Battery Charging Question

[boondocking]

Actually a battery stays in good shape by having a constant trickle charge applied.
Sulfation occurs when a lead acid battery is deprived of a full charge for a length of time not from having a continious trickle charge.

[northstar1960]

I would have to disagree with that . maintaining a battery at full charge all the time and never using the stored power will cause it to sulfate . . constant trickle without use will ruin a battery . only when you have a good maintainer that actually draws a battery down between charges will keep it healthy

[ScottBrownstein]

All of this discussion may be well and good but the problem at hand is that he is not getting sufficient voltage when plugged in and on a converter. Sure not going through a sulfonation cycle is a potential problem, but most modern converters already do that.

[Still Kickin]

Originally Posted by northstar1960

Plugged into shore power 24-7 for a few months can ruin a battery . it will be charge all the time by the converter and no drain will cause the battery to sulfate and shorten it's life span . While i stay plugged in all the time i use the battery disconnect . then ill run the batteries down once a month about 40% and charge them up . this keeps them in good shape

Not true. Keeping a battery @100% is what prevents "sulfates" from forming on the plates.NEVER, take your battery below 50%, doing that will shorten the life.

Read this, it helped me.
The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

[Witch Doctor]

Here is information for you, if you leave your unit plugged in 24/7 and I have done that for the last 4 years, but I use to have a WFCO charger. That is only a 3 stage charger. I changed to a progressive 4 stage. It's a direct fit. I used to boil my batteries down every month, not good. How did that happen, Well I did a test. The WFCO never dropped to float at 13.1 (trickle) it stayed at 13.5. When I switched my Progressive will drop down to 13.1, also every 24 hrs it will go to 14.5 for 15 mins to burn off the plates. It's a true 4 stage converter. IMO WFCO IS GARBAGE. I'm going on 4 years with the same batteries never have taken them out. Never add water because it will not boil out at 13.1. If you read the manual that came with the WFCO it will tell you that it will stay in 13.5 until after 48 hrs it reads no loads. Parasites are loads such as the CO detector and any clocks. So it will never drop to 13.1. Proven fact.

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by northstar1960

I would have to disagree with that . maintaining a battery at full charge all the time and never using the stored power will cause it to sulfate . . constant trickle without use will ruin a battery . only when you have a good maintainer that actually draws a battery down between charges will keep it healthy

Somewhere along the line you have been mis-informed.