The Testing Setup!

so how does this work? what do you actually do when you test the chargers??

basically, ive got a cart with wheels, and i threw a pair of the permobil branded VRLA GEL batteries on top!

before starting ANY tests, i put the batteries in parallel overnight to balance them, ensuring both batteries are at the same voltage!

to drain the batteries and simulate a day's use in a power chair, they are connected to a 24volt power inverter, that has a small 250 watt (120v) space heated plugged into it, and this pulls about 8-9 amps from the batteries. i typically run this for a few hours, or till the batteries are get down to about ~24.1 volts under load. then i let everything sit for about an hour to stabilize.

i'm using a pair of OWON branded data logging multimeters to record the amperage into the batteries from the charger, and also the voltage.

both meters are set to log data, and the charger is connected to the setup, then 4-5 hours later once the charging is complete (or the amperage is below ~800mA), stop the meters, and download all the data!

(for this first stage of testing i'm not concerned with the last bit of the charge cycle below ~800mA)

i usually only do 1 charge cycle test per day to allow the batteries to remain at room temp, and overnight i connect them to my victron charger to ensure they get the float mode treatment they need, before starting another day of cycling!