Antimony Poisoning Of Flooded Negative Plates

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
It's a fact of life that maintaining too high a float voltage encourages the migration of antimony from the positive plates to the sponge lead on the negative grids.

• Antimonial poisoning shortens battery life considerably
• When negative plate material reaches a certain ppm of antimony transfer, bad Juju happens
• Normally flooded batteries self discharge 4-12% when new
• A poisoned battery can self-discharge 30% per month
• A poisoned battery can require up to 1000% more watering than a new un-poisoned battery
• A poisoned battery has a charge efficiency degradation that can slump from around 85 - 90% when new to less than 70%
• This means being forced to put 130% more energy into the battery than you removed (discharged).

MEASURE YOUR BATTERY FLOAT MILLIAMPS TO EACH BATTERY. THIS IS VOLTAGE SENSITIVE AND TEMPERATURE SENSITIVE. THIS IS THE ONE, THE SINGLE, THE ONLY WAY TO DETERMINE IF YOU ARE OVERFLOAT CHARGING YOUR FLOODED LEAD ACID BATTERIES.