Specific Gravity varied widely after topping up.
The other day I checked my 9 month old Crown batteries and found the plates exposed slightly on a few cells and cursed mightily. I hadn't checked them in about 3 months. I covered the cells with distilled water and charged them.
The next day I got more distilled water and filled the cells to proper level and charged them again.
The day before I added water, they were holding 12.6+ volts overnight using 20 amp hours out of a 230 hour bank.
The day after topping up the cells they dropped quickly to 12.2 using the same amount. An Hour ago I pulled out the hydrometer.
I found:
1 cell at 1.290
2 cells at 1.250
4 cells at 1.275
2 cells at 1.265
1 cell at 1.270
2 cells at 1.255
The thermometer on my hydrometer said -2 for temperature compensation.
So, I disconnected the batteries from the RV, managed to force my Schumacher charger to go into it's EQ mode and adjusted my solar setpoints upto 16 volts and tilted my panel at the sun.
Right now they are taking 17.3 amps at 15.5 volts, bubbling away aggressively. I am monitoring temperature and they are at 75f. The ambient temp is 75f.
Obviously I am hoping for the best, yet expecting the worst, and wishing I had the money to go with AGM 9 months ago. It is not really easy to check my batteries and I went too long and let a couple cells drop too low.
Hopefully this EQ cycle restores the performance.
My questions are: Can I get the SG back upto what I recorded when they were new(1.295 to 1.285)? Is that what I should hoping/ aiming for?
Does the max SG level determine how sulfated each cell it, never to return even after an aggressive eq cycle?
I've been plugging into the grid much more with these batteries, which is no doubt why water consumption increased, but the cycles on these batteries have been very shallow and not very many of them. No cycle went below 55% SOC and most were above 85% SOC. So if i killed another set of batteries by letting them get too low I will really be cursing up a storm.
I don't know how long the Schumacher is going to allow the eq cycle to continue, and the sun is dropping. It was not easy to get the schumacher to go into EQ mode. Since I started typing voltage has dropped by .1 and the amps by 1 but the temp has increased by 1.5. I had to try 3 times by turning on 40+ amps of load and waiting until the voltage dropped below 12.3.
I'll check the SG again after it shuts off and report back.
The next day I got more distilled water and filled the cells to proper level and charged them again.
The day before I added water, they were holding 12.6+ volts overnight using 20 amp hours out of a 230 hour bank.
The day after topping up the cells they dropped quickly to 12.2 using the same amount. An Hour ago I pulled out the hydrometer.
I found:
1 cell at 1.290
2 cells at 1.250
4 cells at 1.275
2 cells at 1.265
1 cell at 1.270
2 cells at 1.255
The thermometer on my hydrometer said -2 for temperature compensation.
So, I disconnected the batteries from the RV, managed to force my Schumacher charger to go into it's EQ mode and adjusted my solar setpoints upto 16 volts and tilted my panel at the sun.
Right now they are taking 17.3 amps at 15.5 volts, bubbling away aggressively. I am monitoring temperature and they are at 75f. The ambient temp is 75f.
Obviously I am hoping for the best, yet expecting the worst, and wishing I had the money to go with AGM 9 months ago. It is not really easy to check my batteries and I went too long and let a couple cells drop too low.
Hopefully this EQ cycle restores the performance.
My questions are: Can I get the SG back upto what I recorded when they were new(1.295 to 1.285)? Is that what I should hoping/ aiming for?
Does the max SG level determine how sulfated each cell it, never to return even after an aggressive eq cycle?
I've been plugging into the grid much more with these batteries, which is no doubt why water consumption increased, but the cycles on these batteries have been very shallow and not very many of them. No cycle went below 55% SOC and most were above 85% SOC. So if i killed another set of batteries by letting them get too low I will really be cursing up a storm.
I don't know how long the Schumacher is going to allow the eq cycle to continue, and the sun is dropping. It was not easy to get the schumacher to go into EQ mode. Since I started typing voltage has dropped by .1 and the amps by 1 but the temp has increased by 1.5. I had to try 3 times by turning on 40+ amps of load and waiting until the voltage dropped below 12.3.
I'll check the SG again after it shuts off and report back.
