Battery life cycle counter

CA Traveler wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I think as others have said battery life is more that cycles of charging. I think most batteries die from sulfation from insufficient charging, at the other end of the spectrum is plate shedding from over charging which does not get talked about on here often. For this reason I don't keep mine plugged in all the time but recharge in shallow cycles 10-20% but equalize and desulfate several times a year.

Overcharging is certainly a factor.

From many posts it appears to me that over/under charging is mainly a result of inexpensive chargers. Of course they cost less and are great for the salesman to point out what a great battery charger this fantastic rig has...

I am not sure how it works exactly, the lower the voltage the less the chemical reaction and the less plate shedding occurs, having said that any amount of charging produces a chemical reaction and lead is shredded from the plates. If you charge your batteries when they are at 80% SOC 6V GC batteries should be good for 4000 cycles if you charge when they are fully discharged about 700 cycles and at 50% SOC maybe about 1600 cycles. So you can see it is not linear function, the knee of the curve is between 50-60% SOC. I dry camp 90% of the time so I can't fully charge until I have an electric site or come home. I guess the real question is which will make the battery last longer shallow charge SOC cycles, an automatic battery float charger, or a constant float charger of 13.2-13.6 v set on a timer. There are a lot of other variables like temperature and the algorithms that these various "smart chargers" use.