TS354C decompression?

[JINMA224XR]

<font color="blue"> I have about six of these and they work great. </font>

Hey Matt,

For a float charger at $5 a piece, that is a supper buy.

It appears that they charge at 600ma, which I am guessing to be about 1/2 amp. Is that enough to charge & maintain an auto or a 20 to 30 hp Diesel Engine Tractor Battery?

My little Schumacher, charges at 1.5amps, so that is why I am wondering.

At 1.5 amps, it takes about 8 hours to charge up a large motorcycle battery, from about 30% discharge.

I am thinking that 1.5 to 2 amps would be about optimum for the smaller batteries and 5 to 10 amps, being about optimum for the larger batteries.

Just a thought /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Have a nice day,
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Matt_A]

Joe,
I have them on two dirt bikes, one street bike, two cars, atv and my tractor. You may be right about the limited amp draw with the tractor. My tractor battery is completely dead. It is the original battery that came with the tractor three years ago so normal age is defintely a factor. My tractor got very limited use this year and sat in a field without a charger. It was showing signs of a weak battery last year. It is also the type you add acid to which from my understanding is of less quality that the gel type batteries.

I use to buy the cheapest battery I could for my Triumph streetbike and would have to replace it about every year and a half. I got sick of replacing it and got on the the charger plan. I have had good success. The small economy batteries for bikes, atvs don't seem to charge to full levels once they have fully drained.

What is the moral of this story? Don't buy so many motorized vehicles like I've done because you can't ride them all enough to make it worth your time /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JINMA224XR]

<font color="blue"> I have had good success. The small economy batteries for bikes, atvs don't seem to charge to full levels once they have fully drained. </font>

Hey Matt,

Sounds to me that you have a very good plan, that is working well, and that is what counts.

From what I have read and heard, as a battery begins to loose it's charge, the molecules, become less stable, and begin to attach themselves to the metal plates inside the battery. As the Plates become coated with more and more molecules, they cannot be 100% efficient and therefore, cannot be brought up to the same Battery Power, as when the battery was new. I think this is what they refer to as: The Battery Plates becoming Sulfated.

That's where the Trickle chargers come in, as they keep the ElectroLyte in a higher state of charge and helps resist the molecules from attaching themselves to the metal plates.

I see that there are also different chargers for Gel Cell Batteries, and I don't know what the difference is, but I guess there is something different going on in these type of batteries.

My 224 came with a sealed maintenance free battery, and I am guessing that it is one of the Gel Cell type of batteries. So far, it is doing good, but I probably should try to put some type of charger on that battery as well from time to time.

Have a nice day,
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[SPIKER]

that first link MattA psted for Homier is what I have, I bought 2 of them, one at a time, one is on my tractor and works great. the other one I have hooked up to some extra batteries that are out of cars. I tied the 2 car batteries in paralell, and the charger/maintainer is on them, I haven't checked the voltage to confirm the status, on those two, but the first one on my tractor has been a great help. I left the key on for 2 weeks fully killing the battery, (the oem china battery) I have a crate purchace so I had to charge it with acid from a dry state when tractor was new in 2002. it was on my charger after killing it for 2 weeks and would not take a charge any more than about 12.2 volts, so I put this on hopping it would knock off the sulphate on the plates. it now holds a 13.4 volt charge! so yes they work great.
probably the best 4.99 I ever spent, and was reason I got the 2nd one... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Matt_A]

Since this thread is about decompression I'll tie it back in with charging. When my battery was really weak the last few times that I mowed I had a really hard time getting the tractor to start. After leaving the battery connected to my car I finally got it started. I mowed about a half acre and was down in a low patch and accidentally killed the engine. I went to start the tractor and it didn't have enough juice to turn over the engine. I got a little depressed cause the sun was going down and this was my weekend job and the weekend was coming to an end. I couldn't get my car close enough to jump it so I started thinking I may have to replace the battery. After some brainstorming and remembering the decompression info I had read here I realized I could use the decompression lever to start the tractor using less battery power. Sure enough I turned the lever and she fired up.

I know you cold weather guys use this feature all the time but us guys who don't get much belows the teens don't normally use this nice feature.

 

[JINMA224XR]

<font color="blue"> it was on my charger after killing it for 2 weeks and would not take a charge any more than about 12.2 volts, so I put this on hopping it would knock off the sulphate on the plates. it now holds a 13.4 volt charge! so yes they work great.
probably the best 4.99 I ever spent, </font>

Hey Mark,

Do you remember how long you had to use the float/trickle charger on the battery, before the sulfated crystals were removed from the plates?

Have a nice day,
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[JINMA224XR]

<font color="blue"> After some brainstorming and remembering the decompression info I had read here I realized I could use the decompression lever to start the tractor using less battery power. </font>

Hey Matt,

I think that it was GregG, that recommended using the decompression lever, to help the starter and battery last longer.

I wasn't using mine all the time, but I am now, and mine just seems to start so easy now.

I must admit though, that it sounds so strange to me, just hearing the engine spinning over, before I release the decompression lever.

Have a nice day,
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif