Need Help Charging AGM Battery From Home AC Power

[PowerNS]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum, this is my 1st post, I'm hoping you can help me with a relatively simply question.

I previously had a small solar setup at my old house in the country, but moved last July to my new house here in the city, where I'm unable to setup my solar panel system because of the lack of space here.

I hate the city.

Since last July, my battery has been just sitting here not being charged, I kept hoping one day I could connect everything back up, but I now know that's not going to happen here any time soon.

I have a small trickle charger from Canadian tire, but it's really meant for car batteries, not the Eliminator renewable energy deep cycle 100 am hour AGM batter, which is also sold by Canadian tire for solar panel use specifically. I'm not sure if I can use the trickle charger on this battery, can I ??

I'm in Nova Scotia Canada BTW

My previous working setup was four 80 watt solar panels connected to an MPPT charge controller, then connected to the 12V battery, a very simple setup really. I also had a 1000W pure sine inverter connected, which will not be used ni this new "power box" setup.

I am wondering if I can take a 110V to 12V power adapter (the kind you can plug into a house wall outlet, and then plug any 12V car accessory into, such as a 12V cooler or something), cut off the lighter plug adapter, and connect this 12V output of the adapter directly into the MPPT solar charge controller, in place of connecting solar panels to it.

I hope I'm making sense.

I basically want to replace the solar panels with a house wall plugin 12V adapter, and charge the battery that way from house power, instead of charging it via the solar panels which I can no longer hook up here in my new house

The question is whether the 12V house wall adapter is safe to connect to the solar power battery controller/charger or not. If it is, this should be a safe way to charge this battery via house power right??

I would actually like to turn this unused battery into a portable battery pack to power my 12V computerized telescope from, most people use those car booster packs with a 12V outlet on them for this purpose, but I've got this hefty battery just sitting here not getting charged, so it would kill 2 birds with one stone if I could do this, keep my battery used and healthy and charged, and save myself the expense of going out and buying a car booster pack.

If the 12V adapter would not be a good idea to plug into the MPPT charge controller, what else could I do to charge my battery and keep it healthy, and used?

Thanks!

Here's the battery, charger, and 12V wall plug adapter that I am wishing to connect together to charge this battery from a house wall plug:

[SunEagle]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum, this is my 1st post, I'm hoping you can help me with a relatively simply question.

I previously had a small solar setup at my old house in the country, but moved last July to my new house here in the city, where I'm unable to setup my solar panel system because of the lack of space here.

I hate the city.

Since last July, my battery has been just sitting here not being charged, I kept hoping one day I could connect everything back up, but I now know that's not going to happen here any time soon.

I have a small trickle charger from Canadian tire, but it's really meant for car batteries, not the Eliminator renewable energy deep cycle 100 am hour AGM batter, which is also sold by Canadian tire for solar panel use specifically. I'm not sure if I can use the trickle charger on this battery, can I ??

I'm in Nova Scotia Canada BTW

My previous working setup was four 80 watt solar panels connected to an MPPT charge controller, then connected to the 12V battery, a very simple setup really. I also had a 1000W pure sine inverter connected, which will not be used ni this new "power box" setup.

I am wondering if I can take a 110V to 12V power adapter (the kind you can plug into a house wall outlet, and then plug any 12V car accessory into, such as a 12V cooler or something), cut off the lighter plug adapter, and connect this 12V output of the adapter directly into the MPPT solar charge controller, in place of connecting solar panels to it.

I hope I'm making sense.

I basically want to replace the solar panels with a house wall plugin 12V adapter, and charge the battery that way from house power, instead of charging it via the solar panels which I can no longer hook up here in my new house

The question is whether the 12V house wall adapter is safe to connect to the solar power battery controller/charger or not. If it is, this should be a safe way to charge this battery via house power right??

I would actually like to turn this unused battery into a portable battery pack to power my 12V computerized telescope from, most people use those car booster packs with a 12V outlet on them for this purpose, but I've got this hefty battery just sitting here not getting charged, so it would kill 2 birds with one stone if I could do this, keep my battery used and healthy and charged, and save myself the expense of going out and buying a car booster pack.

If the 12V adapter would not be a good idea to plug into the MPPT charge controller, what else could I do to charge my battery and keep it healthy, and used?

Thanks!

Here's the battery, charger, and 12V wall plug adapter that I am wishing to connect together to charge this battery from a house wall plug:

I would not connect a 12v power supply to the Charge controller instead of connecting solar panels. It will not work and may cause the CC to fail.

I can go into all types of reasons but instead I will just say you can use a battery charger that plugs into the 110v wall outlet to keep that battery happy.

The charger needs to be able to charge AGM type batteries and can provide at least 10 amps of charging. Too bad that the battery is sealed because being able to measure the acid content is better way to determine the state of charge SOC then just measuring the voltage.

[Mike90250]

We have a member here who has done a lot of research on battery maintainer chargers, I hope he will chime in, But if you have ANY 12V charger, hook it up to the battery Right Now and charge it for a couple hours, then disconnect it. Batteries self-discharge and 6 months is a long time for a used battery to stay full.

[SunEagle]

We have a member here who has done a lot of research on battery maintainer chargers, I hope he will chime in, But if you have ANY 12V charger, hook it up to the battery Right Now and charge it for a couple hours, then disconnect it. Batteries self-discharge and 6 months is a long time for a used battery to stay full.

I would agree with you that a battery sitting for 6 months may have lost a good deal of its life.

[PowerNS]

I would agree with you that a battery sitting for 6 months may have lost a good deal of its life.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.
I'm actually disabled, a cancer survivor, and have a brain injury also, so I've got alot on my plate, and I have memory issues. I simply just kept forgetting to address the battery issue when I moved.

Please see the attached pics of the trickle charger I've now connected as per your advice.

It is manual, not automatic, how long should I connect it for?

Is it really safe to use this charger with this type of battery?

I really wish I could just connect my solar panels again, problem solved, I really cannot afford to go out and buy a new battery charger that can charge this type battery, I was trying to save money building my own booster pack, now I'm faced with having to buy either a new charger, or booster pack, what to do.

[Logan005]

12v @ 1amp will only "float" maintain an already charged battery. you need a charger with bulk stage to get that battery charged to begin with. I used to charge batteries in the trunk of my car, from the alternator. then after it was fully charged I would put a similar trickle charger on it to maintain. I can't think of any other non-expense methods of charging. If you use/have a standard non-smart garage type charger on that battery, you will need to manually disconnect the charger to keep from cooking it.

[PowerNS]

Yeah, I was afraid of that.
I'm actually disabled, a cancer survivor, and have a brain injury also, so I've got alot on my plate, and I have memory issues. I simply just kept forgetting to address the battery issue when I moved.

Please see the attached pics of the trickle charger I've now connected as per your advice.

It is manual, not automatic, how long should I connect it for?

Is it really safe to use this charger with this type of battery?

I really wish I could just connect my solar panels again, problem solved, I really cannot afford to go out and buy a new battery charger that can charge this type battery, I was trying to save money building my own booster pack, now I'm faced with having to buy either a new charger, or booster pack, what to do.

So, what if I had a charger like the one in the below link connected to the battery at all times, and when the battery runs down, I just plug it in to a house wall outlet to recharge it?

Would it be OK to have this charger connected to the battery terminals at all time, and also have the 12V lighter plug adapter connected to the battery terminal at all times also?

I would not have a 12V accessory (my telescope or anything else) plugged into the lighter plug outlet which is connected to the battery terminals at the same time it is plugged into the wall plug charging.

The question is if you can leave the charger connected to the terminal at all times once it is unplugged from the house wall outlet, will it drain the battery or cause any issues when a 12V device like my telescope is being run from it later?

also, regarding the above question, is it safe to use that small manual trickle charger in the mean time to maintain this AGM battery?

I'm "guessing" it is a sealed AGM batter, it doesn't actually "say" it anywhere on the battery at all, but Canadian tire told me it was AGM when I bought it.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/no...-0111927p.html

[SunEagle]

So, what if I had a charger like the one in the below link connected to the battery at all times, and when the battery runs down, I just plug it in to a house wall outlet to recharge it?

Would it be OK to have this charger connected to the battery terminals at all time, and also have the 12V lighter plug adapter connected to the battery terminal at all times also?

I would not have a 12V accessory (my telescope or anything else) plugged into the lighter plug outlet which is connected to the battery terminals at the same time it is plugged into the wall plug charging.

The question is if you can leave the charger connected to the terminal at all times once it is unplugged from the house wall outlet, will it drain the battery or cause any issues when a 12V device like my telescope is being run from it later?

also, regarding the above question, is it safe to use that small manual trickle charger in the mean time to maintain this AGM battery?

I'm "guessing" it is a sealed AGM batter, it doesn't actually "say" it anywhere on the battery at all, but Canadian tire told me it was AGM when I bought it.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/no...-0111927p.html

I am unfamiliar with that type of battery charger.

According to the specifications it can be set up for AGM type and has both "float mode monitoring" and "auto shut-off". The only short coming would be the 3.5 amps which should be ok for a slow and float charge but may not be enough to properly recharge the battery in a short time period depending on how much you use..

[Logan005]

a smart charger can be left connected to the battery all the time. but you need to make sure the smart charger is capable of charging the size/capacity of battery you have. the Guest/genie charger you linked is a nice maintainer, but at only 3.5 amps may take some time to recover a heavily discharged battery. consider the next level of chargers of that brand. I have and use a Stanley 6,12,24,36,48 volt smart charger. delivers up to 17amps. it's made for charging golf carts, but works wonderful for many configurations of batteries. shop careful, I found for 125 dollars shipped brand new.

[PowerNS]

Thanks for your reply, it seems impossible to leave the house these days without spending $100 bucks, LOL
How about this one, it's 7.5 amps.

Then again, there is the marine one, which says it is 15amps, would it be a better choice?

I'm trying to adhere to a small form factor, to fit into one box, so that first small charger seemed great for that.
Given the choice between these 2 chargers, would you go for the larger one for less money, or, the smaller one for more money??

It won't let me save the whole link now for some reason, I'll paste it below:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-nautilus-battery-charger-15-10-2a-0111525p.html

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/noco-genius-g7200-smart-battery-charger-0111928p.html

[PowerNS]

BTW, my initial question also needs answering please, how long can/should I leave that motomaster trickle charger on my battery as shown in the above pictures?
Thanks!

[Logan005]

understood the Stanley is a large form factor.

[PowerNS]

understood the Stanley is a large form factor.

Is this the Stanley one you have??
http://www.amazon.ca/Stanley-GBCPRO-.../dp/B005DKIIJW

[SunEagle]

Thanks for your reply, it seems impossible to leave the house these days without spending $100 bucks, LOL
How about this one, it's 7.5 amps.

Then again, there is the marine one, which says it is 15amps, would it be a better choice?

I'm trying to adhere to a small form factor, to fit into one box, so that first small charger seemed great for that.
Given the choice between these 2 chargers, would you go for the larger one for less money, or, the smaller one for more money??

It won't let me save the whole link now for some reason, I'll paste it below:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-nautilus-battery-charger-15-10-2a-0111525p.html

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/no...-0111928p.html

Hard to say. Getting a 15amp charger for less then a 7.5amp charger might make me think the larger is not as good as the smaller. But again I have no hands on experience with any of those products.

As to answer your initial question concerning the motomaster trickle charger..... IMO even 1 amp continuous and uncontrolled charging of a battery can hurt it.

[Logan005]

yes. as I mentioned, it does many voltages and has settings for FLA, GEL and AGM, also has bulk and maintenance modes. display indicates voltage delivered as well as amps.