Does DEKA make a good UPS battery?
I took a trip yesterday down near San Diego, it was twofold. One was to replace my free Trojan T-1275 that was a golf cart reject already when I got it with a pig of a 105# UPS 145ah AGM battery from ...
Forum Discussion
Niner,
When I first got both the screwy 31's predecessor, a Crown 31 marine battery at 56 Lbs I also got a Northstar group 27. It was an older blue top model, and it read 12.73v when installed and was discounted 65$ or so.
It did not accept more than 14 amps from my alternator after start up, at 14.9v. I had a 25 minute drive home and at the end, my clampmeter revealed it was only accepting 0.8 amps.
Yet in 1 hour, under no load, voltage sagged to 12.84v.
I only had the Schumacher sc2500a as a plug in charging source at that point, and every time I started it, even at the 2 amp setting, it quickly flashed the green light and reverted to float voltage. I'd burn off the surface charge, restart the charger but the battery simply wanted no part of it, voltage rose quickly to 14.7 or higher, amps tapered to nothing, and the Schumacher either gave up or went into its Psycho mode and tried for 16.4V. After shutting it down, voltage quickly fell to and rested at 12.84 again within 2 hours.
Northstar says their fully charged resting voltage is 13 volts or more.
That night I took 45AH from the 91AH Northstar-27, and in the mid morning hit it with 25 schumacher amps + whatever the solar was contributing. When the Schumacher flashed the green light, the solar held it at 14.7v for another 2 hours or so, I then removed both loads and charging sources from it, and let it rest. 24 hours later it was still holding 13.16 volts.
The relabelled deep cycle Crown battery performed abysmally on my first overnight load test, and then I weighed it, expecting 67 Lbs and got 57 Lbs.
I returned Both batteries. I paid the difference for a new Northstar27
and swapped the relabelled crown marine battery for the Screwy31 which was a flooded USbattery which weighed in at 64Lbs.
The same thing with the Newer Northstar. It refused to accept any charging currents and refused to hold voltages over 12.9v when I first got it.
When I discharged it to ~50% and gave it 25 amps + solar it then held 13.1+ volts for days eventually settling to 13.06v when resting. No loads or sources. 20 Months and about 100 cycles later, it still has a fully charged resting voltage of 13.06v, and it held that for 3 weeks when I flew cross country over the new year.
I know Lead acid batteries supposedly have no memory, but in my experience with the Northstar AGM's, it seems that at first, they need a discharge cycle, and that high amp recharge before they rest at the voltage they should.
That Lifeline GPL-31XT I got to play with for a few weeks, was only 2 weeks old maximum on receipt, and was reading 13.01 volts on arrival, and it rested at 13.16v after a 50% discharge and 40+ Meanwell and Solar amp recharge, but it took a week for it to drop to 13.16 from 13.23v.
Odyssey says their fully charged OCV is 12.84.
It seems all lead acid batteries act a bit strange before they get that first cycle out of the way, if one pays close enough attention and has the tools and interest to monitor it.
I would certainly want to establish what the fully charged resting voltage is on your new to you battery. I don't think you can establish that until it gets had a discharge cycle and then hit with the megawatt's 30+ amps, until amps taper to 1.45. or less.
I have accidentally left my northstar at 14.5v overnight via my meanwell about 3 times now. My monitor registered +0.0a in the morning before the sun came up. So the 0.45 amps which would be 0.5% of 90AH, well it seems it can indeed take a bit more, as amps do taper to such a low level, that my ammeters cannot register them.
Perhaps that 1.45a at 14.4 is a bit premature at 77f
That Lifeline, before I discharged it, the amps only very slowly tapered to below 1 and seemed to stop tapering.
but after my 50% load test, and voltage rebounded to 12.34v, then amps at 14.4v tapered quicker, and I stopped it at 0.62a.
So it behaved differently on that first charge cycle after a discharge too, compared to when I tried to top charge it before beginning my first overnight load test on it.
Deka does state in your provided link:
When I first got both the screwy 31's predecessor, a Crown 31 marine battery at 56 Lbs I also got a Northstar group 27. It was an older blue top model, and it read 12.73v when installed and was discounted 65$ or so.
It did not accept more than 14 amps from my alternator after start up, at 14.9v. I had a 25 minute drive home and at the end, my clampmeter revealed it was only accepting 0.8 amps.
Yet in 1 hour, under no load, voltage sagged to 12.84v.
I only had the Schumacher sc2500a as a plug in charging source at that point, and every time I started it, even at the 2 amp setting, it quickly flashed the green light and reverted to float voltage. I'd burn off the surface charge, restart the charger but the battery simply wanted no part of it, voltage rose quickly to 14.7 or higher, amps tapered to nothing, and the Schumacher either gave up or went into its Psycho mode and tried for 16.4V. After shutting it down, voltage quickly fell to and rested at 12.84 again within 2 hours.
Northstar says their fully charged resting voltage is 13 volts or more.
That night I took 45AH from the 91AH Northstar-27, and in the mid morning hit it with 25 schumacher amps + whatever the solar was contributing. When the Schumacher flashed the green light, the solar held it at 14.7v for another 2 hours or so, I then removed both loads and charging sources from it, and let it rest. 24 hours later it was still holding 13.16 volts.
The relabelled deep cycle Crown battery performed abysmally on my first overnight load test, and then I weighed it, expecting 67 Lbs and got 57 Lbs.
I returned Both batteries. I paid the difference for a new Northstar27
and swapped the relabelled crown marine battery for the Screwy31 which was a flooded USbattery which weighed in at 64Lbs.
The same thing with the Newer Northstar. It refused to accept any charging currents and refused to hold voltages over 12.9v when I first got it.
When I discharged it to ~50% and gave it 25 amps + solar it then held 13.1+ volts for days eventually settling to 13.06v when resting. No loads or sources. 20 Months and about 100 cycles later, it still has a fully charged resting voltage of 13.06v, and it held that for 3 weeks when I flew cross country over the new year.
I know Lead acid batteries supposedly have no memory, but in my experience with the Northstar AGM's, it seems that at first, they need a discharge cycle, and that high amp recharge before they rest at the voltage they should.
That Lifeline GPL-31XT I got to play with for a few weeks, was only 2 weeks old maximum on receipt, and was reading 13.01 volts on arrival, and it rested at 13.16v after a 50% discharge and 40+ Meanwell and Solar amp recharge, but it took a week for it to drop to 13.16 from 13.23v.
Odyssey says their fully charged OCV is 12.84.
It seems all lead acid batteries act a bit strange before they get that first cycle out of the way, if one pays close enough attention and has the tools and interest to monitor it.
I would certainly want to establish what the fully charged resting voltage is on your new to you battery. I don't think you can establish that until it gets had a discharge cycle and then hit with the megawatt's 30+ amps, until amps taper to 1.45. or less.
I have accidentally left my northstar at 14.5v overnight via my meanwell about 3 times now. My monitor registered +0.0a in the morning before the sun came up. So the 0.45 amps which would be 0.5% of 90AH, well it seems it can indeed take a bit more, as amps do taper to such a low level, that my ammeters cannot register them.
Perhaps that 1.45a at 14.4 is a bit premature at 77f
That Lifeline, before I discharged it, the amps only very slowly tapered to below 1 and seemed to stop tapering.
but after my 50% load test, and voltage rebounded to 12.34v, then amps at 14.4v tapered quicker, and I stopped it at 0.62a.
So it behaved differently on that first charge cycle after a discharge too, compared to when I tried to top charge it before beginning my first overnight load test on it.
Deka does state in your provided link:
Upon installation of the battery system, an optional charge
of 14.40V per battery ± 0.06 @ 77°F (25°C) for 24 hours
(not to exceed 24 hours) can be applied
