A question about Top Charging?

Mex, I did an EQ on the pair of 6's... results are posted on page 40 of my pm4b-75 thread.

no, not yet... still waiting for the 1620 to arrive.

I had a portable with manual eq, but it bit the dust some time ago. But now looking back, I was actually doing a lot of top charging all along with the peak 40 amper; likely too much at too high of temps; so I hope there's no permanent damage to the plates. I guess I'll know soon enough.

It sounds like a lot of hassle but the object is to determine the severity of loss in the weak sister cells. Then you can put the screws to them and remember how easy it was to rectify them by charging and perhaps upping float voltage a tad.

Memory fails me. Have you performed a full-on genuine authentic equalization of these batteries?

o.k. will do.

I have some 100% numbers, but no 50%. And I will keep a better record of individual batt V's.

thanks.

Numbers would help. Gravity when fully charged gravity when batteries are at 50%

Also measure voltage across each battery

Easy I.D.

A1, A2

B1,B2

Bat A1, X gravity X voltage
Bat A2, X gravity X voltage

etc.

At 50% charge level

And at 100% charge level

Mex,

Mine are all pretty easily accessible, under my dinette seat / bed.

If it turns out I cannot get the two bad cells I have (one each in two batts out of four) up to snuff, how do you recommend I pair up the 6v batts? two good together and two not so good together? one good with one not so good? thanks!

Yes Deltran is a bit of money but closer to $329 retail.
I paid a bit less ten years ago.
It is rated 90 to 135 volts. If it was 90 to 250 like Truecharge2 I would recommend it more.
It was the primary charger on my old popup but now I just carry it if a portable might be needed.

I attempt to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground when recommending things. A six hundred dollar golf car charger is aimed at a specific market, specific battery, and specific usage.

I know of few folks who can afford to throw hundreds upon hundreds of dollars at a task specific mechanism. So it is "Do the best you can with what you've got" or for as little money as intelligently feasible.

Top charging came about as a regimen to effectively minimize the frequency of full bore equalization events. Top charging is far easier, less stressful to the battery plates, less stressful to devices left connected (halogen lights excluded - 15 volts means death), and last but not least least stressful to the battery owner.

Frequency of discharges, depth of discharges determines the necessity of using top charging. Two weeks of RV park hopping vacation means the least as far as top charging value. Boondocking for weeks on end on the other hand makes top charging almost mandatory unless a person doesn't mind babysitting an equalization cycle.

Pick on the weak sister cell. Throw spitballs at it. Move and orient the weak sister cell battery so it is easiest to get to. I moved my 2-volt cells Chinese fire drill so the 2 cells weakest bookend my power shed's work bench. I have a place to lay my hydrometer and DMM. I have a 3-volt analog meter that I punch across each cell. I disassembled the meter and painted a red line then a black line. One is at 2.666 volts (equalization limit) the other at minimum allowed discharge (24.00) volts. My tour of the power shed has me grabbing the meter (a 17" spread across the terminal bar) and jabbing the points into the cell connectors. Bang bang bang. I'm done in under 3 minutes. I grab my coffee cup and walk to the garden. Every week to 10 days I go to the week sisters hydrometer in hand. 3 minutes later I'm done. If the weak sisters are moaning, I'll start the Kubota, set the timer for 30 minutes, dial down the ferroresonant charger to 3, and walk off. 130 amperes at 28.0 volts. The charger tapers amperage just like any other manual charger. The charger unloads 30 seconds before automatic shutdown. I use the genset rather than public power to exercise it. Also public power means 90-132 volts which does not affect ferroresonant charger output, but it slaps around and yanks the shorts down on the digital CFE kWh demand meter. The freakin' thing goes into high demand rate for the next eight hours. The 160 lb transformer in the charger makes unity power Alice In Wonderland.

The point of all this is a little planning makes battery maintenance simple and easy and reduces time spent by magnitudes. Some of you, god knows how many have battery banks with weak sister cells in poor position to be checked. Troublemaker students were forced to sit in the front row when I went to school.

With a lot of batteries in a bank how hard is it to fit a digital or analog panel voltmeter, a rotary switch with enough positions to check all the batteries. Click click click click click click click click checks 8 golf car batteries or L-16's or 12-volt car size batteries. 20 gauge cable is plenty big enough. Use a 2-pole switch and wire individual negatives. An afternoon's worth of work, dirt cheap and it'll save your butt later on guaranteed. Don't forget to slop-on the grease on the battery terminals.

Managing a battery bank is only hard if you insist that it's going to be hard. It's so simple it's criminal to believe otherwise.

Thanks smkettner. I like the way stage 3 is explained on pages 8 and 9.

But it still comes down to individual battery chemistry, and that's something I cannot get info on. As mex says, real world data (and time) will tell.

I guess I'll have to "write the book" on these TransCanada 2GC's, seeing as the manufacturer can't be bothered.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
But no one has a charging device that starts and ends at 2 amps unless they have a full-on power supply with voltage AND current adjustments.

Deltran golf car battery chargers have a 2 amp equalization/top charge at the end of the charge algorithm.

http://batterytender.com//Battery_Charging_Basics.pdf figure 6, page 11.

Deltran goes with 50% of Bulk time so 90 minutes bulk = 45 minute top charge. I think there is a minimum timer setting.