I'm in a different situation over a pack rebuild. I just put a 12V 2.3Ah $20 Valve regulated lead acid battery into an old Norman 200B, whose 30 year old nicads were kaput. The charger (a blue one - early model) puts out 180mAconstant current on slow charge, and about 1.5A on fast charge. I use it on slow to charge the VRLA, until the voltage rises to between 13.8 and 14V. It does have to be watched, becuse if you open circuit the thing the voltage will jump to over 18V.
SLA should be charged on constant voltage, but smallest the electrical wholesaler had put out 900mA, and the battery says on its side not to charge faster than 690mA to start. The charger was $45. So if I fry the battery after 6 months, the cheaper fix here is to just alternate between 2 batteries.
I did have to adjust the oscillator potentiometer