Help me understand this lidl charger?

[julianf]

I have one of these chargers, bought from lidl or aldi years ago. It makes no sense to me at all -






So, i bought a brand new battery yesterday, and connected this up. It seems to bring the voltage up to 14.4v at 3.6 ish amps, and then drop back to 0.8A and 13.4ish volts.

And then the voltage is slowly (its been on since about yesterday lunch time) climbing again, at the stable 0.8A.


I thought the stage its in now would be absorption, but the example graphs ive googled seem to imply gradually falling current, and stable voltage, rather than a switch to a constant low current, and rising voltage.


Its irritated me for years that i have little idea how it works, and seems to spend most of its life in 0.8A mode doing stuff that i dont really expect it to be doing.

Can anyone explain it to me?

Thank you

 

[Pete.]

Put some tape over the display

 

[julianf]

Put some tape over the display

Ive had it not charge batteries before, just get to one part of its cycle and sit there, forever, at 0.8a. Im trying to work out if another charger would get over this issue.

 

[Gritineye]

Are you reading the voltage across the battery terminals after disconnecting the charger and letting the battery stabilise overnight?

If that's 12.6 - 8 you're all good.

 

[Matrixx]

it should raise the voltage to charge up the battery, once the current starts to drop off it knows it has charged the batteries then it will just go to a trickle charge to maintain the voltage.

ideally there should be a gassing stage but I guess they don't do this as it needs to be monitored.

 

[julianf]

it should raise the voltage to charge up the battery, once the current starts to drop off it knows it has charged the batteries then it will just go to a trickle charge to maintain the voltage.

ideally there should be a gassing stage but I guess they don't do this as it needs to be monitored.

Yes, thats what i thought, but this one seems to have two current settings (max, or 0.8A) and then the voltage changes.

I thought the voltage was supposed to be kept constant and the current drops off (as you say above)

 

[Kram]

I had one of these and its turd, as you say it seems to sit in low current and does not matter what state if charge the battery is in - does the same with flat car or bike battery. Its cheap rubbish.

Instead I use an RC lipo charger, set in Pb mode charges perfectly and has the benefit of telling you how much charge taken, so you get a good idea how much life a battery has left.

 

[Bullet2012]

Yep, garbage machine. It will just keep going until the battery is toast.

 

[zzr1200]

It states, it's an intelligent microprocessor controlled charger, which basically means we aren't clever enough to understand want it wants to do, when and why!!!!

Does it charge a battery presumably, yes.

Connect it up, plug it in and let it get on with it....simple......

Disconnect when charged.........QED.

• Intelligent microprocessor control with diagnostics program and fully automatic charging process
• LCD display for charging programs, voltage value and charge status
• Pulse charge to recharge flat batteries
• Winter charging mode for low outside temperatures
• Reverse polarity, short circuit and overload protection
• Long-term connection for optimal charge retention without sulphate formation
• LEDs for polarity error warning and stand-by mode
• For all 6V or 12V car and motorcycle batteries with 1.2-120Ah capacity
• 4 programs for optimal adaptation to battery type
• Charging current: max. 5A
• Ambient temperature: -20°C / + 50°C
• Charging cable length: 2m
• Power cable length: 2m
• Operating voltage: 220-240V ~ 50Hz
• 3-year warranty

 

[julianf]

Ive been watching it, and i now know what it does, but not why -

Start >
3.6A constant, until voltage rises to 14.4v
Then drops the amps to 0.8A and the voltage to 13.4
Voltage then rises slowly back to 14.4
It then drops it back to a float of 13.5v @ 0.1A
and displays that its Finished.

So it does, kind of, what you would expect, but not really in line with any other graphs ive seen.

 

[m_c]

By the looks of that, it's got 3 stages.
1 - Constant high current charge until it reaches 14.4V
2 - Constant low current charge until it rises back to 14.4V
3 - Drops to a float voltage to maintain charge.

Not how most intelligent chargers work (they'd normally constant bulk current until 14.4V, then switch to constant voltage until current drops to set threshold, before dropping to a low voltage float charge), but it's doing a similar thing.

You'll probably find that if you put a load on the battery to drop the voltage, it'll restart the full charge cycle.

 

[Ross365]

Generally, I hate smart chargers, but that looks to be well designed. As we cannot top up with water with modern batteries, you don’t really want much gassing, so limiting the volts to 14.4V is good. Charging at the high rate (good for a flat battery) causes internal effects in the battery (polarisation) which means it shows 14.4V before it is fully charged. Dropping down to a trickle level enables full charge to be achieved without gassing.

I’d be happy to own that charger; can you tell us any more about it?

 

[Sean]

instruction manuals are usually available on the website

i know actually reading the instructions that came with the thing

 

[Gritineye]

I've got a lidle charger, looks a bit like that one only in red, it's had a lot of use and works fine.

It's even pulled a couple of batteries back from a near death experience, one being an Odyssey which are notoriously hard to recharge from dead flat.

 

[Fastdruid]

Generally, I hate smart chargers, but that looks to be well designed. As we cannot top up with water with modern batteries, you don’t really want much gassing, so limiting the volts to 14.4V is good. Charging at the high rate (good for a flat battery) causes internal effects in the battery (polarisation) which means it shows 14.4V before it is fully charged. Dropping down to a trickle level enables full charge to be achieved without gassing.

I’d be happy to own that charger; can you tell us any more about it?

Newer/updated version is on sale now.

Ultimate Speed Car Battery Charger - at Lidl UK

Ultimate Speed Car Battery Charger - Intelligent microprocessor control with diagnostics program and fully automatic charging process LCD display for

www.lidl.co.uk

I've got one (of the newer versions) and my only real annoyance is that you need to select what battery you're charging before it will charge. You can't "just" plug it in.

 

[lazybones51]

I have the same charger and have used to for years, can't say i've had any issues with it.

 

[Ross365]

Are people using those charges with the battery out of the car, or still in and connected to the car? I know that the latter is generally considered to be a bad idea.

 

[julianf]

The majority of the time, out if the car, but I'd have no issue connecting it when it's in the car also. As above it never goes above 14.4v. I don't know what modern smart alternator regulators throw out but I suspect buy my suspicion is that they also go up to 14.4?