No secret It's a Lowrider 4 batteries, 2 pairs linked to give 24v each side & powering 2 hydraulic pumps. They're in the region of 90aH each, from memory.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Oh OK. 90aH is pretty wafty. I guess the only issue would be having 4 flat batteries to charge at once.

You can buy multi-bank chargers but they are pretty specialist and you would be looking at around 4 times the cost of the ctek I suggested for something capable of charging 4 big batteries like you have.

Maybe think about getting two chargers so you can do them in pairs then trickle charge them on alternate weeks ?