6v battery lifespan?
What is the average lifespan of 6v batteries? What would shorten the typical lifespan? Is there a big difference in longevity between the different types of 6v batteries? Thanks
Forum Discussion
"An occasional slight overcharge to "Stir things up" a bit. These seem to help."
I think that you are referring to de-sulfating the battery. The manual for my charger talks about this and seems to thing that doing it every 6 months or so is a good idea. I have not tried it you but want to research it a little more and may try it when the weather warms a little bit.
Here is a link to a web site that is trying to sell de-sulfating devices:
http://www.chargingchargers.com/tutorials/battery-desulfation.html
One thing I had noticed in my coach was that every time I plugged in or started the gen-set it would charge at 100 amps for a while. At first I assumed that the batteries were low and that the charge was really needed. I got suspicious and started reading the manual and found that it does a "bulk charge" at about 14.6 volts and up to 100 amps when power is connected for a set period and then lowers the charge voltage. I don't know what the merits of this are but feel that it was too much for too long. I found and adjusted parameters in the charger to lower bulk charge time, target volts and rate. I want to see if my water usage goes down or if it seems to cause any problems with batteries not getting charged adequately.
Since I am fairly new to this game I would love to here what other people use for settings for target voltage, battery cut out voltage and genset auto start voltage and any other relevent parameters.
It won't help much with the house batteries but I am experimenting with hooking a capacitor bank in line with the starting batteries. The caps take a big part of the hit when starting which will probably help both battery and starter life. The caps themselves should last forever.
I think that you are referring to de-sulfating the battery. The manual for my charger talks about this and seems to thing that doing it every 6 months or so is a good idea. I have not tried it you but want to research it a little more and may try it when the weather warms a little bit.
Here is a link to a web site that is trying to sell de-sulfating devices:
http://www.chargingchargers.com/tutorials/battery-desulfation.html
One thing I had noticed in my coach was that every time I plugged in or started the gen-set it would charge at 100 amps for a while. At first I assumed that the batteries were low and that the charge was really needed. I got suspicious and started reading the manual and found that it does a "bulk charge" at about 14.6 volts and up to 100 amps when power is connected for a set period and then lowers the charge voltage. I don't know what the merits of this are but feel that it was too much for too long. I found and adjusted parameters in the charger to lower bulk charge time, target volts and rate. I want to see if my water usage goes down or if it seems to cause any problems with batteries not getting charged adequately.
Since I am fairly new to this game I would love to here what other people use for settings for target voltage, battery cut out voltage and genset auto start voltage and any other relevent parameters.
It won't help much with the house batteries but I am experimenting with hooking a capacitor bank in line with the starting batteries. The caps take a big part of the hit when starting which will probably help both battery and starter life. The caps themselves should last forever.
