What's the correct charged battery voltage?

[biggrock1]

Sent: 5/5/2005

I just installed a 9130 PD converter along with a Charge Wizard. It is supposed to charge in a boost mode of 14.4 V until batts reach 14.4 volts or for 4 hours whichever comes first. My question is aren't batts fully charged below 14 volts?

[Derrek]

Sent: 5/5/2005

Here is some info on the charge wizard operation from bestconverter.com:

Every 21 hours when the system is operating in the Storage Mode, the Charge Wizard will automatically switch to the Equalizing Mode of operation. The Equalizing Mode increases the charging voltage up to 14.4 volts for 15 minutes. This increased voltage mixes up the battery electrolyte and prevents battery stratification and the resulting problems of battery sulfation.

http://www.bestconverter.com/chargeWizard.html

[firebug911]

Sent: 5/5/2005

I have the 60 amp with the charge wizard and I love it...  It floats my 3 batteries at about 13.8 volt. and I have not had to add water yet. I added a manual battery switch so when I am parked and hooked to shore power it charges my starting battery also.  Pretty much trouble free and maint. free

[mbba1036]

Sent: 5/6/2005

Bigrock, The answer to your question is yes, most batteries are fully charged at less than 14 volts.Now comes the gray area,fully charged is normally around 13.8 volts .the difference is only .2 volts very minor to the volt meter,but the science behind it is in order to "charge" a battery,you have to put a higher voltage into it(14 volts) to get a fully charged reading of 13.8 volts or commonly known as 12 volts.Hope this helps.

[biggrock1]

Sent: 5/7/2005

I spoke with the people at Prog Dyn about the CW and they told me that the CW monitors the batts continuously and causes the converter to deliver charge accordingly. If the batts are at full charge, and the green light is flashing quickly to indicate this, then when you plug into shore power and introduce power to the converter, the CW should not go into boost mode for 4 hrs.

The next day I started the genny while the CW was indicating fully charged batts and it jumped to boost mode and would have remained there. I called Prog Dyn back and the guy said it was because the genny caused the voltage to drop in the batts. I understand that I can change this manually on the CW. I have yet to try plugging into house current as I had to move the winnie because of parking restrictions. I am anxious to see if the CW goes into boost mode when I apply house current to the converter. I am not worried about overcharging the batts because it was explained to me that once the batts reach 13.6 volts the converter is incapable of pushing 14.4 volts

I am confused though about my batts ability to reach 14.4 volts. I realize that batts are fully charged at a lower voltage but the charge controller for the solar panel has a cut off target of 14.2 volts and the CWs target is 14.4 v and these are never attained.
That was very long winded but I guess I said it all.
Thanx
Howie