Deep cycle battery?

Question

how long will it take to charge a deep cycle battery on a 12 amp setting. The battery is about half charged.

Answer 1

First, if your deep cycle battery is about half charged, you should charge it soon. Deep cycles are not designed to be discharged more than halfway.

As for how long to charge it before it's full, that obviously depends on the capacity of the battery and its state of discharge. What is your Ah and/or Group rating? (And while we're at it, on what are you basing your estimate of state-of-charge? Did you measure it, or is it a guess?) As a rough estimate though, if you have (for example) a 100 Amp-hour battery discharged 50%, you would need to put in 50 Ah, or at 12 amps- 50Ah/12a= about 4 hours 10 minutes.

HOWEVER: the closer you get to a full charge, the slower you can put the juice into a battery without damaging it- which is probably what you'd do if you leave a 12 amp charger plugged in for 4 hours.

Is your charger adjustable? You might want to consider getting a 3-stage "smart charger". They aren't all that cheap but I'm guessing that if you try and maintain a deep cycle with a 12 amp charger, you'll end up spending that money on new batteries anyway...

try this link for more info on charging deep cycles:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...

good luck!

Answer 2

It will take about 12 hours to get a full charge at 2 amps, depending on the size of the battery. A good rule of thumb is if the battery was discharged fast you can charge it fast. Like if you crank and crank before it finally starts. It gets discharged fast and when the engine is running it will be charged at a higher rate then 2 amps. If the battery gets discharged slowly, like over winter storage you should charge it slowly.

Answer 3

12 amps?  NOT TOO LONG!!  i hope it's an automatic charger!

Answer 4

Deep cycle batterys are designed for a low amperage output over long periods of time, for example a trolling motor.  They have thicker plate construction as to retain a deeper charge, and are meant to be discharged and recharged a lot.  If you store it though in an undercharged state however, it may cause it not to accept a charge or last as long.  Recharge after every use, best to use a trickle charger, I'd say 2 amps, buy an optimate, that seems pretty good, for about 65 dollars or so, but it will maintain your battery.  Your question, how long it will take on a 12 amp setting???  Well, you are supposed to charge a battery at one tenth it's ampere-hour capacity.  If it doesn't charge up within 6-8 hours from where your at I'd say your battery is junk.

Answer 5

What is the Amh on the battery label? Take that number divide over 12Am. That will give the estimate time to full charge.

To not shorten the life of that battery, you should really charge it at 2Am.

Answer 6

a slow charge is better (2 amp), higher amps mean a faster charge BUT, it also wears down the life expectancy of the battery.