I read in a recent thread (cruisersforum) that :
- bulk charge = constant amps, with voltage rising (end when absorption voltage is reached)
- absorption charge = constant voltage at absorption rate, with amps gradually falling
(Hadn't seen it expressed so succinctly, before.)
In our installation, with a 40-amp charger, presumably that would mean a cycle starts with a bulk charge at 40-amps (the charger's max) until reaching 14.7v. That agrees with the charger manual, which says a "Fast charge" [is] maximum current output until batteries reach 14.7v." (That would have been a max voltage of 14.1v, if I had selected the gel option, instead of the FLA/AGM setting on our charger.)
That would presumably be followed by a 4-hour absorption charge at 14.7v while amps gradually decrease from 40 down to.... er... something. (That too agrees with the charger manual; in this case, 4-hours is my own user-selected time period.)
Our charger then goes to float at 13.5v, whether set to FLA/AGM or gel(and that would have happened at the end of the timed cycle, whether that was set at 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours.)
Perhaps our charger's reaching 14.7v (in our case, at our FLA/AGM setting) is the same as your manual's reaching a "full charge"?
-Chris