When pulse charging your marine battery, there are two primary guidelines that should be followed: first, the battery should not be allowed to become overheated, and second, the voltage should not be allowed to reach an unsafe level.
What Is 1C Charge Rate?
The.1C charge rate is an approximation designed to shield you from breaking any of the two actual “charging rules”.
This really applies when you have cheap trickle chargers that can't shape the charge curve, and/or especially when your real skills are bleeding your battery dry by enjoying your boat rather than battery chemistry, and you don't know any better. In both of these scenarios, the charge curve will not be able to be shaped properly.
When the battery voltage is low, you may use medium-higher rates for medium-length durations if the ambient temperature is low. This is because the battery voltage won't go too high until it is partially charged, thus the longer the period, the higher the rate should be.
You are able to charge the battery at significantly faster rates for shorter periods of time for two reasons:
1.) If it's brief, the battery won't overheat.
2.) If it's extremely short, it's only charging the battery resistance, so the voltage won't get too high.
What Is Pulse Charging?
Pulses derived from switch-mode power sources are used for the majority of the charging process for batteries.
The vast majority of solar system charging is done with systems in which the charge rate is regulated by the solar panels; therefore, even if you tried, you would not be able to obtain an excessive amount of pulse current.
It's probably not a good idea to let the batteries air out. The battery life of experiments that have attempted it has been shown to be shorter.
