with every battery having low water in at least 1 cell, the voltage
had severely dropped, and keeping my ET plugged in
with the automatic Landis Controller, unsupervised, the charger
had been constantly cycling on & off over the course of countless
days, boiling away my batteries.
I've said it before - Harry Landis's device may have some applications in
certain circumstances, but it's *not* a charge controller. Its algorithm
is
intriguing and original, but it doesn't implement the charging
instructions of
any battery manufacturer.
It also has fairly minimal "smarts." Most microprocessor based charge
controllers have safety limits. They can say to themselves, "Uh-oh, I've
been
charging for 19 hours, and not only is the battery voltage still not up to
where
it should be, now the voltage is actually *falling*. I guess something's
wrong.
I'd better stop the charge and turn on my 'fault' light." The Landis
device has
no such safeguard.
Of course, the original GE charger is even dumber. ;-)
I saw "things" floating in the water. Is that the legendary
sulfation I've heard so much about?
Probably not. Shed lead sulfate is relatively heavy and it doesn't float.
It
sinks to the bottom of the cells. If the battery gets enough vibration,
it may
get stirred up, and give the electrolyte a grey color.
I'm not an electrochemist, but I'd guess that your grids corroded from
being
exposed to air, and you're seeing some of the corrosion flaking off.
When I bought my batteries, they didn't come with an instruction
manual, or even a tip sheet.
You could buy a copy of the Curtis Battery Book One. I think it may be
out
of print now, but some of the EV parts vendors may still have copies to
offer.
You can also get an excellent introduction to the basics of lead batteries
from Witte's "The Automobile Storage Battery: Its Care and Repair,"
published in 1922. It's now in the public domain and you can read the
entire
text on the web here :
http://www.powerstream.com/1922/battery_1922_WITTE/battery_WITTE.htm
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