Batteries

[Ed_Manifold]

Tomorrow I am picking up 4 Lifeline 31x house AGM batteries to replace my existing Lifeline AGM house batteries that have lasted me 8 years. My question is what do I need to do to my inverter when I install the new batteries? I did nothing when I installed the previous AGM"s.I have read several posts referring to the inverter and a switch to turn when installing AGM batteries so that's why the question.

[JoeH]

On other posts, it was stated that on the Magnum inverter, you need to disconnect the positive connection first to prevent possible damage .

[rgatijnet1]

My Xantrex inverter/charger had a setting for AGM's but not for a specific brand of AGM batteries.

[Smitty77]

Yep - The devils are in the detail of the specific inverter/charger you have.

As noted, Magnum has AGM 1 setting, which is for Lifeline - and - AGM 2 setting, which is for other AGM's. But depending on how old the inverter is, if it is a Magnum - one that Lifeline made a slight change to their recommended Float value in their Feb, 2017 Tech Manual. So for older Magnum's, you now need to go in and use Custom profile.

http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6-0101-Rev-E-Lifeline-Technical-Manual.pdf

And I agree with the input that regardless of inverter/charger - refer to Lifeline's recommended values, and set your Charger to as close this as possible. When in doubt, Lifeline has great Tech Support to bounce questions off of...

And also agree with the 8 years with the previous bank was good - so you were doing something right with them.

I'll share that my X's 4 L16's Lifeline's - walked down - due to a mistake I had made. So I replaced them at 5 1/2 years... After working with both Magnum (MS2812) and Lifeline's Tech Support - I've now added a periodic Conditioning regimen to my calendar, as preventative sulfating avoidance maintenance. Every three months, I run a four hour conditioning on them. If I ever detect/test diminished capacity signs - I'll do an 8 hour Conditioning run.

Best of luck to you with the new bank,
Smitty

(Note: A plug for a company that does back their products. Lifeline helped me determine what had happened to my bank, with input from Magnum too. Even though I was 6 months our of warranty - Lifeline made me a great offer of a discount on a replacement bank of the same. They did not need to do this, they could have just points out that I'd had that mistake in their care. Pretty cool in my book!!!) And, they took my old bank back in, to run some further tests on them - to see if the could recover them further then I could. (One out of the 4, was weaker then the other three, which dragged the other three down to that level. I could have limped along for sometime on that existing bank at the diminished capacity. But the offer to replace made it a no brainer:)!)

[wa8yxm]

Before removing the existing batteries TURN IT OFF
do not turn it back on till the new ones are in palce.

Seriously that's all you HAVE to do in most cases.

NOW: Some Inverter/chargers have programmable charging pramaters. You can set the bulk voltage and current. abosorption voltage and current (and possibly time) and float voltage and last equalization voltage.

LIFELINE can give you suggested settings (IN fact I think they are on their web page) for their batteries.. But that said. I do not knwo what they are.

Some inverter/chargers have pre-sets one of which will be AGM

But AGM's are so close to flooded wet.. You do not absolutly NEED to make a change.. Might get oh say one more year out of 'em if you do though.

[Sam_Spade]

Ed Manifold wrote:
My question is what do I need to do to my inverter when I install the new batteries?

NOTHING. If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

If your previous batteries lasted 8 years, it certainly does NOT need fixing.

[dougrainer]

IF you have a Magnum Inverter, they have a specific setting just for Lifeline AGM's. I am not aware of any other brand of Inverters that have a specific brand listed. You just set for AGM battery on other brands. Since you went for 8 years on the original Lifeline's, I would say your settings are correct and you do not have to change the settings. Doug

[time2roll]

Flip the switch to best match the charging and float specifications of the battery.

[MrWizard]

is it a combo inverter-charger

some units have a setting for gel, gel settings are sligtly lower

AGM works with normal wet cell settings

any special AGM setting just supplies a little higher voltage

[KD4UPL]

Well first, what inverter do you have? Some have more than 1 AGM setting. Some also have a "custom" setting where you can set the exact voltages per your battery manufacturer's information instead of using the generic AGM setting. Some inverters list in the manual the actual voltages associated with the generic AGM and flooded settings.
I would check the Lifeline informaiton for the precise bulk, absorb, and float settings that your batteries need. Then I would find out how to make your inverter/charger follow those settings.