Flecc

[mygrumpy]

Hi.Flecc.can you help with this one.Where do you wire the charger plug. 4 12v batteries wired series and parallel. John

 

[flecc]

Hi John. Series-parallel charging of battereies in combination isn't recommended generally, though I have done it successfully at times. It's better to do it with series only in two separate goes. Of course that means adding isolating switches for charging which you probably won't want to do.

So if you want to try series parallel with a 24 volt charger, the charge connections will be the same as those delivering current to the bike, the charger positive to total battery positive, the charger negative to total battery negative.

The best results will be if the batteries are all identical and bought at the same time from the same batch.

Doing it the first time, stop after an hour or so and check that the individual battery charges are progressing roughly in line, a careful voltage check on each individual battery after switching off the charger and pausing for a minute or so should be sufficient. If all's well, carry on to full charge. The charger cutoff if automatic can leave the batteries a bit unbalanced, but if they are healthy batteries they should settle to an even state.

All being well, they will tend to improve and self match over the next few charges.

If you do experience any problems, post back and we'll suggest some solutions.
.

 

[john]

If you are talking about SLA batteries then I don't think that parallel charging should be a problem. John.