Using CTEK MXS 10 for Lead acid as Lithium charger??

Hi.
I have a CTEK 10amp AGM battery charger. But it has "supply" mode which gives a constant 13.6V @ max 10Amps.
Ive been using it to charge my 205AH Lifepo4 12V battery bank.
it seems to be working quite well.
When it nears 13.6v the amps ramp down to pretty much nothing.

My question: Is this doing any damage to my battery that i might not be thinking of?

I know technically its not charging up to 100% but I'm ok with that. And I'm not leaving it constantly charging (trickle charging) as i know Lithium does not like this.

Is there any other dangers/risks to my battery, or is it safe to use one of the other charging profiles? See attached options. (its not programable)

AGM is the closest charging profile, to LiFePo4.
Not charging to 100% is fine. As long as the BMS is still able to balance the cells.

Yes but these profiles all have the “desulphation” @ 15.8V at the start of the charge profile. Which is much to high for LiFePO4. And with the pulse charging at the end, I didn’t think they liked being constantly topped up?

Gareth said:

Yes but these profiles all have the “desulphation” @ 15.8V at the start of the charge profile. Which is much to high for LiFePO4. And with the pulse charging at the end, I didn’t think they liked being constantly topped up?

Click to expand...

If you can avoid the desulphation phase, it would be a good idea. But,the cell voltage is low enough that it shouldn't be a big issue.

Actually, you can just use the supply mode.

Gareth said:

Yes but these profiles all have the “desulphation” @ 15.8V at the start of the charge profile. Which is much to high for LiFePO4. And with the pulse charging at the end, I didn’t think they liked being constantly topped up?

Click to expand...

I would use the supply mode, if no other charge device is available. I thought AGM wasn't supposed to receive a desulphation charge, but it looks like CTEK is doing just that. The BMS would/should shut off the charge when it sees that high a voltage. Would the CTEK unit then skip ahead to the nest phase? That would be interesting to know, just not on my batteries.

I suggest using the supply mode at 13.6 volts and consider obtaining a new charger with user settable charge voltages in the near future . The Ctek charger with the high pulse voltages in the lead acid modes going to behave in an unknown manner, my guess is the Ctek would suffer more than the battery.

In the short term charging to less than 100% should not damage the battery. Long term an occasional charge to higher voltages 14.0 to 14.2 would be useful.

Mike

HRTKD said:

I would use the supply mode, if no other charge device is available. I thought AGM wasn't supposed to receive a desulphation charge, but it looks like CTEK is doing just that. The BMS would/should shut off the charge when it sees that high a voltage. Would the CTEK unit then skip ahead to the nest phase? That would be interesting to know, just not on my batteries.

Click to expand...

Been using it on Supply mode and works ok up to 13.6V and drops to 0Amps. Just wondering what that means if I leave the charger on supply mode full time.

Would only need to use a different profile if I wanted to charge to 100%

Haha. Yes my BMS would cut off at high voltage. Weather the ctek charge would move onto the next stage is unknown. I could set my BMS high voltage cut off to 14.65 (as to not push the voltage limits) then see what happens.

mikefitz said:

I suggest using the supply mode at 13.6 volts and consider obtaining a new charger with user settable charge voltages in the near future . The Ctek charger with the high pulse voltages in the lead acid modes going to behave in an unknown manner, my guess is the Ctek would suffer more than the battery.

In the short term charging to less than 100% should not damage the battery. Long term an occasional charge to higher voltages 14.0 to 14.2 would be useful.

Mike

Click to expand...

Thanks for this info. Mike