Are multiple shallow cycles harmful for batteries?

Ah, yes. Ya gotta love the Great Dane.

Hi 12th

Tomato = to mate to = two eight two. 2 8 2 adding one to each number becomes a 3 9 3.

Here is a wonderful clip: Victor Borge

pianotuna,

I kept waiting for someone else, but I'll bite. What's three nine three?

Ahh..joke time
it seems this thread has run it's course

Hi,

And I add one to tomato and say three nine three.

BFL13 wrote:
Camping for less than a month with solar to keep you going, then doing the real 100% recharge/recovery at home is perfect. You only need to do a real 100% once a month or even longer.

That routine is what I would call solar assist, in that you can keep going till you get home.

I say "tomato", you say "tomahto" or maybe it's the other way around.

"That being true, I still believe that I can perform an equalization function completely on solar without undue impact on camping style. I have done them at home although I know that doesn't count in your book. I'll say it again. Solar provides all the power I need and keeps the batteries charged and maintained. What else needs to be said?"

We need to keep running our mou----er, helping others so they don't have to learn the hard way too--or this forum would shut down!!

Camping for less than a month with solar to keep you going, then doing the real 100% recharge/recovery at home is perfect. You only need to do a real 100% once a month or even longer.

That routine is what I would call solar assist, in that you can keep going till you get home. Without the solar, you would be doing 50-90s till your capacity was down too low from "progressive sulfation." In our case that proved to be about a 10 day limit (Big Losses thread from 2010)

The next step is staying out longer than a month. This is where I have learned something now we have this seasonal site off grid with solar. Not many people will be doing that, so let them figure it out the hard way! :) No. But all I can do is say what happens when I do it, which is that the apparent "full" you get still gets the SG below baseline after a month.

Perhaps it is all stratification and not to do with being "full" I don't know. that would explain the monitors saying full and the hydrometer saying not so. Doesn't matter, you have to fix it. Split bank and solar equalize the disconnected batts is the only way I know.

If there is another way, let's hear about it with some details we can gnaw upon.

12thgenusa, nothing at all wrong with basing assumptions. The key word is "base" you did it with a hydrometer. It's the folks that stare at a hydrometer like it was a six inch needle getting ready to stab their rear that get into trouble. Or folks who transact 1/100th the amount of kWh activity on their battery then crow "My Way Is The Best Way For Everyone" that lead people astray. "I got 60,000 miles out of a set of tires" trumps "I got ten years out of a set of tires" every time.

A hydrometer is used to set a baseline, check for sulfation, and sample electrolyte clarity. A person needn't carry one in a holster unless they're in the battery business.

If a person is fine going to the battery store every two years dumping a wad of Benjamin Franklin's on the counter then ignoring their batteries until next time that's OK too. But it's not the right thing to say to other people, "Oh I do my battery thing the right way. You should too".

INTELLIGENT battery maintenance is so easy it is a crime. But like the cartoon image of someone painting themselves into a corner, screwing it up is easy too. Just don't go around recommending other people do it too.

You manage your batteries correctly. Money stays in your wallet. What you wrote makes perfect sense. Managing a flooded lead acid battery solely with a meter makes about much sense as managing children by meter.

BFL13 wrote:
That is when you have to choose to let them stay just under by SG and gradually sulfate or else do the Equalize/overcharge/top charge and shed some pos plate.

After a while you will have either
-lower capacity batts but maybe with longer to live, or
-full capacity batts to the end of their shorter lives

Or something like that :(

I think what you say here is truth. Some of us are more anal in our approach than others, but we're all probably in the 99th percentile of those with batteries that should be maintained. Some chose to dance on one side of the head of the pin and others on the other side. (I didn't call anyone a pinhead). We've all read anecdotes of those that take a devil-may-care attitude about battery maintenance and still claim to get 8 to 10 years’ service. Everything I have read and personal experience says that the most common problem is chronic undercharge. But the literature also seems to indicate that frequent overcharging is equally destructive.

I don't think I have made the claim anywhere that I get to 100% every day. I do however, get to a full state often enough. I do use the information from the Trimetric and the controller data log to make reasonable assumptions about the relative health and SOC of the batteries.

The truth teller is the hydrometer as we all agree. At this point I do not carry one with me on trips. I have done enough testing with a hydrometer at home under similar circumstances to have faith in what the other instruments are telling me as well.

I take a conservative approach to equalization. Until the SG tells me otherwise I don't equalize. I believe there is enough bubble activity during absorption and during travel to keep things stirred up, so there is no concern along that line.

Maybe when I am able to take extended trips and have to do daily 75--99.9s (:)) for 30 days in a row I'll see the need for more frequent equalization. I will probably never just plop down and stay in one place for that long though.

That being true, I still believe that I can perform an equalization function completely on solar without undue impact on camping style. I have done them at home although I know that doesn't count in your book. I'll say it again. Solar provides all the power I need and keeps the batteries charged and maintained. What else needs to be said?

That is when you have to choose to let them stay just under by SG and gradually sulfate or else do the Equalize/overcharge/top charge and shed some pos plate.

After a while you will have either
-lower capacity batts but maybe with longer to live, or
-full capacity batts to the end of their shorter lives

Or something like that :(