Can I charge my 7amp battery with my 3amp charger ?

[Deltree Exe]

My next issue.
Having bought the X-Peak 3 charger that is capable of giving 12V 3amp I
wonder if I can charge my fieldboxbattery.

The X-Peak 3 handles Pb-batteries and my fieldboxbattery is Pb 12V 7amp.

Can I charge it using the X-Peak 3 ?
Is it just having it running on 3 amp for about 2.5 hours ?

[Nigel]

Probably not.

Lead Acid cells should be charged at constant voltage and for a 12V battery
the charging volatge is around 14.7V. Also for the gel type used for field
batteries, it is recommended that the charge rate does not exceed C/10, or
700mA in your case.

The high ampage rates is aimed at NICADs which are charged using a constant
current method. Basically, the voltage is cranked up much higher than the
nominal battery voltage in order to drive 3A into it.

To be able to push 3A into the lead acid you would have to raise the voltage
well in excess of the recommended charging volyage and this would likely
damage it.

Note wet lead acids (such as those used in cars - real ones not models) are
much more robust and can be charged at much higher rates with unregulated
supplies. For this reason, never try to charge a filed battery with a car
charger.

Since your charger is lead compatible, I suspect that when selected it
regulates the output volatge at 14.7V.

Cheers,

Nigel

"Deltree Exe" <tor.rasmussen@tiscali.no> wrote in message
news:4071d567@news.broadpark.no...
> My next issue.
> Having bought the X-Peak 3 charger that is capable of giving 12V 3amp I
> wonder if I can charge my fieldboxbattery.
>
> The X-Peak 3 handles Pb-batteries and my fieldboxbattery is Pb 12V 7amp.
>
> Can I charge it using the X-Peak 3 ?
> Is it just having it running on 3 amp for about 2.5 hours ?
>
>