Iota chargers and equalization

[witzgall]

Hi all;

Based on the recommendations of some folks here, I bought an Iota DLS-45 chadger with the smart controller. Their website states that if the charger is hooked up for seven days, it will automatically go into a equalization stage.

I wrote to them asking how I could force it to equalize, like if we were cruising and stopped at a marina for a night. Good to charge the batteries and equalize, right?

The answer leaves me baffled:

The internal IQ4 is all automatic. There is no way to manually switch from one stage to another.
The equalization stage is simply 14.2v for eight hours. If your battery is below 12.8v when you plug the DLS-45 into shore power, the IQ4 will switch the voltage to 14.2v and hold it there for eight hours. The only way to make it switch to the higher voltage is either wait the seven days or have your battery below 12.8v.

what is confusing me is that when I lookup tables showing state of charge, 12.6 is listed as 100%. So if this is the case, the battery would be equalized every time the battery was hooked up to the charger, when the battery was already at full charge. That would require alot of watering and I woud think shorten the battery's lifespan.

So what do I have wrong here?

Chris