My Screwy 31
First off let me say I am not stressing over this. It's just a battery, it is only money, it is meeting my overnight needs, but it is displaying strange behavior, and I am curious as to why. So th...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:
You do need to allow some time for "SG lag" and also time for the electrolyte to cool down too. One blurb says to do the overcharge till SG stops rising, then put on float for three days then take the SG.
OTOH, it is very interesting how much diff you get going to 16v from 15.7v . Mex was saying longer time at a lower voltage won't help, IIRC, and that small diff in v going to 16 makes it happen. As proven here by the OP.
OP and Niner make me wonder if I could get the SGs more equal in my T-1275s using 16 vs 15.7. I don't have a charger that will do that. VEC1093DBD is 15.7 Solar-direct will get them higher in voltage but it just keeps zooming up so there is only a very short time you can stay at 16ish with that. Same using the Honda 12v--it wants to go to 17. Those batts are still doing ok as it is though.
It all makes me glad I don't have AGMs. It would give me fits not knowing what is really going on with them with no hydrometer. You have to be braver or more trusting to own those! :)
You won't know until you try. I can tell you that I saw 10 points across the board go up in SG, and the one cell that was lowest SG came up 15 points. So, in my case, yes, more equalized. I am a firm believer now in not selling yourself short on getting that 16.V equalize charge. The battery really needs it to chemically clean and remove what sulfur in can from the plates. You'll consume some water doing it, so what, it's only distilled water, it can be replaced.
Kind and gently BS 14.4V kills your battery faster than giving it some tough love 16.0V every week or so, to make it toe the line.
The higher the state of charge is in a battery, the more internal resistance there is to taking that final few % points to a full charge. You have to overcome the resistance with more, or higher voltage. Seek out that 16.0V like Mexico Wanderer says, and do the job 100%, not 97.
Dry camping or being off the power pole is a completely different set of actual recharging requirements on your batteries, compared to being constantly plugged in at an RV park, with your charge controller basically only acting as a power source, full time, not a charger.
