Help: initial charge on new Crown 330ah batteries

I see little reason to equalize brand new batteries.

Why don't you go to the Crown Battery website, and see what they recommend for charging procedures, volts, amps, charge rates, etc, etc. Once you find it and read it, post up the link to the website, for others to learn from.

Borrowing a charger to charge your brand new expensive batteries is not a good idea, buy the correct, non compromised equipment you need to maintain the batteries correctly, or don't bother.

You need an hydrometer to tell you what's what.

Yes you should do a full recharge on new batteries which may have been sitting on the shelf getting stratified.

A manual charger needs you there to shut it off when the battery voltage gets too high. You can shut it off when the SG reaches the spec SG for that model battery.

The 10 a setting is fine for the situation in the OP. Just leave it there and keep an eye on voltage and SG.

I don't see anything wrong with using any charger that will do the job when you have only a converter in the RV that only goes to 14.4v.

BFL13 wrote:
You need an hydrometer to tell you what's what.

Yes you should do a full recharge on new batteries which may have been sitting on the shelf getting stratified.

A manual charger needs you there to shut it off when the battery voltage gets too high. You can shut it off when the SG reaches the spec SG for that model battery.

The 10 a setting is fine for the situation in the OP. Just leave it there and keep an eye on voltage and SG.

I don't see anything wrong with using any charger that will do the job when you have only a converter in the RV that only goes to 14.4v.

I am using a temperature compensated hydrometer. The SG according to data sheet should be 1.275 I can't get it above 1.265

Link to datasheet: http://www.amperbaterie.pl/cr330hd,df105.html

NinerBikes wrote:
Why don't you go to the Crown Battery website, and see what they recommend for charging procedures, volts, amps, charge rates, etc, etc. Once you find it and read it, post up the link to the website, for others to learn from.

Borrowing a charger to charge your brand new expensive batteries is not a good idea, buy the correct, non compromised equipment you need to maintain the batteries correctly, or don't bother.

These batteries are for an off grid solar system at my garage/residence in Montana. The MPPT charge controller will be very expensive as will the inverter. I'm trying to do an initial charge so they are ready for installation. I'm not going on the cheap. I left my 10a charger at the place which is 1,100 miles away.

Maybe you can recommend a good charger. These batteries seem very difficult to get fully charged.

You need more voltage to get that SG moving up. Indicates the batteries are sulfated or stratified or whatever, so an equalization session would be needed. 16v is "normal" for equalizing, so it would depend on how far above 16.0v it goes with that charger on its 50a setting, whether it would be ok to do that.

I'd give it a whirl but be ready to shut it down. But they are not my batteries! :)

Best to just install them. The system will keep them up just fine.

BFL13 wrote:
You need more voltage to get that SG moving up. Indicates the batteries are sulfated or stratified or whatever, so an equalization session would be needed. 16v is "normal" for equalizing, so it would depend on how far above 16.0v it goes with that charger on its 50a setting, whether it would be ok to do that.

I'd give it a whirl but be ready to shut it down. But they are not my batteries! :)

I was seeing as high as 16.3v

I'm letting them simmer on the 10a setting for now.

A little more info I didn't mention can be found here:

Sulfated crown batteries

How long have you been letting them charge at the 10A setting?

16.3 is ok IMO as long as it stays around there while SG rises. If it shoots up past 16.3 shut it off quick!

You can tell it is too much when the electrolyte comes up out of the caps and runs over the tops of the batteries. :(

You might have "stubborn" batteries there like landyacht's "Screwy 31" if you followed that thread.

The solar controller will give you more things to try to keep them going daily, but for now, you do want to get your "baseline SG" as your future SG target. 1.275 seems a bit low to me where I am used to 1.285-95 range on my 6s after being equalized. However, I may be overdoing that and losing plate.

It is a nuisance when they need 15+ volts to get full and that happens on solar around supper time when you need the inverter to run some 120v things, but the inverter won't run at over 15v alarm off. Who invented Rving anyway?? :)