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
It still lives.
It gets cycled daily anywhere from 5 to 35AH sometimes I draw about 35AH from it over 3 to 5 days.
It gets recharged by the Schumacher sc2500a on the AGM setting, which will seek and then hold mid to high 14's for a few hours, even after it flashes the green full charge light, then drops to 13.6v float. I keep a GTpower meter on the output to judge how much it required to return to 'full' and judge/ guestimate depth of discharge by that, but sometimes there are the loads running while charging throwing off that number somewhat.
TOday I went to put a thermocouple on the Northstar and found corrosion on the terminals. I had not looked at this battery in at least 20 months.
I remember losing the nut provided with the battery and found this Wingnut which fit. I guess I should busted out the magnet on it instead of assuming it was Stainless.
I am guilty of using poor quality ring terminals in the past. They have been removed and thick walled Ancors hydraulically crimped. DeOxit D5 and the dremel returned the brass to a gold like appearance. Felt washers saturated with dielectric grease now surround the base of the now spotless terminals.
I just got this neat gizmo which can display temperatures of 4 different K type thermocouples. I thermoepoxied a thermocouple on the transpo 540HD's voltage regulator's added heatsink, since I could and it is very close to where it will be mounted for testing. I already have one on My alternator's casing.
The screwy31 has been subjected to a lot of Wood dust in the last ~11 months.
When I was cleaning the Northstar terminals, I rehooked the screwy31 to my Van again as I try to not disconnect the solar controller from a battery when the sun is up. Also i was listening to the stereo.
On its way back towards the workshop's floor, I decided to pull the caps and clean the dust and dip the hydrometer, for old times sake.
5 cells were at 1.270 or 1.275 but number6, one closest to the (-), was 1.260. no water added since it has been relegated to workshop duty.
I have checked it during a 12 amp recharge and it no longer gets hot on the bottom of that weak cell. 25 amps reaches absorption voltage in under a minute, so i rarely use 25 amps on it.
The electrolyte was clear, and my solar controller had held it at 14.5v for 2 hours while I cleaned the Northstar's terminals and recrimped new ring terminals on the 4 and 2awg, and then carried it back to the workshop, so it should have been sufficiently agitated to cloud the electrolyte.
Perhaps i removed it from RV service too soon.
It has to have a good 200 more shallow to medium cycles on it since removal, and perhaps only one or 2 events where the schumacher brought it above 16 volts when i forgot to employ the AGM setting. Perhaps once I used the MeanWell on it deliberatly holding it at 16 volts for a period of time.
So, it is not dead yet, and is still useful powering 12v LEDs and 12v computer fans, and a 12v TV. Its voltage held during discharge is not impressive, but is not really a factor powering these items.
The Northstar-27 is performing very well as my only battery in the Van, but it requires the meanwell's 40 amps avery so many deep cycles or it gets lazy, or perhaps punch drunk. When it is punch drunk it can take 10+ hours at absorption voltage before amps taper to 0.4a at 14.5v or even 14.7v.
The voltage this battery holds during discharge and during engine cranking is impressive. It has about 325 cycles to below 60% charged and at least 200 cycles to ~85% charged and a significant number of cycles to 92% or so as well, and not including the thousands of engine starts.
When I pull 45AH from it( 90Ah capacity new), and remove the all loads but for 0.3 amps worth, voltage rebounds to 12.26v in about 10 minutes. It has no issues what so ever cranking my engine first thing in the morning at~ 51 to 55Ah from full.
Very impressed with this AGM.
Soon I will have data on how much it heats during high amp charging.
I put the thermocuople on the long side of the case, in the middle, like page 18 in the Rolls surrette user manual says to do.
http://rollsbattery.com/uploads/pdfs/documents/user_manuals/Rolls_Battery_Manual.pdf
It gets cycled daily anywhere from 5 to 35AH sometimes I draw about 35AH from it over 3 to 5 days.
It gets recharged by the Schumacher sc2500a on the AGM setting, which will seek and then hold mid to high 14's for a few hours, even after it flashes the green full charge light, then drops to 13.6v float. I keep a GTpower meter on the output to judge how much it required to return to 'full' and judge/ guestimate depth of discharge by that, but sometimes there are the loads running while charging throwing off that number somewhat.
TOday I went to put a thermocouple on the Northstar and found corrosion on the terminals. I had not looked at this battery in at least 20 months.
I remember losing the nut provided with the battery and found this Wingnut which fit. I guess I should busted out the magnet on it instead of assuming it was Stainless.
I am guilty of using poor quality ring terminals in the past. They have been removed and thick walled Ancors hydraulically crimped. DeOxit D5 and the dremel returned the brass to a gold like appearance. Felt washers saturated with dielectric grease now surround the base of the now spotless terminals.
I just got this neat gizmo which can display temperatures of 4 different K type thermocouples. I thermoepoxied a thermocouple on the transpo 540HD's voltage regulator's added heatsink, since I could and it is very close to where it will be mounted for testing. I already have one on My alternator's casing.
The screwy31 has been subjected to a lot of Wood dust in the last ~11 months.
When I was cleaning the Northstar terminals, I rehooked the screwy31 to my Van again as I try to not disconnect the solar controller from a battery when the sun is up. Also i was listening to the stereo.
On its way back towards the workshop's floor, I decided to pull the caps and clean the dust and dip the hydrometer, for old times sake.
5 cells were at 1.270 or 1.275 but number6, one closest to the (-), was 1.260. no water added since it has been relegated to workshop duty.
I have checked it during a 12 amp recharge and it no longer gets hot on the bottom of that weak cell. 25 amps reaches absorption voltage in under a minute, so i rarely use 25 amps on it.
The electrolyte was clear, and my solar controller had held it at 14.5v for 2 hours while I cleaned the Northstar's terminals and recrimped new ring terminals on the 4 and 2awg, and then carried it back to the workshop, so it should have been sufficiently agitated to cloud the electrolyte.
Perhaps i removed it from RV service too soon.
It has to have a good 200 more shallow to medium cycles on it since removal, and perhaps only one or 2 events where the schumacher brought it above 16 volts when i forgot to employ the AGM setting. Perhaps once I used the MeanWell on it deliberatly holding it at 16 volts for a period of time.
So, it is not dead yet, and is still useful powering 12v LEDs and 12v computer fans, and a 12v TV. Its voltage held during discharge is not impressive, but is not really a factor powering these items.
The Northstar-27 is performing very well as my only battery in the Van, but it requires the meanwell's 40 amps avery so many deep cycles or it gets lazy, or perhaps punch drunk. When it is punch drunk it can take 10+ hours at absorption voltage before amps taper to 0.4a at 14.5v or even 14.7v.
The voltage this battery holds during discharge and during engine cranking is impressive. It has about 325 cycles to below 60% charged and at least 200 cycles to ~85% charged and a significant number of cycles to 92% or so as well, and not including the thousands of engine starts.
When I pull 45AH from it( 90Ah capacity new), and remove the all loads but for 0.3 amps worth, voltage rebounds to 12.26v in about 10 minutes. It has no issues what so ever cranking my engine first thing in the morning at~ 51 to 55Ah from full.
Very impressed with this AGM.
Soon I will have data on how much it heats during high amp charging.
I put the thermocuople on the long side of the case, in the middle, like page 18 in the Rolls surrette user manual says to do.
http://rollsbattery.com/uploads/pdfs/documents/user_manuals/Rolls_Battery_Manual.pdf
