Discussion:
Battery Charger- Hobart

I have a Hobart Accu-Charger that during a routine evaluation of equipment shows an output of 47.5v at the battery...

It is a 36v charger, and I am accustomed to working with motor vechicles. Soooo, with 12v charging systems on cars, charge volts exceed battery voltage by just a couple in order to charge correctly.

9.5 extra volts sounds excessive to me, and I am wondering if this is standard for some chargers. I have downloaded the manual and read it twice. It shows troubleshooting and faqs for low volts, low amps, and high amps... not high volts.

Input voltages and amps measure evenly, with.1v AC getting past the diodes. The control transformer has slightly high volts running at 131v. The capacitors have not been tested yet.

Should I be worried about this charger? It is red-tagged for now, better safe than sorry. :P

Machine specs:
Model- Hobart 3R18-1500MJIC
Batt. type- LA
Cells- 18
Volts- 36
AH- 1200-1500
Max amps- 300
Input volts- 480
3 phase
23.5 amps
60 Hz
  • Posted 22 Oct 2013 01:07
  • By karl_j
  • joined 1 May'13 - 6 messages
  • Virginia, United States
It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.
Showing items 1 - 1 of 1 results.
if the battery is badly discharged it could charge that much at first, as the cells become more charged the charge rate should drop down.
of course if the battery has some kind of problem in the cells it may not drop down. what is the amp rate during charge?
it will start high and drop down as the cells become charged.
the max amp rate is 300 so you could see the amp rate go above 200 easily with a discharged battery. the voltage rate will always go higher than the voltage rating of the battery, its the amps you want to watch.

while charging remove the cell caps and see if there is any unusual bubbling, there will be some but if there is alot and if you see any smoke that is an indicator that the cell might be bad.
also if you smell rotten egg smell while charging that is also an indicator there is a problem in one or more cells.
  • Posted 22 Oct 2013 13:25
  • By swoop223
  • joined 23 Mar'12 - 3,691 messages
  • North Carolina, United States
You've been swooped!
swoop223@gmail.com

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