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Re: Pulse chargers / parasitic voltage loss

To: "PJ McGarvey" <pj_mcgarvey@hotmail.com>, shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Pulse chargers / parasitic voltage loss
From: Mike Rambour <mikey@b2systems.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 12:29:50 -0800
   My 67 Dino is even older than your VW with even less parasitic 
stuff, the clock alone is enough to keep my charger from charging the 
battery.  I have one of those Red topped gel batteries from SEARS in 
my car, if that is the same as your "Red top" I think the gel 
batteries require a little more juice to keep charged, my charger 
works fine to keep my 03 GMC fully charged yet won't keep my Dino 
fully charged.  Its charged enough to start the car though.  What I 
finally did on my Dino was buy a battery disconnect and just reset 
the clock when I want to drive it (if I even bother to do that).

         Mike

At 11:10 AM 1/17/2006, PJ McGarvey wrote:

>I purchased a RediPulse charger/maintainer for my car which I don't 
>drive much anymore.  Leaving the charger hooked up for more than a 
>month, I've noticed that it doesn't do a good job of bringing the 
>voltage up from say 7 to 12 volts very quickly at all - the way a 
>battery quick charger would.
>And that even leaving it hooked up for about 1-2 weeks, it won't 
>keep the battery completely charged.   I have a year-old Optima 
>red-top battery.
>
>After talking to Pulsetech, they explained that parasitic voltage 
>drain might make keeping the battery fully charged unavoidable.  I 
>can buy that, but I have a 98 VW GTI, not a newish car with lots of 
>doodads, and I can sometimes get a week out of the battery w/out a 
>charger on it anyway (that was in warmer weather though...).  So I'm 
>a bit disappointed to find that I may still need to 'jump' the 
>battery to get the car started if I need to drive it.
>
>The charger is working fine, indicator light is on, and it's putting 
>out the required voltage.
>
>Are there any ways to reduce any of this parasitic voltage loss or 
>track down which devices might be the worst?  I could pull some 
>fuses, but that would be a pain to plug back in considering where 
>the fuse panel is.  I don't even leave the security system armed, no 
>interior lights are on, basically just the basic LCD clock and odometer are on.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Thanks,
>PJ


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Rambour
Bug Writer err...Programmer
       mikey@b2systems.com
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