Meanwell is here!!

joelmyer wrote:
I got mine.

obtw BFL, those are Anderson Power Poles on each side of the meter.

I've been working over my batteries. Interstate GC2-XHD-UTL.

Bought these in December 2010 while dry camping in Key West. Never happy with them. I know now that dry camping without solar that I could never get them "fully" charged, sulfating, progressive loss of capacity, ...

Suffered through 2010, 2011, 2012. In 2013 I picked the worse two of the lot and moved them to the shop and suffered through last winter with the other two, planning to buy four new Sam's Club golf cart batteries this summer. I charged them occasionally with the VEC1093.

Decided to do a BFL treatment:

In the beginning: 24 hours after FUL:
8/22/14 1230, 1260, 1260, 1260, 1260, 1225
watered, recond, eq:
8/23/14 1265, 1260, 1260, 1260, 1270, 1225

Round 1: 10 AMP load 6 hours. Dropped to 12.3 volts at start, 11.93 at end.
Part of my unhappiness was low voltage under load. Maybe this is normal.
Sat for two days because the VEC1093 was busy the other pair.
Wouldn't charge. Recond, charge, eq, charge:
8/27/14 1275, 1275, 1275, 1275, 1275, 1250

Round 2: 10 amp load 6 3/4 hours, ending voltage 11.88
charge, recond, eq, eq
8/29/14: 1275, 1275, 1275, 1280, 1280, 1250

Round 3: 10 amp load, 6 1/4 hours, end 12.0 volts.
charge with VEC1093. "Finishing Charge" with MW S-350-12
8/31/14 1280, 1280, 1280, 1280, 1280, 1260

obtw, that last cell was over watered sometime before this exercise. There is ~3/8" of water above the bottom of the slot. All the others were watered as needed.

The other pair out in the trailer, after one cycle of load, charge, recond and eq
8/25/14 1260, 1260, 1250, 1260, 1270, 1255
so they need to meet MW.

But after that I think I'm good for anther winter at least without new batteries.

Again, thanks all for the advise, counsel, guidance and entertainment.

Your observation of the batteries need multiple treatments of minor deep heated massage matches my experience with my Trojan T-1275s. It took 3 trips over a matter of about 12 to 14 days to really get the specific gravity back up there. You just can't rush a good equalization, it needs some down time for the chemical solution to redistribute itself inside the battery.

I'd hit them with the Meanwell set at 15.05 V first, then my very old 1980's manual Sears 6 amp charger that does go to 16.0V, usually for an hour or two, until the amp meter on the charger showed 3.0 amps for about an hour. That 2 hours usually would let me see 1.275 to 1.280 on all but one cell, again, a cell slightly overfilled.

I thank Mexicowander for educating all of us on how to do the most on fully recharging our batteries, so that we get the most out of our batteries while dry camping.

I would also like to call out and thank landyacht318 for keeping copious notes on his screwy 31 battery. I consider that a "must read" or a Battery 101 course on proper observation, taking notes, and confirming that you need to be a little bit bold in the voltage settings on your charge controller, that the charge controller industry has been lying to all of us on 14.4V, when, in his case, with his batteries, he needs 15.3V daily and 16.0V every 14 days to keep his battery healthy, while using it daily, regularly, and hard, with true deep cycles.

And lastly, I'd like to thank BFL, for going out there and getting a pair of used T-1275s and making them work again... because without his posts, I wouldn't have done the same, and come back smiling... I love everything about the T-1275 except lifting those mofo's out of the battery tray for an EQ session back home... they are HEAVY.