Rugged…Tough…Intelligent….Automatic…Waterproof…Reliable Battery Chargers

Environmental Factors

1. Is a Waterproof charger required? What are the temperature and humidity requirements? Will the charger be exposed to the element? Will it be used in a highly polluted environment where dust and grime are prevailing? Will it be used in environments where condensation can be produced? Is an extreme temperature range required for very cold environments? Chargetek has units with operation to –35C! The waterproofing provides a hermetic seal that makes it impervious to these situations. In addition, Chargetek uses only UL94-V0 encapsulation material to insure that highest level of safety

2. Vibration and shock requirements: Do you have a mobility, marine or industrial application where severe vibration can occur regularly? If so, you may want to consider the waterproof series. The encapsulation transforms your unit into a "brick" that allows no movement of external parts preventing things from "shaking loose" and resulting in failure.

System Electrical Factors

1. Input AC voltage range: Will the charger be operating from 110VAC or 220VAC? Chargetek offers units in both input ranges.

2. Number of battery banks required to be charged: How many batteries are required to be charged. Is it possible to save cost by using a multi-bank charger as opposed to a single output unit? For example, consider a 24V system comprised of two 12V batteries in series. The entire battery pack can be charged with a single 24V unit or the two 12 batteries can be individually charger using a CT500 dual output units. Chargetek offer single, dual and triple output units that can be configured in many ways, check the "System Configuration" section.

3. Do the banks share a common negative or are all banks isolated: There will be a significant cost savings if the batteries share a common negative. If the batteries are stacked then the isolated output series are required.

4. Battery Stack Considerations: If your application requires a stack of batteries to generate a 24/36/48V output then there are several factors to consider both in system design and choosing a charger.

a. Charge Balancing: When batteries are charged in series by a single output charger, there is no way to determine if both batteries (24V system for example) are being equally charged. Although the current being applied to both batteries is identical, the capacity, age, specific gravity, etc. of the two batteries may not be close enough due to aging (assuming the batteries are an identical type) resulting in unequal battery voltages. For example, it may be possible for one battery to be at 16V and the other to be at 13V. The multi-output charger compensates for this by charging and monitoring each battery separately.

b. Tapped Loads: A single output charger should not be used if the loading off the stack is not equal. For example, if there is a 12V load off the first battery and another from the entire stack, the discharge currents for the two batteries will not be equal and therefore equal charging currents will not provide an balanced charge to both batteries. Similarly, when building a stack all batteries should be the same type. Again, the multi-output charger compensates for tapped loads by charging and monitoring each battery separately. This could actually save the requirement for adding a third battery if a 12V load is required. In any case, the loads should be cut off if any battery voltage is less than 9.5V since this is a deep discharge and continually draining the battery at this point is not recommended.