If I don't fully recharge then why does the charge status, as shown by SmartGauge, continue counting up even after the charger has switched off?

There are 2 possible reasons for this. The first is that SmartGauge uses the transitional period between charge and discharge as one of it's automatic synchronisation periods. It may be self-correcting it's battery model and algorithm.

If SmartGauge only does this on the first few charge cycles after which the effect gradually diminishes then the above is the answer. If SmartGauge continues to do this then the following will offer an explanation.... It is related to surface charge and Peukert's effect. If the charge is terminated at, say, 90% charge state then a proportion of this charge will simply be "surface charge".

This means that if we start to discharge at that moment, we will effectively be discharging a smaller battery bank (we will only be discharging the plate surfaces as opposed to the full plate depth). This means that the Peukert corrected amps will have a higher figure (as the discharge current represents a higher fraction of the plate surface capacity). This means ... more.

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