Re: (ET) FW: Bad luck? bad lot? bad owner?

[Tim Humphrey <hump evgrin com>]

According to;

Nawaz Qureshi
Vice-President of Engineering
U.S. Battery Mfg. Co.
1675 Sampson Avenue
Corona, CA 92879-1889

<quote>

"They need to be brought up to 2.583 Volts per cell and held there for two
hours for a proper normal charge. Moderate gassing is needed to mix up the
stratified electrolyte. It gets stratified because the more concentrated
denser acid generated at the plates during charging goes to the bottom and
needs mixing. "

</quote>


Unfortunately, 2.583 v/cell is 46.494 v/pack. The ET charger being a
ferro-resonant device maxes out at 45v. So you may be suffering from
chronic undercharging on this particular brand of battery. You could
try to change the value of the capacitor to raise the voltage, but I'm
not sure of how to compute what you would need.

Stay Charged!
Hump




>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu
> [mailto:elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu] On Behalf Of tbamc
> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 9:49 AM
> To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
> Subject: (ET) Bad luck? bad lot? bad owner?
>
> I bought 6 new US 2200 batteries in the summer of 2004, when I got my
> E-12.  They don't get much below 50% SOC before being recharged, I watch
>
> water levels carefully, check full pack voltage fairly frequently
> (during and after charging),  occasionally check individual battery
> voltage, and don't have any accessory use that would unbalance the
> pack.  I charge the pack before winter storage, and usually check it
> mid-winter to be sure it's ok.
>
> Last year when brought out of storage I found one battery at just over 4
>
> volts.  Couldn't charge it with a 6v charger and presumed a cell was
> gone, so replaced it.  Thought it just unlucky.
>
> Same story this year.  Found one battery at about 4v, 6-8 weeks ago.
> Got a replacement battery last week.  After installing it, found ANOTHER
>
> battery at 4v.  All others 6.1 to 6.3.  I'm fairly certain I checked
> each battery 8 weeks ago, when I found the bad one, and the 'newer' bad
> one was ok, at that time.  In addition, during that 8 weeks, the bad
> battery was removed from the E-T.
>
> So, 3 bad batteries in a pack that's been used for only 4 summers.  Is
> there something I'm doing, to cause this?  Do I need to look for a fault
>
> in the machine?
>
> BTW, FWIW when I bought a new US2200 recently the dealer mentioned that
> the more recent US  Batttery (plate?) technology is now very similar to
> Trojan's.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Thon
>
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