Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett
Am somewhat opinionated
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Padgett, higher voltages are just fine if you don't use them for longer than necessary. The point of a smart charger is to get the battery fully charged without boiling too much electrolyte, and it definitely uses high charging voltages to do that but it limits the duration they're used. If you keep the voltages as low as you prefer, you might never fully charge the battery and you might not equalize the cells.
The problem with not equalizing the cells comes if the user runs the battery down sufficiently to drive the lowest voltage un-equalized cell into reverse polarity. That'll probably ruin the battery.
Now, the way
I'm opinionated is that I think that all valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries are a bad deal for campers. That's all of the AGM and Gel batteries, and the sealed wet cells. They
do vent electrolyte in normal operation, and you
never get it back, and eventually they fail by drying up. For this, you get a glass mat protecting your plates from shorting or a silica gel that keeps your battery from leaking if you turn it over. Big whoop.
Flooded batteries are no big deal to take care of, and are just a better deal for house batteries.