Today, among car enthusiasts you can find the opinion that gel batteries are difficult to charge. Due to the low prevalence of the required chargers (chargers), the charging process becomes problematic. Indeed, gel batteries are quite demanding in terms of charging current and voltage. However, the situation in this direction is changing, more and more necessary chargers are appearing. Let's try to figure out which one is better to choose for your battery.
In the West, gel batteries have been offered for several decades, and all the necessary equipment for them is available on the market. In our country, they are not yet so popular, since car owners simply do not know about all the advantages of these batteries. When used and charged correctly, gel batteries do not cause any problems and have a longer service life than conventional lead-acid batteries. But it requires a charger with additional capabilities or recharging with a second battery, which will be discussed below.
It is especially important that the gel battery should not heat up. If it gets very hot during charging, then part of the gel turns into a liquid state. Even if you have charged the battery and the battery shows normal parameters, it will not function normally. When returning it to the workplace, the destruction of the gel electrolyte continues and eventually it will fail.
In this article, we will not consider any specific memory models. New models from different manufacturers are gradually appearing in stores and separate articles will be devoted to their consideration. Here we will look at the operating procedure of the average device for charging gel batteries. It includes the following steps:
Here it is especially worth noting the ability of the charger to turn off after reaching certain battery parameters. If you continue charging further, this will lead to battery failure. This is the main difference from standard lead-acid batteries, for which if charging continues longer than expected, nothing particularly bad will happen.
Regardless of the type of battery, they all require periodic charging. Gel ones are no exception. Can this type of battery be charged with a regular charger? Gel electrolyte requires special methods for charging the battery of a car, scooter, or boat. Compliance with the charge restoration conditions will extend the service life of the energy source.
The question of how to charge a gel battery with a conventional charger is often asked. But the technology for charging a battery with liquid electrolyte and gel is different. Can gel batteries be charged from a regular charger? A high charging current will melt the gel, which will not recover. There are other problems:
Everything is explained more simply. Connecting to a regular charger will inevitably warm up. If the case was cooled quickly, liquid has already formed in it. Gradually it will dissolve the remaining gel. A sign of destruction is heating of the housing during operation.
Since it is not always possible to buy a “smart” charger, a way has been developed to charge a gel battery from conventional chargers. This will require an intermediary - another battery, even an old, used one. It will work as an energy transformer, reducing the charging current parameters.
Both batteries need to be connected in parallel, the charger must be connected to the transformer battery. The impact on a gel battery will be milder. After making sure that charging is in progress, you need to determine the degree of heating of the gel battery case. If there is no heating, you can restore the container within 2 hours. After measuring the parameters, depending on the readings, continue charging for another hour or two. Is it possible to charge the battery if it starts to heat up immediately? No, it needs to be disposed of.
How to charge the battery correctly? The gel battery charging technology consists of several stages. In this case, a special charger is used. What voltage can you charge a gel battery? The battery data sheet contains the threshold voltage. On most devices this is 14.4-14.5 V. But you need to know the permissible maximum for your product. Exceeding the value will lead to the destruction of the gel.
How to choose a charger for a car gel battery, how to charge?
We already know that even a short-term excess of the charging voltage above the threshold specified in the passport is unacceptable. The current should be about 10% of the capacity of the gel battery. What current should I charge at 60 A/h? A tenth will be 6 amperes. Fast charging is possible using 30% current of the capacity. To maintain charge in the gel battery, there is a Standby USE mode with voltage parameters of 13.5 -13.8.
The basic requirements for a charger are the ability to regulate and maintain current and voltage parameters. There must be a temperature compensation function; without it, overcharging is possible, which is unacceptable. It’s good if the thermometer is remote. Automatic charging mode and timely shutdown of the current consumer will make the process reliable.
How to charge a car's gel battery is outlined in step-by-step instructions:
How long to charge a gel battery depends on the current supplied. At 10% of the capacity, charging occurs in 12-14 hours. But by halving the indicator, we will increase the time to 24 hours, but we will extend the shelf life of the device. If you need to charge quickly, increase the current.
Charging should be carried out in stages. First, a constant current is established, with the voltage increasing to normal. In the second stage, a constant voltage is maintained, and the current gradually decreases until the capacitance reaches its maximum.
12 volt gel batteries can be automotive (starter) or traction. We’ll figure out how and how to properly charge both, and what’s the difference.
The starter battery is characterized by an operating mode when up to 2-3C20 of current is supplied to start the engine for a short time. The charge is restored during the period of movement when the generator produces energy. But will a gel battery in a car be fully charged? On-board electronics do not allow capacity to be restored to 100%. Therefore, periodic recharging to nominal is necessary. If you use the iMAX B6 universal car charger or other similar charger, charging the gel battery will not be difficult.
Having set the necessary parameters - nominal voltage, number of cells, charging current on the “smart” charger, you need to indicate the type of battery. A universal charger with a microprocessor will take care of how to properly charge a gel car battery.
How to charge a 12 V traction battery with gel electrolyte? The algorithm has been slightly modified here. In the saturation phase, the charging current restores the battery capacity. But since the capacity is large, a current of 0.1-1.0 C20 is used. C20 is the digital value of capacity, measured in A/h. When the nominal voltage at the terminals reaches 13.8-14.4 V, the charge is about 80%.
The absorption stage begins. Active ions pass into the massive lead plates, like into a storeroom. Due to diffusion, the charge accumulates, the current is absorbed less and less, down to 0.02C20. During absorption, the current does not depend on the charger, only on the capacitance of the plates. It is this process that allows energy to be used evenly and for a long time during discharge.
An indicator characterizing the operation of a traction battery is charging efficiency. This indicates what percentage of the energy received is used effectively. Gel batteries have an efficiency rate of 90%.
Features of energy sources for a motorcycle, scooter, snowmobile in their small capacity. Therefore, even a universal automotive device does not support low currents. How can I charge a small capacity gel battery? You need to choose an “intelligent” charger. An example of an affordable charger is Benton BX.
How often do you need to charge a gel battery for a snowmobile or scooter? All batteries installed on extreme equipment are monitored by a tester. The voltage is measured at the terminals. An indicator above 12.7 V is good, below - a gel battery of a motorcycle, snowmobile or other equipment requires recharging from the mains. To ensure trouble-free operation of the battery, short-term mains charging is recommended once every two months.
Regardless of whether you have a car, scooter, or boat, a gel battery is installed. Proper charging after long periods of inactivity or deep discharging should take at least 12-14 hours. A current of 0.1 C20 or a little more is used. Do not turn off the power if the battery is not fully charged. The process must be under control. Do not allow the battery case to heat up.
To learn how to properly charge a gel battery, watch the video.
I am posting an interesting and accessible in detail circuit diagram of a gel battery charger assembled on a common op-amp chip LM358, developed at my request by the author of Aenigma. The memory is assembled on SMD parts for small cases, thoroughly tested - it works flawlessly.
The HL1 LED (end of charge indicator) begins to light up when the battery voltage reaches approximately 7 V and lights up at full brightness when the voltage reaches 7.2 V. After this, the battery voltage remains constant, so it is impossible to recharge the battery. Resistor R2 allows you to more accurately set the charging current to 0.45 A. Resistor R7 sets the maximum voltage on the battery to 7.2 V. An LED has been added to the circuit, a power indicator that is constantly lit. Zener diode KS133G (VD1) can be replaced with any 3.3...3.9 V, for example KS139G, KS407A, KS407B, as well as from the series BZX55.In order for the LED to start glowing not at 6.8 V, but at 7 V, for this you need to reduce the resistance of resistor R8 to 0.5 Ohm by parallel connecting two 1 Ohm resistors with a power of 0.125 W each, set resistor R5 to 22 Ohm, resistor R2 - at 4.7 kOhm, resistor R3 - at 470 Ohm. This is how it was originally, this is how I did it.
The power transistor can heat up if you charge a very discharged battery, so a small heat sink is needed. A 0.5 W zener diode is sufficient, more is worse, since their minimum stabilization current can be higher, and in this circuit it plays a significant role. For example, the recommended zener diode KS133G designed for a power of 0.125 W. In general, the LED is whatever you like best. In this circuit, the current through it is automatically limited to 15 mA. It should light up when approaching approximately 7 V, the higher the battery charge, the brighter it is.
The printed circuit board can be very easily modified to accommodate ordinary elements if, instead of the patches of SMD elements, you carefully add contact circles under ordinary parts. In the archive I attach several options for charging boards. My scarf turned out to be compact, as always, and fit perfectly into the body.
Microcircuit LM358 You can look for SMD on boards from burnt-out motherboards, etc., which are abundant in computer repair shops. Plus, there are field plants and other useful details. I personally get it from friends, it’s all a lot and free.
This section of our catalog presents chargers for gel batteries from the world's leading manufacturers. We offer you these devices at more than reasonable prices - by purchasing from our company, you will make the right decision!
Gel batteries have an impressive number of advantages, but they also have disadvantages, and one of them is the difficulty of charging.
Traditional chargers for AGM batteries should never be used to recharge gel batteries for several reasons:
These are not all the features of gel batteries, for which they cannot be charged using standard chargers.
All chargers for gel batteries have the following functions:
Before buying a charger for gel batteries, you need to find out whether the device is equipped with elements for:
From us you can buy a charger for gel batteries that meets all of the above requirements. If necessary, we are ready to provide you with detailed advice on choosing a device, and our specialist will advise you not on the most expensive charger, but on the one that is ideal for you.
Do you want to make battery recharging safe, fast and high quality? Buy a reliable charger from our company!
New technologies are sweeping the world. Probably soon the old lead batteries will completely disappear, they will be replaced by AGM or GEL batteries. But are these new products really perfect? After all, they also have plenty of disadvantages, especially the “gel” version - the most important of them is its charging. If everything is more or less clear, then this is how things stand with its more advanced brother. Today I decided to write an article - how to charge a gel battery, it will be interesting to read...
I know this topic worries many motorists who want to get away from lead-acid batteries and put “new technologies” under the hood (I repeat — it's not the same thing). I would also like to remind you that the gel battery from the word “GEL” and not helium (GAS) must be understood for understanding so as not to be confused.
At the very beginning, let's remember the structure.
I don’t want to go into too much detail now - let’s remember the main aspects:
In general, the battery is simply a miracle, it produces high currents, does not discharge in cold weather, does not need to be topped up with electrolyte, etc. But what is his “Achilles heel”, where are his weak points?
Already in cost - it costs 3 - 4 times more than a standard battery. But this is not the only and not such a terrible negative point. You can close your eyes to the price and use such a battery, because its service life (if used correctly) is at least 3-4 times longer.
The biggest negative point is charging the gel battery! It is very demanding on voltage; if you exceed the permissible threshold, you can simply “kill” it in a matter of hours.
But first...
Current strength . The current is the same as on any other battery, that is, it should fluctuate between 10 and 30%. If you need to charge correctly and not damage the batteries, then set it to 10% of the capacity. For example - from 60 Ah - this is 6A. if you need to recharge but urgently, then up to 30%, and this is 18A, from our example. Here I think everything is clear. But what’s the tension here?
Voltage . Everything is more complicated; the gel version does not tolerate even the slightest excess voltage. Considered normal is 14.5 - 15.0 Volts. If you exceed the charge by even tenths of a volt, destruction processes are started inside that will simply disable it, and very quickly.
It’s very simple - you and I know what’s inside - GEL. This is an elastic but hard substance, somewhat similar to rubber (only white). At normal temperatures and normal charge levels, this gel is in the same state. But as soon as you exceed the threshold, let’s say you apply 15.5 - 16.0V, then the gel begins to melt - it melts like butter and the longer you recharge it, the more it will be destroyed.
It will lead to:
That's all after this, you can throw away your miracle battery! It's so easy to disable it. To be fair, it is worth noting that at low temperatures almost the same thing happens, the gel freezes and becomes brittle and brittle, so extremely low temperatures (below - 50 degrees Celsius) are also not desirable.
There is another feature - charge to save charge. On many gel batteries it is called Standby USE (waiting for use). Since the battery can be stored for years without recharging, it needs to be recharged occasionally. As the manufacturers write, once a year is enough. So you need to charge with a special voltage - from 13.5 to 13.8V.
In this mode, the battery will gain energy without harming itself and you can leave it to “save” for a long time.
After reading this, a fair question arises - is it possible and, most importantly, should it be used to start a car engine? You know guys, the question is not clear - on the one hand, high starting currents, fast charging, no evaporation of the electrolyte are just advantages. BUT - you need to constantly monitor (the device that regulates the voltage and does not overcharge the battery) - if it fails, the gel battery will literally be ruined in a day. If on foreign cars the quality of the relay is more or less (although anything can happen), then on our VAZs, especially on the classic drive, they very often fail. YES, you need to be able to install a gel battery on a classic, often the battery will cost half the cost of the car.
If you really “want to, but it’s too much,” as people say. It’s worth looking at special terminals, you know, there are those that have their own relay-regulators installed, that is, double protection is obtained, on the generator and on the terminal itself (if one fails, the second will save). True, such terminals are not very cheap, and they are difficult to find.
What remains in the end, namely, how to charge a gel battery:
If the process takes place at home, then the exact voltage is not higher than 15V (or better 14.4V), the current is from 10 to 30% of the capacity.
