Battery Equalization Tips
BATTERY EQUALIZATION Remember those wheeled gas station battery chargers? The customer brought in a battery to be charged, the attendant connected the charger cables, set the machine on “High” Sett...
Forum Discussion
mena661 wrote:
Thanks again Mex! BTW, guys that top charging works wonders. Something the IOTA converter is good at with its occasional 14.7V stirring. I have yet to equalize since.
Yet (thanks to a required cancellation of our last Labor Day trip) my 3 year old G27s sat on float at 13.5V by a Magnetek 6300 for 9 months straight. No stirring whatsoever.
Temp adjusted SG afterward in all 18 cells?
1.300
Of course, thanks to Mex's help, I always pull the negative and top them before I put them to bed, but my experience has shown that the occasional destratification stir may not be necessary. YMMV, of course.
What I really think is going on is that... as Mex stated... our fancy converters don't really charge them to 100% as it is. So the occasional stir, be it... weekly or ever 21 hours... is probably just helping to actually, fully top them off; all while skirting any risk to the coach electronics. So it truly may be the best of all plug-n-play worlds for the 99% of us who prefer to simply turn the key and go RV-ing.
Now...
in YOUR case... with 12-story tall batteries... (who suggested you buy those, anyway? :)) stratification is probably much more likely to be an issue worth addressing.
For the rest of us... for simplicity's sake... I always tell people that... lead acid batteries like nothing more than they do a good and constant float charge.
Works for me!
Actually... that brings another thought to mind... And you may want to consider this as well, mene-dog.
The latest Harbor Freight floaters do their work at what we consider a higher than ideal voltage... especially for those with higher-antimony (golf cart) batteries.
Well... my boat battery and tractor battery have been plugged into those for over a year. Upon cell inspection I can see the occasional bubble. Yet no water loss. Mex had told me not to concern myself and he appears to have been correct... again.
So perhaps a float at 14.1V or so is even more ideal. Over time, that occasional bubble must be doing a little stirring. Yet I'm not exactly frying 'em with 17 Volts, here.
