Battery Charger Info Page

Battery Charger Information Page

Hello and welcome to our battery charger information page. We are currently still in the process of taking our full inventory of battery chargers live on our store-front, so you do not see what you are looking for chances are we have it and have yet to officially post it on our site. I reserved this little section here for any white papers or FAQ's regarding battery chargers. This section will constantly be undergoing updates, so if you have a question about any charger related issue head on over to the contact us page to run it past our technicians.

Battery Charger | Battery Maintenance Basics0

Battery Maintenance Basics

What is a Battery Maintainer?

A battery maintainer is essentially an automated battery charger that keeps the battery in a constant state of charge while not in use. The battery maintainer will take a periodic reading of the batteries voltage level to determine its state of charge and apply a trickle charge or remain in standby mode depending on the reading received.

Once a battery maintainer is connected to a battery, it will immediately take a reading of the batteries voltage to asses the batteries current level of charge. If the battery maintainer pulls a voltage reading that is below par, then it will immediately switch to its automated charge mode until the battery is brought up to its proper (charged) voltage level and switch into standby mode once the optimal voltage level has been reached. If upon connection to the battery the voltage level falls into the category of fully charged, the battery maintainer will then switch to a standby mode and monitor the voltage level until a charge is needed.

Why Is A Battery Maintainer Important?

A battery maintainer is a great way to help extend the life of your battery. One of the number one killers of batteries of all types is sitting around not being used for long durations of time. When a battery sits in an application for a period of time without being used, it will slowly start to discharge from lack of use and/or from small drains due to various electrical components that the application (motorcycle, car, jet-ski ect...) is equipped with.

As soon as a battery falls into a state of discharge, the process of sulphation begins. Sulphation (in a nut shell) is the internal buildup of crystalline deposits on the negative plate of the battery. These deposits will reduce the battery’s active material required for high-capacity and low resistance operation - meaning that it will diminish the capacity of the battery as well as lower the batteries charge acceptance.

What Type of Maintainers are Available?

We have several different lines of battery maintainers available for use with a wide variety of different applications. The most common battery maintainer that we currently sell is the NOCO GENIUS1 charger for power-sport applications and the CTEK US MXS 5.0 charger for use with larger applications (cars, boats, trailers ect..).

Introducing The NOCO G750 Battery Charger0

The NOCO G750 Battery Charger

The NOCO G750 battery charger is a plug-in and forget fully automatic 5 step battery charger and maintainer. The G750 is by far one of the most compact and versatile chargers in the enter NOCO wicked smart charger line. The G750 is designed for use with both 6 and 12 volt batteries ranging from 1.2 to 30 amp hours of capacity mainly found in power-sport applications such as motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, scooters ect.

How Does the NOCO G750 Charger Work?

The NOCO G750 battery charger is more than just a simple straight line charger that pumps continuous amps into your battery, it operates using a patented 5 step charging cycle governed and operated by NOCO’s VosFx processor. The 5 step charging cycle is what makes the NOCO G750 an extremely efficient and reliable battery maintainer.

Step # 1 - Diagnostics

As soon as the G750 charger is connected to a battery, it will immediately begin to diagnose the current state of the battery. If the battery falls below the optimal charge level the NOCO G750 charger will begin step two of its charge cycle - If the the battery is determined to be fully charged then the G750 will then skip to the final step of its charging process in order to monitor and charger the battery as needed to maintain an optimal state of charge.

Step # 2 - Soft Start

If the battery connect to the NOCO G750 is below or falls below its fully charged voltage level then the soft start stage will be initiated. The soft start cycle is a very light charge mode the preps the battery to take (and absorb) the full charge administered in step 3. Depending on the size of the battery you are maintaining, simply hitting the battery fast and hard with any level of charge is not ideal for battery health and retaining the actual charge being administered.

Step # 3 - Bulk

The soft start charge phase paves the way for the bulk phase. In the bulk charge step, the full output of the charger is pumped into the battery at a constant rate until the battery reaches 90% of its capacity. During the bulk phase, the NOCO G750 is constantly monitoring the voltage of the battery in order to determine where the battery stands in regards to its charge level.

Step # 4 - Absorption

Once the battery has reached a charge level of 90%, the G750 will then begin the absorption charge cycle. This cycle will bring the battery the rest of the way (10%) to fully charged using a soft charge in order to reduce and/or eliminate any potential gassing from occurring. Gassing is the process in which the batteries electrolyte turns into a gas form and ‘evaporates’ out of the built in vents of the battery. This gassing process will reduce the amount of active electrolyte inside of the battery and thus cut down on its out-put power as well as its life span.

Step # 5 - Maintenance

If the battery connected to the NOCO G750 is at or has finally reached a fully charged state, the charger will then kick over to its maintenance mode. In this mode, the G750 will monitor that battery’s voltage continuously in order to asses if a maintenance charge is required. On of the nice things about this charger is that it will never over charge or damage your battery, it can be left in operational use indefinitely with no negative impact on your battery what so ever. If the voltage of the connected battery drops below 12.8 volts (for 12V) or 6.4 volts (for 6V) it will administer a small maintenance charge to bring it up to 14.4 volts (for 12V) or 7.2 volts (for 6V) as needed.

What Comes With The NOCO G750 Charger

The NOCO G750 Charger
Battery Clamp Connectors (Quick Disconnect Style)
Eyelet Terminals (Quick Disconnect Style)
Quick Start Guide

There is also a wide variety of handy NOCO charger accessories that will enable you to make a custom charging / maintaining solution feasible for what ever type of application you are working with.

Trouble Shooting the NOCO G7200 Battery Charger0

Trouble Shooting: NOCO G7200 Battery Charger

The NOCO G7200 charger will notify the user of any error type situation using advanced diagnostics. Advanced diagnostics is a fancy term for a series of blinking LED lights in sequences that allows you to identify the cause of the error and possible remedies for your situation. All error conditions are displayed with the error LED and standby LED flashing back and forth - both of these LEDs are highlighted in the illustration below.

Single Flash Error: The battery will not hold a charge. This type of error typically means that the battery you are attempting to charge is unrecoverable and should be taken in to get load tested by a professional.
Double Flash Error: There is a potential internal short in the battery itself. When a battery has an internal short you should remove the G7200 charger immediately. Internal shorts in batteries can lead to excessive heat buildup and thermal runaway. It is highly recommended that you not attempt to charge this battery and take it to a professional to have it tested.
Triple Flash Error: A series of three LED flashes on the charger indicates that the battery voltage is too high for the selected charge mode. You need to double check the charge setting you have selected on the G7200 and make sure it matches the battery your attempting to charge.
Solid Red Warning LED: A solid red LED light shown specifically at the warning LED position will indicate that there is a case of reverse polarity. You will need to reverse the battery connections
Solid Orange Warning LED: Indicates that the battery voltage is too low for NOCO G7200 charger to detect that its actually hooked up to a battery.

Tip! Solid Orange LED Error

Most of our customers experiencing this issue typically have a battery that has been sitting untouched for a few years, or a battery that has been completely drained in an application that has no low voltage cutoff feature. The NOCO G7200 charger has a “hidden” feature that will allow you to attempt to charge any battery regardless of the voltage level.

This feature is called the supply mode which can be activated by pressing and holding the mode button on your G7200. This will turn your NOCO G7200 charger into a power supply that will generate 13.6 volts with a constant 5 amp output regardless of what its hooked up to. Using the NOCO G7200 charger in supply mode on any battery with extremely low voltage will begin charging it regardless of its condition.

!Warning!

The supply mode on the NOCO G7200 charger is considered a ‘dumb’ mode for the unit. There is no automatic shut off or active monitoring of the state of charge of the battery its hooked up to therefore it is extremely important to time the use of this feature. We typically recommend that the battery be completely removed from the application with nothing attached to the battery. The duration of use for this feature should be for a few hours at a time (3-5). After this duration of time you should remove the charger and set it back into its standard 12V charge settings by hitting the mode button. Once the charger is back into its regular smart charging mode you can then hook it back up to the battery and see if this clears the orange LED error light.

If your having trouble with your NOCO G7200 charger that falls outside of this trouble shooting guide then head over to our contact us section to get help directly from our staff.