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Celestron Power Tank

Started by fct-150, 08/11/2013 09:17AM
Posted 08/11/2013 09:17AM Opening Post
Just out of curiosity, how long does (should) it take for the 12v DC Power Tank to recharge? Mine has been plugged-in for 11 hours now and the recharge light is still red. Hoping this is just normal. I'm new to using one of these.

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Posted 08/12/2013 01:57PM | Edited 08/12/2013 01:57PM #1
No more than about 12 hours for a well-discharged one. You can leave it plugged in and see what happens, but the Powertank is notorious for bad chargers. You are better off with a jumpstart battery from Wally-World, usually.

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Posted 08/13/2013 10:44AM #2
I use instead a pair of 92 Amp Hour AGM marine batteries. I use one to power scope, camera, and dew heaters. The other is either kept in reserve or used to power the laptop when there's no AC on the field. Since they are AGM they are sealed with pressure ports on the cells and there's no chance of leakage. And since there's no chance of evaporation, they won't dry out in my garage when the temperature gets hot. Cost with core was around $200 each.

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Posted 01/09/2015 12:11AM #3
What did you end up buying? Are you happy with it? I've read a lot of mixed reviews on pretty much all the offerings for 12v DC power packs. This one looks nice: Duracell 600 Watt Powerpack Pro and I also saw Xantrex XPower Powerpack 600HD Portable Power Source. Read various reviews on Amazon. The marine batteries sound great but are a bit out of my price range...

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