Whew! :~(  Powerful stuff for an old fart-nerd.

tHowever, so far the GMC DEKA's seems to be working fine.  I will let you know when/if they fail but now two years into the experiment.  Normal acid battery's only last three years max here in SW Florida so I guess i'm two-thirds into the life of a normal battery.  Will be interesting to see how long these last with Intelli-Power.

Thank you.  I am never too old to learn. PM

On Mar 14, 2011, at 4:18 PM, David Beierl wrote:

> At 03:28 PM 3/14/2011, A PETER MARSH wrote:
>> conditioner/charger along with a Charge Wizard made by Progressive Dynamics.  Their products can be seen here:- http://www.progressivedyn.com/power_converters.html
>> The unit is permanently mounted under a bunk and just idles along doing its thing without any challenges.  They are not inexpensive but seem to be well worth their money.  Sometimes there are refurbed "specials".
>
> Just FYI, Peter - the Charge Wizard only meets DEKA's charging specs for bulk charge for battery temps between 40-49F, and for float  between 60F and 80F.  According to their brochure, at 80F battery temp the 14.4 volt bulk charging voltage will reduce the battery life by around 60%.  At 80-89F they specify an optimum bulk charging voltage of 13.5 and a maximum of 13.8, with an optimum float of 13.2 and max 13.5.  The Charge Wizard in storage mode meets this, except for the periodic excursions into the 14.4v overcharge voltage.
>
> The 2020 likewise will thoroughly overcharge a gel battery, although the 2100 series apparently has a model available with a lower setting for gel batteries.  But generally speaking, DEKA expects to see a charging regime *all the time* which includes active temperature monitoring at the battery post.
>
> And running a gel battery on an automotive regulator will mean that depending on temperature it will either undercharge below about 60F, or overcharge above it; and gel batteries are even more sensitive to overcharging than AGM batteries.
>
> http://www.dekabatteries.com/assets/base/0139.pdf
>
> I wish this stuff were easy...
>
> Yrs,
> d
> ps - http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/humour.html
>
>