Charging a back up battery

[nobody]

Ok this is the battery I have: http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-35ah-s ... up-u1.html

And this is the charger I have: http://www.batterymart.com/p-acc-1206s.html

Do I need to charge the battery before using it? It does say that this charger is ok to leave on the battery and it won't overcharge it, but I'm wondering how I test the battery to see if it has a full charge? An OHM meter? I have one of those around here somewhere. I really know nothing about batteries, though.

[Georgio]

Charge the battery until the light turns green on your charger.
I would charge it up till the light turns green before I leave on a trip or once a month.
You can test the battery's charge with a volt meter.

Good luck with your battery.

Georgio

[nobody]

There are no lights on the charger.

[nobody]

There are no lights on the charger.

Oh oops I take that back, it looks like there might be a tiny little light on there. Lol, I didn't notice it before, thanks

[Georgio]

OK....the charger model link you provided stated it has a green light...so the link may be incorrect. Did you get any instructions with your charger? You can use a volt meter and it should charge to 13 volts DC I believe.

Georgio

[Linus]

Your charger can be left in place with the battery. I would recommend this as well. This way your battery is always at its fully charged level.
The charger is smart enough to go into trickle mode once it gets past the 80% mark.

Allowing your battery to slowly discharge over time will lead to its early failure. Keep it on the charger. Just make sure you disconnect the charger before connecting the CPAP device. That will prevent a surge into your cpap is the power is restored.

When you say Ohm meter do you mean multimeter? Many modern meters have a volt meter, Ohm meter and Amp meter in place. Measure on the DC voltage setting if you do.

[Linus]

I would be interested in your thoughts on this battery. I am thinking of getting it for myself.

[builta]

You should be good to go. It you end up using it let us know how it worked for you.

Please let us know if you used the integrated heated humidifier and how long the battery lasted. Many would like to know as your solution is "less expensive" then some of the other marketed solutions.

BTW: I agree with the earlier comments. Leave the charger plugged in and charging the battery until you actually need to use the battery. Then unplug it and hook up your XPAP. That will extend the life of the battery alot.

[nobody]

It works fine. I tested it out for about 4 hours, it didn't drain the battery much at all. The total cost of this back up system was about $170 - that's for the battery, charger, and two cables. I did not use the heat on the humidifier during the test run.

[builta]

It works fine. I tested it out for about 4 hours, it didn't drain the battery much at all. The total cost of this back up system was about $170 - that's for the battery, charger, and two cables. I did not use the heat on the humidifier during the test run.

Cool!, Thanks for the update.

If you get a chance, try it with the heated humidifier. BTW, what is your typical HH setting?

I generally run HH at "2" unless I'm in Florida, then I don't typically need HH at all (humidity is already so high there--at least where I go).

Another useful piece of information would be what is called the "resting voltage." It is measured after the batter has not been used of charged for a minimum of 8 hours. If you can measure that voltage (if you have and are comfortable using a volt meter) before you start the therapy and then again, at least 8 hours, after you end your thearpy (in this case just don't recharge it until after the reading), those readings can be used to determine how much you actually drained the battery.

I camp and want to be able to run on battery for up to 16 hours, between recharging and without discharging the battery more then 40-50% (max typical safe discharge level for a deep discharge lead acid battery).

[nobody]

If I run my humidifier at all it's usually on 1, sometimes 2. I'm not sure this particular battery would last all of 16 hours while using the humidifier. I think there must be a way to calculate it using the amps the machine/humidifier uses and the amp hours of the battery? This battery is 35 amp hours. That site I got it from does have larger capacity sealed deep cycle batteries, though. They seem to have decent prices too, even with the shipping cost.

[nobody]

BTW, I wasn't sure if it was ok to run the humidifier on battery power? I thought I'd read that the humidifier needs some inverter or something? Or maybe this one doesn't because it's integrated with the machine? Honestly, I don't know. I'd like to go camping this year too, but I probably wouldn't even bring the humidifier because I'd be afraid with using it in a tent it might get knocked over and ruin my machine.

[JoyD.]

.
I've doing searches and reading about solutions for POWER OUTAGES AT HOME. I don't travel or camp.

CAN YOU ALL give me any other (smaller for a bedroom) power backup solutions other than buying a large battery like Nobody purchased??

Thanks!

Joy

[nobody]

The cost is a lot more, but according to the specifications that battery pack should be smaller and lighter (and less unsightly ) than the battery I purchased:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage-bundle ... undle.html

.
I've doing searches and reading about solutions for POWER OUTAGES AT HOME. I don't travel or camp.

CAN YOU ALL give me any other (smaller for a bedroom) power backup solutions other than buying a large battery like Nobody purchased??

Thanks!

Joy

[JoyD.]

.

Thanks, NB