Charging a Battery Bank
I am planning on upgrading my batteries to 4 6v batteries wired in series and parallel to have a 12v system with plenty of Amp Hours. There is a ton of information on how to wire things up but nothing...
Forum Discussion
I would prefer the charging source hold 14.7ish volts until amps taper to 1% of capacity before initiating any EQ voltages . If that happens then A healthy battery should not require more than 5% In amps, of battery capcacity, 5 amps per 100Ah of capacity, to be brought to 16 volts, or 16.2v as trojan an Rolls Surrette now prescribe as an EQ voltage( at 77f battery temperature).
Important thing is his charger got Sg to respond on most of the cells. See if those last two can catch up, then see how the batteries handle a normal overnight usage
I still EQ charge the screwy 31( group 31 marine USbattery) once in a while, originally rated at 130Ah capacity. 5% of 130 is 6.5. Usually it took only 6.2 amps for it to achieve 16 volts, and I'd hold 16v until it reached 1.280 on all cells or until they no longer rose, or amps started increasing to maintain that 16v.
Battery temperature played a big part in how long it took to max out SG. Hot days it happened faster, in my observations of that specific battery.
When one of its cells refused to respond to EQ voltages, I also noted that cell got hot on the bottom and removed it from deep cycle duty. I expected it to short out well over a year ago, but the battery keeps delivering shallow cycles without issue, and will maintain 12.79v when unloaded for 4 days after a full charge.
Max out the SG, test it. Perhaps test it to well below 50% state of charge then max out SG again on whatever charging source can accomplish this. Perhaps it will like it and restore some capacity. perhaps not.
If not, you now know how to keep the new batteries performing well. Get that SG up, pronto, and keep it there until it is time to work the batteries again.
Important thing is his charger got Sg to respond on most of the cells. See if those last two can catch up, then see how the batteries handle a normal overnight usage
I still EQ charge the screwy 31( group 31 marine USbattery) once in a while, originally rated at 130Ah capacity. 5% of 130 is 6.5. Usually it took only 6.2 amps for it to achieve 16 volts, and I'd hold 16v until it reached 1.280 on all cells or until they no longer rose, or amps started increasing to maintain that 16v.
Battery temperature played a big part in how long it took to max out SG. Hot days it happened faster, in my observations of that specific battery.
When one of its cells refused to respond to EQ voltages, I also noted that cell got hot on the bottom and removed it from deep cycle duty. I expected it to short out well over a year ago, but the battery keeps delivering shallow cycles without issue, and will maintain 12.79v when unloaded for 4 days after a full charge.
Max out the SG, test it. Perhaps test it to well below 50% state of charge then max out SG again on whatever charging source can accomplish this. Perhaps it will like it and restore some capacity. perhaps not.
If not, you now know how to keep the new batteries performing well. Get that SG up, pronto, and keep it there until it is time to work the batteries again.
