Carcoon Battery charger
Discussion
I am after a bit of advice from carcoon users.
I had fancied one for years, but never been able to justify the price. A few months ago I chanced upon a second hand one. It arrived without any instructions, although to be fair it is pretty self explanatory.
To fit it into my garage required a bit of a clear out and that didn’t happen until last weekend.
The car is in it, it is inflated and all is good.
It has a built in battery charger which is supposed to be “intelligent”. I have an Odyssey battery in the Griff. Unlike most modern intelligent chargers, the carcoon charger does not have a specific setting for gel / AGM batteries.
The Griff has been SORNed for a while and the battery was last charged a month ago. Not a problem, it started, to get it out the garage and started to drive back in again. Turned over quickly, no evidence of a flat battery.
It had been on the carcoon charger since the weekend and the indicator light on the charger is still showing that the battery is not yet fully charged.
My question is, is that normal? I.e is it a very low powered charger so unless the battery starts fully charged, it takes days / weeks to charge it?
Or, is that a “feature” as it is not meant / designed to be used with an AGM / gel battery?
My biggest concern would be not buggering the battery by using an inappropriate charger, but as I understand it, low powered chargers can be used on gel / AGM batteries even if they don’t have a specific setting.
I had fancied one for years, but never been able to justify the price. A few months ago I chanced upon a second hand one. It arrived without any instructions, although to be fair it is pretty self explanatory.
To fit it into my garage required a bit of a clear out and that didn’t happen until last weekend.
The car is in it, it is inflated and all is good.
It has a built in battery charger which is supposed to be “intelligent”. I have an Odyssey battery in the Griff. Unlike most modern intelligent chargers, the carcoon charger does not have a specific setting for gel / AGM batteries.
The Griff has been SORNed for a while and the battery was last charged a month ago. Not a problem, it started, to get it out the garage and started to drive back in again. Turned over quickly, no evidence of a flat battery.
It had been on the carcoon charger since the weekend and the indicator light on the charger is still showing that the battery is not yet fully charged.
My question is, is that normal? I.e is it a very low powered charger so unless the battery starts fully charged, it takes days / weeks to charge it?
Or, is that a “feature” as it is not meant / designed to be used with an AGM / gel battery?
My biggest concern would be not buggering the battery by using an inappropriate charger, but as I understand it, low powered chargers can be used on gel / AGM batteries even if they don’t have a specific setting.
Id be putting a test meter across the battery whilst its on charge and see the voltage, and then compare that to the recommended peak voltage for your gel battery. I think the important bit is a wet battery can gas off a bit as it reaches peak voltage, but a gel battery is sealed so you want to keep the peak voltage fractionally lower so gassing does not occur.
No disrespect to Carcoon (I’ve got one and they are a good product) but I never trusted that type of charger. One of them (not supplied by carcoon) let me down badly when it showed all ok on a battery that was actually as flat as a pancake.
You really don’t want the battery to fail when it’s inside the thing.
You really don’t want the battery to fail when it’s inside the thing.
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