Charge Up Those "New" Batteries

[BFL13]

Got a new pair of Flooded 6s from Canadian Tire today branded their way, but same as Deka GC 15s for specs and appearance. (230AH, 64 lbs)
Local store would rarely sell 6v batts, so they sit on the shelf. They do car batts.

I knew to charge them after their shelf-life before putting them into service. Might have been on this forum I learned that.

Got them home, and stickers said "M19" which turns out to be December, but another sticker said 11/19. Recharge by 6/20. Whatever.

Stuck in the hydrometer and got 1.260 on the border of white and green. Voltmeter said 6.23 each. That is 75% SOC . Yipes.

Been charging them up ever since and equalizing after that. Now on second equalize session with my VEC1093DBD, and the SG is coming up nicely into the green after 10 hours, but more to go.

So--the moral of the story is-- YES! Charge those suckers up-- any new battery. You don't know where it's been and what its state is on getting it home unless you check.

Do not ASSume it is as good as new just because you bought it brand new.

BTW I am not mad at Can Tire. I expected that sort of thing, but not 75% for a November battery on 2 Feb. So that is confirmation they do self discharge way more than 12s and AGMs.

No matter in my case, I have the charging equipment to get them back to as good as new. Watch out if you don't have an hydrometer and a voltmeter.

[BFL13]

Besides getting them charged up when you first get them off the shelf, you want their "as new" SG when known to be truly full. I call that their "Baseline SG", which will be the target SG for future recharges to full.

You need to know they are at true full for when to reset the AH counter on your battery monitor, eg. Also so you don't stop a recharge too soon. Or to tell that your automatic charger quits too soon. Also to notice when their fullest SG reading gets lower.

I prefer having the SG reading than working with sealed batteries, where it is harder to tell what is going on. Lately it seems you can only get sealed batteries for your car/truck and they have gone back to that green light (which only indicates for one of its cells I am told). Oh well. So far we can still get flooded not- sealed for the house bank if desired.

[dougrainer]

Interstate Battery goes by each retailer once a week or month depending on the drivers route. They PULL older batteries and replace with fresh batteries. They then sell those batteries as rebuilds at a reduced cost at the main warehouse or if a dealer has a customer that wants a cheaper battery with less warranty. There is a melted on code on almost all batteries that designate the born on date. This is because it is the most accurate way of determining the actual date. Some customers like to NOT punch out the month/year dots and then years later when they have a problem they then punch out the date that would give them the most warranty. BUT, Interstate goes by the melted on date since they DO pull batteries as stated at the beginning of this post. Doug

[wa8yxm]

I have read many myths about batteries over the years.

Now.. Charging ASAP when you buy a new battery.. Very good plan

BUT... can you just put 'em in in parallel with others that are already charged and let the converter do it's job?

The myth is the "Full" batteries will tell the converter they are full and the new one will never get fully charged.

Another like myth is if you group say a Group 27,29,31 that the 27 will fill up and the 31 will never.

This is based on the theory that all 3 of those (in the example) share amps EQUALLY during charging.. they do not.

THe battery with the lowest voltage takes the lion's when you add a battery

And once that is done they share both charge and load ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITY. not equally. for example my GC-2's take over twice teh current and provide over twice the current of the G-29.

[opnspaces]

BFL13 wrote:


Got them home, and stickers said "M19" which turns out to be December, but another sticker said 11/19. Recharge by 6/20. Whatever.


So--the moral of the story is-- YES! Charge those suckers up-- any new battery. You don't know where it's been and what its state is on getting it home unless you check.

BTW I am not mad at Can Tire. I expected that sort of thing, but not 50% for a November battery on 2 Feb. So that is confirmation they do self discharge way more than 12s and AGMs.

Good that you checked and found them low. I'm not sure about Canadian Tire and the date stickers. But I was told at Costco that the date stickers on their batteries are when the battery was placed on the shelf, not when it was manufactured. So a battery could conceivably be much older than the sticker on it implies.

[time2roll]

Don't be too hard on them. Takes a few cycles to reach full rated capacity.

[lawrosa]

Congrats on the batts..

My camper been sitting a year now. I been checking the water.. one cell was way low on one of the batts. Time for those 6 volters or some cheap 12's...

there is an interstate by me with battery sales

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/products/gc2-ecl-utl?productLine=rv&subcategoryKey=&ignorecatego...