WYtreasure
It's not happy hour, I'm just like this.
Yep, I can make a suggestion.No, I mean once you have the batteries equalized, alll topped up, and you're confident in a fully working bank, you're charging will be handled in series at 48v.
I am. It is a bench top variable voltage cv/cc regulated power supply.
You can probably find one locally with a warranty.
You can set it to any voltage you want up to 30V. You can adjust the current it will output from 0 to 10 amps.
For 12v FLA, charging voltage is 14.4. For an equalization cycle, you would set voltage to anywhere between 15 and 16 volts.
You may not find uses for it (or you may) other than occasionally having to manage/maintain your batteries. Personally, I would find uses for it. I am a tinkerer. That said, it beats spending 300-400 on a charger you may only use occasionally. With that said, hold off on spending any money just yet.
Since you're using a hodge-podge mix-n-match battery bank, you're probably going to need a balancer/equalizer to make sure they're all getting charged and staying balanced. Maybe the better solution is to shop around for that. You may find one that will double as the charger you need.
Can anyone else here make suggestions on this?
In the mean time, do you have auto parts stores (similar to autozone or discount auto) there? Might be another option for getting your battery charged/tested and confirmed good/bad/otherwise.
Since you're not constantly pushig power into or cycling your other batteries now, start taking voltage readings a couple times a day. Keep track of it. Report it here if you want. It's pretty important to make sure they're in and stay in a healthy state.
I would hate to tell you to purchase another 12v battery to get you going and to have one as a spare, but man, it's like a juggling act at this point and I don't want to steer you wrong.
The OP purchase a small inexpensive charge controller which will run on one or two of these panels, and charge 1 12 volt battery.
Here are his panel specs:
on the panel it says rated max power 385W
current at Pmax 9.70A
voltage at Pmax 39.7v
short circuit current 10.07a
open circuit voltage 48.6v