Continuously charge Thor-X spotlight?

My Thor-X 10 MCP spotlight is powered by an SLA. Can I leave it plugged in and charging continuously, or should it be unplugged after it's charged?

Unplug it after it is charged. The charger supplied with the Thor is a simple transformer, so it won't cut back the charging current when the battery is charged as more sophisticated chargers will.

Bill

Will that hurt a SLA battery though? They do like a continous trickle charge, but I guess the charger might be too high of a "trickle"

continuous trickle charge will reduce an SLA battery's life. If you want to leave it charging find a float charger instead. SLAs should keep a good charge for at least a month sitting around, the self discharge rate is considerably lower than nimh or nicad.

Yeah, never leave a crappy wall wart charger hooked up to any kind of battery, you'll kill it for sure. I have a nice 1 amp "Battery Minder" charger that works very well when left on all the time, and desulphates the battery. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to hook a good charger like that up to a Thor.

ah, float charge, thats the word. That's what I was trying to say.

Remind me what an SLA is?

Raccoon said:

Remind me what an SLA is?

Click to expand...

Sealed Lead-Acid. Similar components to that of a car battery but instead of a liquid electrolyte, they make use of a gel.

Sealed lead acid can be gell or an absorbed liquid electrolyte, also called absorbed glass mat or AGM, they have very different charging requirements, and discharge characteristics. As a group they're called VRLA for 'valve regulated lead acid'. They will gas if you go over the specified voltages, and there is no way to replace the lost electrolyte. The gel are better for deep discharge applications, though they lose power faster in very cold temperatures than the AGM..the AGM can be charged at higher rates and voltages..though they both need to have the charge voltages strictly limited..undercharging isn't good for them either, as they can sulphate (and the desulphators don't really work, in Deka's ho.)
The advantage over "flooded" or "wet cell" lead acid batteries is; no fumes (well hardlty any) no maintenance (ie adding water to every cell on a regular basis) no spillage, and about 15-20% more efficient (faster) absorption of charge current..

here's what the techs at Deka battery have to say about AGM (not gell) vrla batteries:

Absorption Stage
Voltage limit to 2.40 vpc
Max time 12 hrs or when current falls below 0.10A per 100Ahr

Float Stage
Battery at 2.25 vpc charge to maintain battery until next discharge.

Wow, thanks for the info Ted, and legtu.

Alrght, so the Thor-X/Cyclops lantern could do with a better power source than the SLA that comes standard.

Is there a Li-Ion solution that would both improve charge/discharge/capacity, enable the light to be plugged in (charging) for any length of time without damage, and that would improve the weight of the light (currently heavy)?

I'm thinking about buying one of these to hardwire to my Thor.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93258

Leaning more toward the 2nd one since I wouldn't need to carry the wallwart anymore. Just plug in any old extension cord and you're good to go.

"SLA" can be. as I said, either gell or agm.. important to know which to charge right..

2.4 mb to download the manual for that charger is too rich for my dial-up blood. ..just wanted to check if the thing was voltage regulated (to 14.4 volts at 68F for AGMs)
(thats another thing about some AGMs, they use the 68F reference temp. instead of the 77F most wetcell lead acid manufacturers do.. so you have to correct about .16 volts (less charge voltage) for 77F -- even lower for higher temps.