Re: (ET) How NOT to check your batteries... Battery Charge / Monitor / maintainer

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

David Roden wrote:
> This has the same limitation as any other simple charge controller - it has 
> no backups or safeguards.  It's better than nothing, but if the clamper 
> fails, the battery will be ruined.  The fact that none of yours has failed 
> yet is no indication of future performance.

Well, you can put a 10 ohm, 1/2 watt resistor in parallel with the light 
bulb. Then if the bulb burns out it still regulates somewhat.

That combination doesn't fix *every* possibility, but it seems to fix 
99+% of them.

My experience: I'm going to be dropping the Prizm's pack (50 batteries, 
each one a 12 volt 26ah AGM that is at least 5 years old); my guess is 
they are fine.

I also have six batteries in the shed, 100ah Dynasty AGMs and 80ah AGMs. 
All of them have regs, all charged by solar panels on a charge 
controller (ProStar 30). Before the regs, the batteries would slide out 
of sync, with one at 14 volts and the other at 12 under charge. After 
bulb regs they are within .1 volts of each other.

Chris