How to charge a battery pack

[zingarofunkart]

the pic is of a Duracell DRPP600 Powerpack 600 Jump Starter Emergency Power Source. it has a 28 amp hr batt.
My question: should I use my generator (Honda 2000) and use the cigg. lighter plug to recharge it or should I use the 110v   gen outlet and the transformer supplied with the power pack.
Which method would be the most efficient, or better stated which would charge the fastest.
thx ..z

[dnix71]

You need to use the charger that came with it. You can't safely 'speed-charge' a sealed AGM battery like the one inside. If you overcharge the vent opens and the battery is ruined. The electrolyte inside is a gel and absorbed on a glass mat so it won't spill.

Charging that from a genset is very very wasteful unless you are running the genset already.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578629_200578629 This would be cheaper in the long run and only need to be done once every 2 weeks if you don't use the jump starter.

[zingarofunkart]

Well I finally got said battery pack and according to the instruction it has to be charged for 35 hrs. with the 110v transformer. It does have a cig to cig plug for hooking up to an auto. So your saying that using my Honda 2000 genset with the 12 v plug to a cig plug is going to overcharge the batterypack?

That don't sound right if they would provide the cig to cig plug and I feel an automotive alternator would produce more current that the Honda genset 12v outlet??

[dnix71]

The 110v wall charger is fine, but do you really intend to run a gasoline genset for 35 hours just to charge a small battery? Solar would take longer but it's free after you buy it and it makes no noise.

If you run the genset all the time anyway, that's different. The extra load won't be noticed. Plugging it in the dash of your car is okay as long as you remember to unplug it when the engine is not running. If anything went wrong with the jump-start battery and you left it plugged in your dash all the time it might drain the main car battery and leave you stranded.

[Simen]

I looked at the spec, and it states 35 hours when charged with the ac-adapter, and 4 hours when charged with the dc-outlet plug...

http://www.duracellpower.com/documents/tech-specs/DRPP600.pdf

That said; it's rather rough on the battery to charge it with C/4, so i find it odd that it's spec'd that way...

I'd guess that the dc-charge option are only to be used to 'quick-charge' the pack after using it to emergency-start a car, so one have some backup for the next emergency start until one fixes the start battery/car alternator...

[zingarofunkart]

Simen.. thanks for the reply on my other post. So what do you think about the  dc (cig charger) if ive got the agm + a deep cycle bat attached to the pack.. any diodes or what ever to stop the current to both batteries. thank again .. z

[Simen]

Adding a deep cycle battery in parallel will of course extend your capacity. But if you use that extra capacity, the  wall-charger would use ages to recharge the batteries. In this case, you should use a battery charger that can charge with one-tenth of your total capacity.
No diodes necessary.

[zingarofunkart]

Good, useful info Simen, but im not thru... So can I hook up the battery charger just to the flooded deep cycle bat that is hooked up to the power pack and safely recharge the agm inside the powerpack.. Im just guessin but common sense says if you hook up two batteries of different states of charge the will seek a common SG ? 
AND I would like to say for the final question (for this very moment Ü ) Ive got some old batt chargers but what would you suggest as a good charger to use with my H genset...
Again thx... O and is the sno flyin in Norway now??       z

[Simen]

To use two batteries with different capacities in parallel, both should be fully charged separately before they're connected together. After that, they balance each other out both during discharge and charge.

That said; connecting a flooded lead acid battery with a AGM battery are not recommended, since they usually require different charging voltages. (14.4V@25C for FLA vs. 14.1V@25C for AGM)
Check the rated output voltage from your 110V charger that came with the powerpack. If it states 14.4V, then it's ok to parallel it with a FLA battery. If you don't care if the powerpack battery are alive after 5 months, then it doesn't matter much..

You didn't mentioned the deep cycle battery's capacity, but can you manage with only that battery? What you really should do, is to find out how much power you need each day, and how often you wish to run the gen-set, and then make sure you have at least twice the battery capacity. No matter the battery type, max charge rate should be 1/10 of rated capacity (for your powerpack, that would be a 2.8A charger), and the charging time would be 5-6hrs. (Based on the rule that one should never discharge a lead acid battery below 50%.)

What charger to use with your gen-set? I've no preference, but any charger that can give 1/10 of your total battery capacity.

I live south in Norway, and the snow usually doesn't get here before end of december... Currently it's 22C outside and sunny, and my 1060Ah battery bank are almost fully charged from my solar array... http://mwlmf.net/monitor/monitor.py

[zingarofunkart]

Thanks Simen. Ive got a handle on the charger situation and yes the equipment is expendable