Why didn't batteries last longer
The batteries in my TT seem to have lost most of their capacity after three years. Now three years isn't terrible performance, and I was looking for an excuse to switch to 6 volt anyway, but I'm curio...
Forum Discussion
waynefi wrote:
I did some experiments with the old batteries and the BD1093. Actually, I only used one battery to speed things up.
First, I charged until FULL with the BD, then turned on some lights and timed how fast the voltage dropped. In four and a half hours, 40W of lights dropped the voltage to 11.77 loaded, 12.09 with only the CO detector.
Now, recharge and Desulfate, and time it again. No change.
Now recharge and Equalize and time it again. Still no change. I really hadn't expected equalize to do much, since the hygrometer had not shown big differences between the cells.
Now, starting at 12.1 volts open circuit, I plugged in the WFCO and left it on for 12 hours, and tried again. This time the voltage dropped slightly more slowly than the previous checks. After the first half hour, the WFCO run read 12.55, while the equalize run had been 12.36. After 2.5 hours, the WFCO run was 12.1, the others just over 12.0 So apparently the WFCO after 12 hours did have it as well charged as the BD after FULL.
You keep doing discharges before you get them to the highest they can get (see my previous post) so your SG will not rise. In fact you might get progressive capacity loss from repeated cycles where you don't get to true full after each cycle. Making things worse! :)
IMO work on them doing Equalizes (ignore that name, think of it as a "finishing charge" or some other name like that to get them to a true full.) It can take a few days to do a "recovery" and see what the SG can ever get to anymore. IMO you haven't done that yet. Doesn't mean it will work, but it might if they aren't too far gone.
