Bargain Battery Charger

[Sebastian]

Honestly, I don't get how you can even consider a 20A charger to be adequate - let alone recommend it to others. My T6 pulls 40+ A for up to an hour when I connect it after a lot of short distance driving. Considering that all start-stop models only charge the battery to 80-85% (to leave room for recuperation), this is not really a surprise. Even after a few hours, the load (with infotainment etc. already switched off) falls into the 12-18 A range. A charger labelled for 20A, doesn't actually produce as much (tried a current clamp to double check what it actually delivers?!).

Back when I used to do AAPEX with RT, we had a 25A (yellow'ish) charger hooked up to a Q5. Even with systems shut down, the charger was not able to maintain the current draw necessary for the car not to shut down more systems. We had to (de-)code DRLs and stuff in order to get the consumption down... There is a reason why manufacturers recommend 50/70/110 A these days.

I am normally using a Fronius 35A which has all the nice features (true buffer mode for diagnostics, standard charging modes for agm/wet/gel batteries, switchable between 6/12/24V and desulfatation etc.) which has been great for diagnostic and demo purposes (my older Fronius 25A charger is not enough for modern cars - as it was running on MAX current a lot of the time). How does a charger w/o any modes figure which battery is installed? It can't tell by itself if it needs to put out the proper voltage/current for agm/gel/wet. Standard charging differs from buffering as well. Does it recognize whether or not plus/ground are reversed or will it just push out current either way and cause a short? We do complain when customers have shitty chargers and then we blame communication issues and other shit on the charger. Then we turn around and use something like this?! *headscratching*

Long story short, considering how much we all use battery chargers in our work life - is this really the place to save money?

 

[Jack@European_Parts]

hys·ter·e·sis talk ............ /\

 

[Uwe]

Honestly, I don't get how you can even consider a 20A charger to be adequate

If the voltage stays above 13.0V, then I consider it adequate. That means the battery is not being discharged. Of course, I turn off the big consumers like headlights, seat heaters, and HVAC blower...

My T6 pulls 40+ A for up to an hour when I connect it after a lot of short distance driving.

Sure, you're re-charging a battery. All I ask is that the battery not be drained while I'm scanning. But then I don't have a car with a start-stop that's abusing the heck out of my battery either.

-Uwe-

 

[Jack@European_Parts]

"Dishonestly" huh Mr. Battery Sulfate.......?

 

[c-gar]

https://www.amazon.com/Clore-Automotive-PL2320-Battery-Maintainer-20/dp/B007ESQW08?ref_=ast_sto_dp

any thoughts while i'm waiting for price to drop again?

 

[Uwe]

any thoughts while i'm waiting for price to drop again?

With anything that (relatively) cheap my only thought is: Check that it doesn't put the car's ground at some potential different than earth ground. A decent charger won't, but some Chinesium products will, and then if your computer is referenced to ground (i.e. if it's also being power from something other than its internal batteries), you risk letting the magic smoke escape from your interface.

-Uwe-