Re: (ET) Duracell Batteries

["David Roden" <etpost drmm net>]

On 17 Jun 2015 at 2:04, bushman165s aol com via Elec-trak wrote:

> They are apparently made my Deka/East Penn and are gel cells. My
> question is are they refurbs or some kind of wholesale brand?
> Supposedly they have a nice 20 hour rate, but don't remember exact
> numbers. I can get them from a local guy for $90 each. 

First, have a seat and let me tell you a little story about "refurbished"
batteries.

Several years back I went to a local battery dealer to buy a SLI battery 
for
Margaret's ICEV.  I got to chatting with the kid fetching my battery.  This
shop is located in -- shall we say -- a somewhat less prosperous area.  It
did a big business in $20 "refurbished" batteries for the mid-1970s vintage
Detroit-iron land yachts that used to ply the streets over there right into
the early 2000s.

So I asked the guy, "Just how DO you refurbish a battery?"  "We
charge it," he replied.

I would be really careful of "refurbished" batteries.  Know what I mean?

Now, about your gel proposal:

I trust East Penn.  They make a good battery, with careful quality control
and consistent tolerances.  When last I heard, all their batteries were 
made
right there in Pennsylvania, not in some fly by night Asian sweatshop.

Their gel batteries (Deka Dominators) are outstanding.  I've been using the
8G24 12 volters (6 in series-parllel) in my ET for 15+ years, and they're
just now starting to lose a bit of capacity.

Dominators aren't high power batteries, because they have fairly high
internal resistance.  They wouldn't be my choice for a tractor pull, but
they mow and plow snow just fine.  And I never have to worry about cleaning
acid spray off them or seeing the terminals corrode.

I do have to warn you though that when you buy gel batteries, you don't get
to close your wallet yet.

East Penn will void their warranty if you charge them at more than their
recommended maximum, which is 14.15v (per 12v battery at 20 deg C.  I push
this to between 14.2 and 14.3 volts with never a problem, but mine are long
out of warranty.

IIRC the GE can easily run up to 44-45v on charge.  That's too high, but
it's not the whole story.  Another problem is GE's battery taps for the 
lift
and lights, which discharge the batteries unequally.

GE dealt with that by brute force equalization -- overcharging the fuller
batteries to make sure the emptier ones get charged.  However, gel 
batteries
can't handle that kind of overcharging.  So you need to either (1) add a
shunt regulator to each module (battery); (2) use an indvidual charger for
each battery; or (3) rewire the lights and lift to run on the full 36 
volts,
possibly with a DC:DC 36v:12v converter.

I use (2) in the form of three 12v chargers.  If you used Deka 8GGC2 6 volt
golf car gel batteries, you'd need six 6v chargers.  You could cut this to 
3
12v chargers by rewiring the 18v lift tap for either 12v or 24v (I use the
latter) and charging battery pairs in series.

Don't forget to add in these extra costs if you go with the gel batteries.

If you decide to stick with flooded golf car batteries:

As far as different brands, IMO in the ET, that GE charger and the battery
tapping are bigger factors in battery life than the batteries' intrinsic
quality.  So maybe you'll get 8-9 years with budget batteries, 10-11 years
with US Battery, 11-12 years with Trojan.  Do the dollars-per-year math and
decide.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

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