|
I only
got 16 years out of the last set of batteries I purchased.
That was with the "Apollo Era" Charger. What was done
differently ?
During long
periods of idleness, {Think late Fall to early Spring} I used
a 15 A twenty-four hour timer to switch the charger on one or
two hours in the wee hours of the morning.
Periodically I
would have to restart the ET timer, but I think the results
were worth it.
RJ
On 6/4/2019 1:57 PM, Robert Laird
wrote:
As I think you now see, it's not the so much bad batteries
as the one bad cell. (#5) I think once you replace that
battery, things will work pretty well.
I do think that the float voltage is a bit low, but I'm not
sure. Personally, I'm not a fan of chargers that change
their output voltage based on how "smart" they are. But if
those voltages are the final charge voltage, it's too low.
If they finish at a higher voltage, and then the charger drops
to that, it might be OK, but I'm skeptical. A good solid
charger that just runs at 13.8-14 volts, (in 12v land), is my
preference. Charge, and shut the charger off. Even if you
leave it on for a few days, the amperage should only be a few
amps, which these batteries can handle. Personally, I like
the GE charger, I think it works very well, _if_ it's working
correctly. Mostly that means the right voltage, which in
turn means the right capacitor, one that has not drifted from
old age. But the GE charger, working correctly, is powerful
and simple. Combined with the timer, it's a good setup.
Robbie
Ok,
wow!
Here is the additional battery data -
6V Duracell Golf cart batteries. GC2 75Amp 105 Minutes
The readings below are grouped by battery pairs, 2x6V = 12V
for the
battery maintainers. All cells make fine bubbles, always
have, but far
less than with the fancy Soneil 4A charger.
The chargers I have been using since 09 of 2017. No sign of
problems
until this spring. -
Schumacher SEM-1562A-CA 1.5A 6V/12V Automatic Maintainer
Unfortunately, the rubber parts of my fancy hydrometer have
deteriorated. I have a simple one, that reads state of charge
by 4
floats, 0 -1/4 - 1/2 - 3/4 - full. Not ideal, but what shows
below,
good enough....
Number V Hydrometer
1 6.72 3/4
2 6.70 3/4
13.42
3 6.76 Full
4 6.71 2 cells shy of full, 1 full
13.47
5 6.50 1/4 - 0 - Full
6 6.83 2 cells full, 1 shy of full
13.33
Looks like battery number 5 is toast.
I probably should buy 1 to replace the dead one. I have
little hope of
finding the receipt to try for a warranty return, which would
be pro
rated by now anyway. They only had a 12 month free
replacement, and
they made it past that. I think I got them around the same
time as the
chargers, as I was aiming to improve the maintenance
situation.
_______________________________________________
Elec-trak mailing list
Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak
_______________________________________________
Elec-trak mailing list
Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak
|