Total newb question

[AdamHad'em]

I tried to answer this myself via the Search function, but didn't find anything. :sigh:

I have a Thor/Cyclops for which I just bought a new battery. I now know after reading some posts on this forum that me leaving it in the box unplugged for a year, and then trying to charge it was a bad thing.

Taking that into account..........

1) How should I be charging it?
2) What type of charger should I be using?

Thx in advance

 

[SafetyBob]

That all depends on how "good" you want to treat the battery.

If you don't mind taking the battery out or wouldn't mind installing a new charging jack that goes directly to the battery, you could use a BatteryTenderJR which should be nice and good on your battery and you could essentially leave it plugged in forever with little worry about harming that battery or:

You could go ahead and get a good hobby charger and do the same thing except plug in say the first of the month to keep the battery topped off. Once charged, unplug and light is ready to go.

How's that?

Bob E.

 

[Patriot]

I think you'll get many different opinions regarding your question but in my experience I've found these SLA's to be pretty robust and non-temperamental. I give my SLA spotlights a top off charge (through the stock charging port) about every three months and they seem to be doing great. One of them is about four years old now and still holds a great charge and performs well under load. (Note I store my lights inside. A frying or freezing garage will be harder on the batteries).

As SafetyBob suggested a maintainance charger is probably ideal but I haven't found the need to do that with mine.

 

[AdamHad'em]

Thanks guys. I guess I need to move the light into the house, and just keep it here in my office to remind me to charge it every so often. It's lived in our frying/freezing garage since day 1. Also need to replace the batery/ies in my Power On Board sport spot thingy. Guess I should bring it in the casa as well. Thanks again.