View Full Version : Is 6 amp charger enough
I'm looking at a guest 1 bank 6 amp charger to use with a used boat. I only have a 12 volt system. The battery will be a group 27 battery with 180 reserve minutes. The trolling motor is a 812 auto pilot. Any opinions on a 6 amp charger? Is it enough. I like the price of this unit at 55 dollars.
Dutchman
04-18-2001, 05:17 PM
Dan, if your not in a hurry to charge your battery's it'll be fine. 10 amps will charge them faster, but apparently not cheaper. Myself, I run my bowmount battery's down to near zero and want them totally charged in 8 hours, so I can run them down to near zero again, and again.........
T-Mac
04-18-2001, 06:40 PM
It will not do the job you want done.
I agree with t-mac. With only a 6 amp charger, you are only charging - on average- with about 3 amps. If you have a 100 amp hour battery that is nearly discharged, it will take a full day and 1/2 to bring it to charge. In some cases, for a very discharged battery, the 6 amp charger won't have enough energy to knock it off the bottom of its discharged state.
I think that you will find from the experience of many folks that the charge time between a 6 amp charger and 10 amp charger, although a nominal 40 % difference, really charges the battery in much less time.
Go with the 10 amp charger, you will be much longer for the long haul.
Take care
REW
Mattman
04-19-2001, 03:01 AM
DanL - I have a 12 volt system. 36 pound thrust trolling motors with group 27 batteries. And 1.5 amp trickle chargers/maintainers (got them as gifts) for each one. If the battery is almost completely drained it will take 3 days for it to get back to full charge. On a typical "long fishing day" drain on the battery the trickle charger will bring my battery up to a charge that will easily carry me through a second day of fishing, over night. Typically I don't need to charge during a weekend. I work 4, 10 hour days so I have a three day weekend. My batteries are always ready to go by Thursday night. I usually fish on Friday and plug the batteries in over night just because. Why not? I ususally fish one more day and sometimes both. I've never been starved for, or run out of power. I periodically drain my batteries completely and charge them with a portable deep cycle charger. I'm not telling you that you should do this. Just that this is what I do and its worked for me. I'd prefer a larger charger, but this has worked.
If you want to go fishing the next morning, you will need a charger that will do the job overnight. FORGET 6 AMPs. It would be like paddling a canoe with a wooden spoon. The bare minimum is 10 amps.