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Battery charging???
Hi
I know it is a bit off topic but I know a lot of knowledge here and the boating groups seem finished. I have three batteries for my boats, two are the larger sized 12volt deep cycle, the heavier ones (about 50 lbs) about 700 something amp. Nautalis from Canadian Tire, the other is the regular size deep cycle 12volt (about 30lb) . The battery charger is the Canadian tire 2amp/10amp automatic charger. Has setting for deepcycle batteries. Because both those heavy batteries (4 years old) were drained very low, almost dead it took about a week to charge one of them before the green light came on on the charger. They always measured 12v and always kept fluid full. Both batteries charged fully in about a week with that charger (about 5 days each) at 10 amps. Sometimes I switch the charger to 2 amps (high power rates). The other regular sized boat battery (for my 70hp outboard) is about 5 years, always shows 12v and full, and charged up np and green light came on. I put all three on the shelf in the garage here in Ontario and tapped the batteries together in parellel and put the charger back on the center battery and haven't seen the green light come on that charger now for over a week. I keep it on 10amps overnight because cheaper rate, then switch to 2 amps for the day, then weekends 10amps solid. Why no green light? Was green light when individually charged them. I know the smaller battery is much less amps than the other two (pair) batteries. My objective was to bring them all up to charge (green light) then keep them in storage in the garage with the one amp charger I have from Canadian tire and keep it there all winter on the 1amp charger 24,7. Any ideas why the batch of them aren't coming to green light? And is that a good storage idea? Thanks for any ideas,, 73s |
Battery charging???
On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:09:35 -0500, "Tom" wrote:
Any ideas why the batch of them aren't coming to green light? Nope, no ideas. Could I trouble you for the make and model of the battery charger? http://www.batteryuniversity.com http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Battery charging???
On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 22:06:40 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote: On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:09:35 -0500, "Tom" wrote: Any ideas why the batch of them aren't coming to green light? Nope, no ideas. Could I trouble you for the make and model of the battery charger? Found your charger: http://www.canadiantire.com/AST/browse/4/Auto/3/Batteries/BatteryChargers/PRDOVR~0111503P/MotoMaster+10%2B2A+Automatic+Battery+Charger.jsp?l ocale=en Where do you have the switch set? Conventional or AGM-Deep Cycle? Does it match the type of battery? If you're not sure, the make and model number of the batteries please? http://www.batteryuniversity.com http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery I don't trust that type of cheapo battery charger. http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dead-battery-chargers.html All but one in the picture were either blown, or have successfully killed at least one battery. One boiled all the water out of a battery. They're all junk. I took a few apart to see what was inside, but all eventually went to the recyclers. Your Canadian Tire charger is probably something similar, except in a metal case. Buy something with a microprocessor, temperature compensation, battery temp sensor, multi-stage charging, automatic (so you can leave it connected) etc. Plan on burning at least $200. You'll probably save that much by not killing batteries. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Battery charging???
In article ,
"Tom" wrote: I put all three on the shelf in the garage here in Ontario and tapped the batteries together in parellel and put the charger back on the center battery and haven't seen the green light come on that charger now for over a week. It's not a good idea to put lead acid batteries in parallel unless hefty build-out diodes are used in series with each one of them before they are connected in parallel. If the batteries are expected to be discharged during use, the diodes should be arranged to let current flow out of each battery but not into it. If the batteries are expected to be charged during use, the diodes should be arranged to let current flow into each battery but not out of it. The batteries have *EXTREMELY* low internal resistance and there is no chance whatsoever that their internal effective voltages will be absolutely identical. Absent the diodes, whichever battery wants to have a higher terminal voltage will discharge like mad into the others, until all their terminal voltages are the same. Then you will have a badly discharged battery and one or more charged ones, all in parallele. Until then, make sure the wires you use are large, since the current flowing is going to be high. Not a good situation. Charging batteries in series instead of in parallel has its own problems, but they're not as serious as the problem I have just mentioned. The worst problem with charging N batteries in series is that you need N times as much voltage from the charger as you would have needed charging them one at a time. David -- David Ryeburn To send e-mail, change "netz" to "net" |
Battery charging???
Happy new year
Thanks for the information. This is the charger I have. http://reviews.canadiantire.ca/9045/...ws/reviews.htm I know not the best charger, Can you guys recommend a proper storage procedure for my three deep cycle batteries? Two are the larger sized ones, looks like this one only with 700something amps listed on it. Might be the model before this one. Both mine are 4 years old. http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en The third battery is a regular sized 12v deep cycle, smaller than the two big ones, regular sized. Hope you gents can recommend a charging or storage procedure for our short Ontario winter. I prefer to keep them in the garage, not heated but convenient. Should I simply bring each up to green light ( charger stops charging) then store them and do this once a month? Canadian Tire stores say to do this. Or should I keep them in parellel, after fully charged and keep the 1amp charger on constant. Canadian tire also recommends this. I don't think they are as knowledgable as you folks, I know that 100%. That is why I am asking you folks your opinions and I appreciate it. 73s, best regards and happy new year "David Ryeburn" wrote in message ... In article , "Tom" wrote: I put all three on the shelf in the garage here in Ontario and tapped the batteries together in parellel and put the charger back on the center battery and haven't seen the green light come on that charger now for over a week. It's not a good idea to put lead acid batteries in parallel unless hefty build-out diodes are used in series with each one of them before they are connected in parallel. If the batteries are expected to be discharged during use, the diodes should be arranged to let current flow out of each battery but not into it. If the batteries are expected to be charged during use, the diodes should be arranged to let current flow into each battery but not out of it. The batteries have *EXTREMELY* low internal resistance and there is no chance whatsoever that their internal effective voltages will be absolutely identical. Absent the diodes, whichever battery wants to have a higher terminal voltage will discharge like mad into the others, until all their terminal voltages are the same. Then you will have a badly discharged battery and one or more charged ones, all in parallele. Until then, make sure the wires you use are large, since the current flowing is going to be high. Not a good situation. Charging batteries in series instead of in parallel has its own problems, but they're not as serious as the problem I have just mentioned. The worst problem with charging N batteries in series is that you need N times as much voltage from the charger as you would have needed charging them one at a time. David -- David Ryeburn To send e-mail, change "netz" to "net" |
Battery charging???
FWIW, I store batteries in my basement over the winter. About every two
weeks I place a small "half-way intelligent" charger on each, in turn, and bring each up to "full". I think your parallel charging is not a good idea and may have partly destroyed one of the batteries. Diode protection (for charging in parallel) might work, but it will probably change the voltages involved and may confuse an intelligent charger. I suggest individual charging. Bill W2WO |
Battery charging???
Hi
Thanks for the tips, I was worried about storing in the basement because of the fumes that come from them. I figured when charging and their bubbling that adds a lot of chemical fumes into the home. Is that a concern? Going to unplug that system I have in the garage now, I hope I haven't done any damage and was wondering why each battery came to green light individually but when put in parellel it hasn't came to greenlight for over a week. I hope I haven't destroyed them. And even though those chaps at Canadian Tire recommend this, I understand they haven't an engineering degree in marine batteries, but thankful I get opinions from this group, thanks for the tips, 73s "Bill Ogden" wrote in message ... FWIW, I store batteries in my basement over the winter. About every two weeks I place a small "half-way intelligent" charger on each, in turn, and bring each up to "full". I think your parallel charging is not a good idea and may have partly destroyed one of the batteries. Diode protection (for charging in parallel) might work, but it will probably change the voltages involved and may confuse an intelligent charger. I suggest individual charging. Bill W2WO |
Battery charging???
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Battery charging???
On Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:52:00 -0500, "Tom" wrote:
I was worried about storing in the basement because of the fumes that come from them. I figured when charging and their bubbling that adds a lot of chemical fumes into the home. Is that a concern? Yes, it's a concern. I've done it the wrong way a few times. The result was a battery box with severely corroded hardware. That's why battery boxes are usually plastic or wood. No explosions because the box is vented to the outside air. Hydrogen is lighter than air and will rise easily out of a vented box. Our radio club's battery "pile": http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/slides/Batteries.html This might give you some ideas: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=battery+box You might also get some hints from the alternative energy groups that often store their batteries in the basement. https://homepower.com There are various schemes involving filtered battery vent plugs, manifolds, dryers, and absorbers. Wooden battery box with vent: http://www.oynot.com/battery-box.html I'm not thrilled with this method but it probably works: http://www.oynot.com/battery-box-venting.html Also, I missed the part where you were trying to charge two batteries in parallel. Don't do that, at least not with your simple charger. However, if you must do it, there are numerous articles on the internet on charging batteries in parallel. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Battery charging???
Thank you fine gentlemen
I certainly learned a lot about recharging deep cycle batteries and lots of great recommendations. Thanks for all the recommendations and suggestions. 73s "Jim Higgins" wrote in message ... On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:09:35 -0500, "Tom" wrote: Hi I know it is a bit off topic but I know a lot of knowledge here and the boating groups seem finished. I have three batteries for my boats, two are the larger sized 12volt deep cycle, the heavier ones (about 50 lbs) about 700 something amp. Nautalis from Canadian Tire, the other is the regular size deep cycle 12volt (about 30lb) . The battery charger is the Canadian tire 2amp/10amp automatic charger. Has setting for deepcycle batteries. Because both those heavy batteries (4 years old) were drained very low, almost dead Very deep discharge runs the risk of developing shorts thru the separators (glass mats) that can prevent the batteries ever again achieving full charge. Such batteries will also not hold a charge. it took about a week to charge one of them before the green light came on on the charger. They always measured 12v and always kept fluid full. Both batteries charged fully in about a week with that charger (about 5 days each) at 10 amps. Sometimes I switch the charger to 2 amps (high power rates). Question... when you say 10 amps and 2 amps, are you referring just to the name of the setting or can you confirm that 2 amps and 10 amps of current were actually flowing. Does the charger have an ammeter? The other regular sized boat battery (for my 70hp outboard) is about 5 years, always shows 12v and full, and charged up np and green light came on. I put all three on the shelf in the garage here in Ontario and tapped the batteries together in parellel and put the charger back on the center battery and haven't seen the green light come on that charger now for over a week. I keep it on 10amps overnight because cheaper rate, then switch to 2 amps for the day, then weekends 10amps solid. Why no green light? Was green light when individually charged them. I know the smaller battery is much less amps than the other two (pair) batteries. That last bit isn't an issue in and of itself. What's the temperature in your garage? What's the voltage of the batteries with the charger connected and operating? How much charge current is flowing? (I'm not asking you for the charge setting, but rather for ACTUAL current flow.) My objective was to bring them all up to charge (green light) then keep them in storage in the garage with the one amp charger I have from Canadian tire and keep it there all winter on the 1amp charger 24,7. A reasonable goal assuming the 1-amp charger cuts off at a battery voltage that doesn't result in excessive gassing, otherwise spring will find 3 dried up batteries. It also assumes 1 amp is adequate to keep these OLD batteries fully charged. And it assumes the voltage this charger is capable of putting out, and the voltage setting within it, is adequate for a battery sitting in a COLD garage. You need a higher voltage to fully charge and maintain a cold battery. Any ideas why the batch of them aren't coming to green light? And is that a good storage idea? Read the above carefully and answer all questions and we'll be closer to figuring that out. Do NOT make assumptions about the current that is flowing. If you aren't able to read it on a meter, you need to say so clearly. When you measure voltages it would be nice to see a number to 2 places after the decimal. One more thing you can do. Disconnect the charger over night, measure battery voltage, then reconnect the charger and measure voltage at regular intervals of no less than 1 hour for as long as you can. This will tell us something about the capabilities of the charger when operating in the cold garage. Do this AFTER measuring battery voltage on charge (and after extended charging) as requested earlier. |
Well,
I read a lot of intelligent information on this post and some not intelligent information. I think that what your problem is - is that instead of using your noggin, you want to buy something that will do your thinking for you. If you have 4 batteries, and you connect it to a 10 amp charger, you will still place a 10 amp charge upon the batteries, but to the batteries, it will look more like a 2.5 amp charger - since it is dividing the current between them. I have seen some cheap people in my life, but I will guess the OP takes the cake. If you think that a 10 amp charger is going to make your electric bill go up or down by regulating the power being applied to the battery at day vs night - you are only fooling yourself. Until you understand a charge vs. a surface charge, you will never understand what events are taking place within the batteries. I liked the analogy of someone using diodes to isolate each battery. But a even better solution is to use those batteries as a battery bank, say on a transistor radio - police scanner would be a good example. If you charge the batteries nearly full charge and you use those batteries for a couple of days or even a week at a time, you will create a cycle, which will keep the batteries at optimum power - slow down the calcification on the battery plates and keep the one good battery from being killed by the one junk battery that doesn't store as much power. The other thing is - if you are stupid enough to use a trolling motor with a deep cycle battery until you run it down to nothing, then you ought to be willing to replace those batteries every 4 years, because even though they say deep cycle - you are squeezing the life out of them when you discharge them beyond 10.5 volts DC. Your battery charger is not a power generating station - it doesn't work like 3 mile island. It will create a charge sufficient enough to recharge a battery to the point of where it is useable again and then it will reduce the amount of current, so it does not over heat the plates in the battery. The fold back on the charger is sufficient enough to protect the batteries, but once the VOM - and this is the missing link in your hardware - once the VOM shows 13.7 volts - the battery holds as much power as it can possibly hold... Like a cup of water, what happens when you over fill it? The excess product spills out. Batteries by nature are dirty. The dirt, acid etc on the battery creates a discharge because the current flows out of the battery through the dielectric to ground. The other thing I didn't read is what you placed the batterys on? Wood is prefered, but some rubber mats might not be bad either, as long as they are thick enough and kept clean. A heavy truck mud flap would probably work well. The missing link in this post is to advise you not to connect the batteries either in series or in parrellel, but to PURCHASE a BATTERY TENDER... This takes all the guess work out of keeping your batteries charged. Even if you watch a couple of episodes of American Chopper, eventually you will see someone go to the battery rack and pull out a fresh battery from the rack. How do you think they keep those batteries charged? Do you think that they use a mindless battery charger? Or do you think that they use a Battery Tender or some other commercial battery charger? Do the math - if they build a dozen motorcycles a week, how many batteries does that add up to at the end of the year? |
Battery charging???
Oh look, Tuuk is back again.
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Battery charging???
Hi Channel Jumper
Sorry for such a late reply, once again you had no understanding of my question. Your answer, while long and interesting was either a duplication of answers already given or had nothing to do with my question. But thanks anyway, nice try again, I will take the other's advice again this time. My batteries are fine, I can charge them in parrellel if I like, but remember they must be equals. Do the math you say Channel?? lol,,, And another reason why your answer lacks logic is that you don't understand I live in an area that has a 50% discount on electrical consumption for 12 hours during the evening and early morning. So that is why I talked about night time charging. i know, I know,, nickles and dimes, but after a few weeks of 10 or 15 amp charging, or 1000 or 2000 watts at .08c per kwh it sure adds up at the end of the month. Its all a state of mind. Do you turn your light out when you leave a room? Your estimate Channel Jumper of 4 years for deep cycle batteries I can correct for you, my last deep cycle batteries lasted 8 or 9 years and I ran them down every fishing time by the downrigger balls up and down 30 tims a trip along with all the electronics and radio, lights, phones, 2m rig, vhf marine radio, etc etc. And I kept them stored somtimes in basement, sometimes left in boat, most times stored in garage for winter season without charge. So where did you get your "4 year life" from? Your own experience? Maybe I should give you some advice. Thanks for all the advice everyone,,,,I appreciate every word of it. 73s "Channel Jumper" wrote in message ... Well, I read a lot of intelligent information on this post and some not intelligent information. I think that what your problem is - is that instead of using your noggin, you want to buy something that will do your thinking for you. If you have 4 batteries, and you connect it to a 10 amp charger, you will still place a 10 amp charge upon the batteries, but to the batteries, it will look more like a 2.5 amp charger - since it is dividing the current between them. I have seen some cheap people in my life, but I will guess the OP takes the cake. If you think that a 10 amp charger is going to make your electric bill go up or down by regulating the power being applied to the battery at day vs night - you are only fooling yourself. Until you understand a charge vs. a surface charge, you will never understand what events are taking place within the batteries. I liked the analogy of someone using diodes to isolate each battery. But a even better solution is to use those batteries as a battery bank, say on a transistor radio - police scanner would be a good example. If you charge the batteries nearly full charge and you use those batteries for a couple of days or even a week at a time, you will create a cycle, which will keep the batteries at optimum power - slow down the calcification on the battery plates and keep the one good battery from being killed by the one junk battery that doesn't store as much power. The other thing is - if you are stupid enough to use a trolling motor with a deep cycle battery until you run it down to nothing, then you ought to be willing to replace those batteries every 4 years, because even though they say deep cycle - you are squeezing the life out of them when you discharge them beyond 10.5 volts DC. Your battery charger is not a power generating station - it doesn't work like 3 mile island. It will create a charge sufficient enough to recharge a battery to the point of where it is useable again and then it will reduce the amount of current, so it does not over heat the plates in the battery. The fold back on the charger is sufficient enough to protect the batteries, but once the VOM - and this is the missing link in your hardware - once the VOM shows 13.7 volts - the battery holds as much power as it can possibly hold... Like a cup of water, what happens when you over fill it? The excess product spills out. Batteries by nature are dirty. The dirt, acid etc on the battery creates a discharge because the current flows out of the battery through the dielectric to ground. The other thing I didn't read is what you placed the batterys on? Wood is prefered, but some rubber mats might not be bad either, as long as they are thick enough and kept clean. A heavy truck mud flap would probably work well. The missing link in this post is to advise you not to connect the batteries either in series or in parrellel, but to PURCHASE a BATTERY TENDER... This takes all the guess work out of keeping your batteries charged. Even if you watch a couple of episodes of American Chopper, eventually you will see someone go to the battery rack and pull out a fresh battery from the rack. How do you think they keep those batteries charged? Do you think that they use a mindless battery charger? Or do you think that they use a Battery Tender or some other commercial battery charger? Do the math - if they build a dozen motorcycles a week, how many batteries does that add up to at the end of the year? -- Channel Jumper |
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make em drink!
I had a neighbor once that didn't want to wear out his light bulbs, so he used a flashlight when he went from room to room. Light bulbs were 4/$1.00 Flashlight batteries were $.50 each. The amount of power a battery charger uses is insignificant - anyone so anal to think you will save money on your electric bill by not using a couple of watts of power during peak times is crazy. No I do not shut off the lights when I go from room to room. Most of my lights are florescent - a gift of working for a company that did retail remodeling of Lowes stores. The difference between leaving the light on vs turning it on and off and ruining the bulbs - if the period of time is less then 15 minutes - you do not save anything by turning the lights on and off. |
Battery charging???
Wow, that is an odd neighborhood.
Costs of each kwh decreases by 50% (half) in my neck of the woods at evening time till morning light. 12 hours. So we do save money using high electrical consumers at night. It is not minimual, not to me anyway. I was wondering why you only get 4 years out of your deep cycle batteries, when I get at least 8 and you are giving me advice? I think you are just jumping at the chance to fling some mud at someone who is less knowledgable as yourself in electrical situations. Light bulbs, flashlights, horses to water, neighbors, again, you skirted right around the question. Thanks anyway,,, 73s "Channel Jumper" wrote in message ... You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make em drink! I had a neighbor once that didn't want to wear out his light bulbs, so he used a flashlight when he went from room to room. Light bulbs were 4/$1.00 Flashlight batteries were $.50 each. The amount of power a battery charger uses is insignificant - anyone so anal to think you will save money on your electric bill by not using a couple of watts of power during peak times is crazy. No I do not shut off the lights when I go from room to room. Most of my lights are florescent - a gift of working for a company that did retail remodeling of Lowes stores. The difference between leaving the light on vs turning it on and off and ruining the bulbs - if the period of time is less then 15 minutes - you do not save anything by turning the lights on and off. -- Channel Jumper |
You are a retard...
Sometimes a guy just has to cut a person loose when they just don't get it the first time... |
Battery charging???
On Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:45:32 -0500, "Tom" wrote:
I was wondering why you only get 4 years out of your deep cycle batteries, when I get at least 8 and you are giving me advice? I think you are just jumping at the chance to fling some mud at someone who is less knowledgable as yourself in electrical situations. Our radio club is currently at 35 years for our batteries. Previously, they were running a small telephone central office: http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/Batteries.jpg By your logic, that makes me supremely knowledgable (about batteries at least) and only one step below a battery god. No compliments or praise for this feat of battery longevity please. I prefer burnt offerings and ocassional human sacrifice. Battery gods do not fling mud. We fling lightning bolts. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Battery charging???
On 1/17/2013 6:45 PM, Tom wrote:
SNIP I was wondering why you only get 4 years out of your deep cycle batteries, when I get at least 8 and you are giving me advice? I think you are just jumping at the chance to fling some mud at someone who is less knowledgable as yourself in electrical situations. Light bulbs, flashlights, horses to water, neighbors, again, you skirted right around the question. Thanks anyway,,, 73s I buy used deep cycles at the 4 to 8 year point. But I buy really good ones. The 200AH I currently have in my van (180 watts of panels with an MPP charging system) are currently at 12.8 volts and haven't seen a charge for 3 months. That is as good as it gets. One is 9 years old and the other is 5. They are 2 AGM UPS batteries. One is a 67AH that costs about $300 new, and the other is 134AH that costs about $550 new. I got the 67 for free from a damaged shipment - bent terminals due to poor shipper handling, the receiver rejected the whole pallet, we got 12 of them for free. I paid $100 for the 4 year old one. They are from the same manufacturer and the same series. You get what you pay for. Just make sure the guy that pays for it is a business and that they regularly rotate out old batteries from their UPS's. tom K0TAR |
Battery charging???
On 1/20/2013 7:10 PM, tom wrote:
I buy used deep cycles at the 4 to 8 year point. But I buy really good ones. The 200AH I currently have in my van (180 watts of panels with an MPP charging system) are currently at 12.8 volts and haven't seen a charge for 3 months. That is as good as it gets. One is 9 years old and the other is 5. They are 2 AGM UPS batteries. One is a 67AH that costs about $300 new, and the other is 134AH that costs about $550 new. I got the 67 for free from a damaged shipment - bent terminals due to poor shipper handling, the receiver rejected the whole pallet, we got 12 of them for free. I paid $100 for the 4 year old one. They are from the same manufacturer and the same series. You get what you pay for. Just make sure the guy that pays for it is a business and that they regularly rotate out old batteries from their UPS's. tom K0TAR Here are links to those 2 batteries. The *-270 link is the closest current battery to my 67AH. The *-475 is current. http://www.unitedpb.com/documents/cd...s%2012-270.pdf http://www.unitedpb.com/documents/cd...s%2012-475.pdf tom K0TAR |
Battery charging???
On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:38:32 +0000, Jim Higgins
wrote: On Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:57:51 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote: Our radio club is currently at 35 years for our batteries. Previously, they were running a small telephone central office: http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/Batteries.jpg They look like C&D type KCT-720. Yep. That's the model. http://www.cdtechno.com/product/vla/kct_kt.html The originally came from the Aptos central office. My guess(tm) is that they had about 6-8 years of operation at the CO before they were donate to the local radio club (K6BJ). The original pile was for 48VDC or 24 cells. The others were distributed in groups of 6 cells to other radio clubs operating emergency repeaters. One of the clubs managed to partially ruin theirs with a poor quality charger. Ours has done well mostly because of the quality charger (donated by West Marine). It's a 40A West Marine by Statpower/Xantrex charger: http://members.cruzio.com/~jeffl/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/slides/40A%20battery%20charger.html Another reason it has survived is because I refused to allow anyone to run an "equalizing" charge. I'm a bit worried about temperature tracking as the charger and batteries are essentially in separate rooms. So far, no problems, but with the large thermal mass of the batteries, they're unlikely to track the ambient temperature. The charger does NOT have a remote temp sensor, and I don't want to mount anything that might corrode in the battery box. Incidentally, a real tragedy was this collection of fine cells: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/battery-jv.jpg They were in good shape, but because there were only 4 of them, we would have needed to build a voltage booster to use them on 12VDC. We tried really hard to find two more cells, and gave up after about 8 years of searching. So, they went to the lead recyclers. Bummer. And they look to be in VERY good condition. No appreciable swelling or plate distortion and no appreciable sediment. We take good care of them. The photo is from 2003 when we let things slide a bit. Here's a better photo (showing the dried out electrolyte accumulation) also from 2003: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/k6bj-batteries-02.jpg The club was lucky to find a ham locally that knows how to take care of big telco batteries. Much of the power wiring, interconnect straps, bolts, hardware, and washers were replaced after the picture was taken. I was at the site yesterday and could have taken a current picture. Maybe next week when I clean up my mess. Looks like the positive post seals are leaking a bit and cleaning up those areas (including removing and cleaning the connectors) and applying those oil soaked felt washers you can get in most auto stores would help a lot to prevent further corrosion of the connectors. Maybe just clean selected positive posts that seem to be leaking the worst. The battery box is excessively vented to the outside. That results in condensation inside the battery box, which is where most of the dried out puddles around the posts originated. Most of the acid came from various individuals that just had to unscrew everything dripping battery acid from the caps. That has been mostly cleaned up. There was a slight leak on one of the posts (I forgot which one), but I just smeared some grease around the post to keep it from spreading. I don't recall if we put greased felt washers on the wire end terminal. I think it's likely, but I'm not sure. I'll add it to the next preventive maintenance exercise. For sure keep the covers dry. We try, but the condensation doesn't make it easy. A few boxes of baking soda and rice soak up much of the moisture. If they were made before early 1978 I may have been the Process Engineer in the plant where they were made. I would guess(tm) that they were delivered to the CO in about 1982. No clue when they were actually made. We had the documentation and maintenance history on the batteries, but that disappeared in a misguided shack "cleanup". Argh. Thanks for the info. Please send me an email (address below) as I may want to bother you with battery maintenance questions in the future. I consider those batteries irreplaceable and the #1 asset of the radio club. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
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