What kind of battery charger for Sealed lead acid battery?

[pcscuba]

I have a powersonic 12volt 7 amp battery in my canister light. Can these batteries be charged by a standard battery charger or do you need a special charger?

[nickjb]

You need a special sealed Lead Acid battery charger. A normal car charger or NiCad cahrger will damage the battery. These are available from specialist electronics stores.

Here are a few in the UK (Not sure about USA, sorry):

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search/results.asp?hiddId=030514095609692&Criteria=lead+acid&CartID=030514095609692&image.x=12&image.y=8

[roakey]

When my old Schumacher (sp?) charger that came with my AUL cannister died.

I ended up with a "BatteryMINDer." I was able to buy one locally for about what I found them for on the web.

See: http://www.vdcelectronics.com/

Nice thing about the BatteryMINDer is that it comes with the "trailer connector" that'll plug right into the AUL battery packs just like the Schumacher, but instead of being an add-on, the plug is the "deafult" method of connection. For "Bananna plug" EE lights, you'll have to come up with an adapter or just use the battery clips that come included.

Roak

[mddolson]

charging rate is a fuction of charging voltage and battery resistance.

At low charge rates the hydrgen gas that's produced will recombine readily, however as the voltage of the battery comes up the resistance to charge increases and overheating and venting can occur. ( this is bad, it's vent Hydrogen gas!)

I charge my 10 Amp hour 12 V batteries over night with an inexpensive 12 volt 1 amp trickle charger. Charging current is about 1.0 - 1.2 Amps when the battery is low, and this drops to about 0.3 amps when the battery is full. This current warms the battery to touch but it doesn't over heat or vent.

Mike D