v8kid
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| posted on 29/12/07 at 09:43 PM |
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Test of cheap Tronic 4X battery charger.
Recent posts got me interested if this charger really was as good as chargers 3 times the price so I borrowed a few instruments and spent a couple of
spare hours testing this charger. This is no Which report but I hope it is reasonably accurate and will be informative.
I tested the charger on an Odyssey PC680 and on a wet cell 60Ah slave battery both of which were in good condition. Although Tronic do not say in
their literature the winter setting (14.7v) should be used for Odyssey and similar batteries.
I was not able to fully test the recovery mode as I did not fancy knackering a good battery and I did not have a scrap one to hand but the
manufacturers claim that up to 10.5 volts the battery is pulse charged and that this rejuvenated tired batteries.
From 10.5 volts the charger is supposed to charge at a constant 3.6 amps but mine could only manage 3.0 amps on both battery types.
Between 14.17 volts and 14.66 volts (14.4 volts on wet cell setting) the charge rate dropped to 800ma.
At 14.66v the charger then switched off. To test the claim that it would switch in again only when required I switched the sidelights on and found
that the charger switched on when the battery volts dropped to 12.9 volts. The charge rate was reduced to 70ma and within 1.5 minutes the voltage rose
to 14.66 and the charger switched off.
When the charger was disconnected the resting battery voltage dropped to 12.96 volts after 24 hours. From this I concluded that the trickle charge
would be less than 1.7mah in a 24 hour period and the chances of overcharging were negligible
Note that on this battery 100% capacity is achieved at 12.84 volts and so the charger is capable of maintaining 100% charge.
The accompanying leaflet was poor and did not explain the different charging voltages for wet and gell batteries or explain how the trickle function
worked.
My past experience of Lidl tools has not been good and I was surprised at how well this charger worked. It costs £13 from your local store and
compares to £40 on eBay for a similar charger delivered.
I’m delighted with this charger and at this price will purchase another to hard wire into my trailer.
I hope this report has been of use to other Locosters.
See link below for graph of output.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/upload/tronict4x%202nd%20test%20(452%20x%20600).jpg
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MkIndy7
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| posted on 29/12/07 at 09:58 PM |
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Some very interesting findings.
I've been very impressed by the Tronic Charger I got from Lidl I got when they were last on offer, I'm not sure if its an X4 though, but
either way for the money I certainly can't grumble!.
Just incase peoples local Lidl might have run out of them, Aldi also have something similar on offer for around £12 which charges upto 3ah (I think)
and then reduces to a maintanance charge, I think it does battery recovery as well.
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Guinness
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| posted on 30/12/07 at 10:07 AM |
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Another happy user of the tronic charger from Lidl / Aldi or wherever I got it from.
Car is constantly attached to it when in the garage. Haven't had a flat battery since I bought it.
Well unless you count the time I hadn't connected the charger up and the kittens turned the indicator on underneath the car cover!
Mike
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whitestu
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| posted on 30/12/07 at 11:26 AM |
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I've got one of the tronic chargers, and whilst it works well on a partly charged battery, it had no effect at all on my battery after I left
the lights on and totally flattened it.
So if the battery is completely flat its crap.
Stu
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