Capacity Testing and 20 HR Rating
I'm thinking about doing a capacity test on my four GC2's. They have a 20hr rating of 215Ah. One thing I'm curious about is how the 20hr rating would have been determined. Being 6v, would they h...
Forum Discussion
Journeyman the 15% was a deliberate exaggeration to skew perspective against what I practice. I may actually give up 2-3% life with those monster .330" plates.
There is even more factors to consider. One of the more important is antimony poisoning o the lead oxide negative plates. The less time spent in the 14.4 - 14.8 volt area, the less antimony will migrate. The 14.4 really is not a floor. It is a linear decrease to insignificant levels around 13.6 volts. This is why I cringe when I read threads where folks spend hours and hours at high voltages trying to attain full specific gravity.
But other issues cloud the picture. So called cyclable flooded batteries with less than 5% antimony are an oxymoron. With peer pressure BCI is trying to leverage battery alloy standardization. Sort of like recyclable beverage containers whose materials tolerance bandwidth is very narrow. A specific PPM deviation limit is holy writ.
Batteries are snotty. Fail to give them what they want and they end up pounding nails into the coffee table. But the rhetoric from some of the OEM's borders on asinine. A 2.75% antimony flooded battery from one manufacturer must have extremely similar characteristics (similar BCI group and cell plate count) from another manufacturer. If for some reason they are dissimilar then one is inferior. Period.
I may wish to add, much of the comments above apply to generator recharging. With unsubstantial solar voltaic capacity, a lot of time may be spent at 14.4 to 14.8 volts trying to achieve full charge. I manage solar voltaic charging by running the generator for 20% of the bottom ampere hours and for the last 10%, if the last 10% takes longer than 2-hours to 100% SOC with panels only. Percentages are hydrometer readings.
There is even more factors to consider. One of the more important is antimony poisoning o the lead oxide negative plates. The less time spent in the 14.4 - 14.8 volt area, the less antimony will migrate. The 14.4 really is not a floor. It is a linear decrease to insignificant levels around 13.6 volts. This is why I cringe when I read threads where folks spend hours and hours at high voltages trying to attain full specific gravity.
But other issues cloud the picture. So called cyclable flooded batteries with less than 5% antimony are an oxymoron. With peer pressure BCI is trying to leverage battery alloy standardization. Sort of like recyclable beverage containers whose materials tolerance bandwidth is very narrow. A specific PPM deviation limit is holy writ.
Batteries are snotty. Fail to give them what they want and they end up pounding nails into the coffee table. But the rhetoric from some of the OEM's borders on asinine. A 2.75% antimony flooded battery from one manufacturer must have extremely similar characteristics (similar BCI group and cell plate count) from another manufacturer. If for some reason they are dissimilar then one is inferior. Period.
I may wish to add, much of the comments above apply to generator recharging. With unsubstantial solar voltaic capacity, a lot of time may be spent at 14.4 to 14.8 volts trying to achieve full charge. I manage solar voltaic charging by running the generator for 20% of the bottom ampere hours and for the last 10%, if the last 10% takes longer than 2-hours to 100% SOC with panels only. Percentages are hydrometer readings.
