Battery Questions
Hello, The battery that came with my 2017 5th wheel took a complete charge and I unhooked it from charger planning on putting it back in the 5th wheel but I got delayed by a few days. Today I went ...
Forum Discussion
Putting any faith, whatsoever, in a charger's state of charge display % in unwise in the extreme.
It is entirely based on voltage, nothing else, and full charged resting voltage varies from 12.6v to 13.2 depending on teh battery and its temperature. If you even can trust the vltage display on sime chargers is another huge factor. My 2007 purchased shumachers 'intelli' charger's voltage display was off by close to 0.2 volts, when the display still worked.
So dismiss any percentage your charger reads, it is completely inadmissable in any logic driven decision.
Also completely dismiss any garage charger's decision that the battery is indeed fuly charged. Almost all of them will stop in the 92 to 95% range and that last 5 to 8% of charge can take several more hours at absorption voltages to achieve.
Automatic 'smart' chargers, do not fully charge the battery, they are desiged primarily to NOT overcharge it. It is safer to underchaarge than overcharge or fully charge, and Lawyers......... and the brainless hyper entitled entitled dimwit of today's population, see $$$$ in this day and age of automatic everything and fingerpointing fabricated outrage.
It is utterly Unwise to believe the green light on any charger that was attached to any aged battery that has seen more than a few cycles.
A hydrometer will easily prove that the bttery was not fully charged when the 'smart' charger said it was. But nobody ever bothers and just assumes the green light is incapable of not telling the truth.
A six pack style spiral cell battery excells over other batteries, ONLY in cases of extreme vibration and when physical strength of the case is important. They have lesser capacity per battery group size. Beware of marketing.
Water any flooded battery and its voltage will soon read lower than before watering and its performance will seem to decrease, as the electrolyte/ acid solution is now weaker and not homogenous. A battery low on water will seem to retain voltage when resting and under load significantly better than one recently filled, even if the level was below the tops of the plates.
I find the 'reserve capacity' rating to be nearly useless, unless one is subjecting a single battery to 20 amps and draining it to dead flat, something wise battery owners avoid.
Self discharge of batteries is directly related to their temperature. the hotter they are the more they self discharge. the more impurities in the lead plate paste the faster they self discharge, the more impurities introduced when watering, the more they self discharge. the more aged and abused, the more self discharge there is
It is entirely based on voltage, nothing else, and full charged resting voltage varies from 12.6v to 13.2 depending on teh battery and its temperature. If you even can trust the vltage display on sime chargers is another huge factor. My 2007 purchased shumachers 'intelli' charger's voltage display was off by close to 0.2 volts, when the display still worked.
So dismiss any percentage your charger reads, it is completely inadmissable in any logic driven decision.
Also completely dismiss any garage charger's decision that the battery is indeed fuly charged. Almost all of them will stop in the 92 to 95% range and that last 5 to 8% of charge can take several more hours at absorption voltages to achieve.
Automatic 'smart' chargers, do not fully charge the battery, they are desiged primarily to NOT overcharge it. It is safer to underchaarge than overcharge or fully charge, and Lawyers......... and the brainless hyper entitled entitled dimwit of today's population, see $$$$ in this day and age of automatic everything and fingerpointing fabricated outrage.
It is utterly Unwise to believe the green light on any charger that was attached to any aged battery that has seen more than a few cycles.
A hydrometer will easily prove that the bttery was not fully charged when the 'smart' charger said it was. But nobody ever bothers and just assumes the green light is incapable of not telling the truth.
A six pack style spiral cell battery excells over other batteries, ONLY in cases of extreme vibration and when physical strength of the case is important. They have lesser capacity per battery group size. Beware of marketing.
Water any flooded battery and its voltage will soon read lower than before watering and its performance will seem to decrease, as the electrolyte/ acid solution is now weaker and not homogenous. A battery low on water will seem to retain voltage when resting and under load significantly better than one recently filled, even if the level was below the tops of the plates.
I find the 'reserve capacity' rating to be nearly useless, unless one is subjecting a single battery to 20 amps and draining it to dead flat, something wise battery owners avoid.
Self discharge of batteries is directly related to their temperature. the hotter they are the more they self discharge. the more impurities in the lead plate paste the faster they self discharge, the more impurities introduced when watering, the more they self discharge. the more aged and abused, the more self discharge there is
