Help: initial charge on new Crown 330ah batteries

[hammick]

I have a couple new 6v Crown deep cycle 330ah deep cycle batteries. I want to do an initial charge on them. I borrowed an old school Schumacher charger from a friend that is completely manual. It has 50a, 10a and 2a settings for 12v and just 50a for 6v.

Right now I have the batteries in series at the 12v 10a setting. The voltage at the terminals is at about 14.7v. If I switch to the 50a setting the voltage rises to over 16v. What should I do. I would like to see the voltage at the 10a setting get over 15v.

Basically I would like to equalize these batteries for an initial charge. Can I do this with this charger?

Thanks.

FYI charger is Schumacher SE-2158:

Charger manual

[mena661]

How long have you been letting them charge at the 10A setting?

[hammick]

BFL13 wrote:
You need more voltage to get that SG moving up. Indicates the batteries are sulfated or stratified or whatever, so an equalization session would be needed. 16v is "normal" for equalizing, so it would depend on how far above 16.0v it goes with that charger on its 50a setting, whether it would be ok to do that.

I'd give it a whirl but be ready to shut it down. But they are not my batteries! 🙂

I was seeing as high as 16.3v

I'm letting them simmer on the 10a setting for now.

A little more info I didn't mention can be found here:

Sulfated crown batteries

[time2roll]

Best to just install them. The system will keep them up just fine.

[BFL13]

You need more voltage to get that SG moving up. Indicates the batteries are sulfated or stratified or whatever, so an equalization session would be needed. 16v is "normal" for equalizing, so it would depend on how far above 16.0v it goes with that charger on its 50a setting, whether it would be ok to do that.

I'd give it a whirl but be ready to shut it down. But they are not my batteries! 🙂

[hammick]

NinerBikes wrote:
Why don't you go to the Crown Battery website, and see what they recommend for charging procedures, volts, amps, charge rates, etc, etc. Once you find it and read it, post up the link to the website, for others to learn from.

Borrowing a charger to charge your brand new expensive batteries is not a good idea, buy the correct, non compromised equipment you need to maintain the batteries correctly, or don't bother.

These batteries are for an off grid solar system at my garage/residence in Montana. The MPPT charge controller will be very expensive as will the inverter. I'm trying to do an initial charge so they are ready for installation. I'm not going on the cheap. I left my 10a charger at the place which is 1,100 miles away.

Maybe you can recommend a good charger. These batteries seem very difficult to get fully charged.

[hammick]

BFL13 wrote:
You need an hydrometer to tell you what's what.

Yes you should do a full recharge on new batteries which may have been sitting on the shelf getting stratified.

A manual charger needs you there to shut it off when the battery voltage gets too high. You can shut it off when the SG reaches the spec SG for that model battery.

The 10 a setting is fine for the situation in the OP. Just leave it there and keep an eye on voltage and SG.

I don't see anything wrong with using any charger that will do the job when you have only a converter in the RV that only goes to 14.4v.

I am using a temperature compensated hydrometer. The SG according to data sheet should be 1.275 I can't get it above 1.265

Link to datasheet: http://www.amperbaterie.pl/cr330hd,df105.html

[BFL13]

You need an hydrometer to tell you what's what.

Yes you should do a full recharge on new batteries which may have been sitting on the shelf getting stratified.

A manual charger needs you there to shut it off when the battery voltage gets too high. You can shut it off when the SG reaches the spec SG for that model battery.

The 10 a setting is fine for the situation in the OP. Just leave it there and keep an eye on voltage and SG.

I don't see anything wrong with using any charger that will do the job when you have only a converter in the RV that only goes to 14.4v.

[NinerBikes]

Why don't you go to the Crown Battery website, and see what they recommend for charging procedures, volts, amps, charge rates, etc, etc. Once you find it and read it, post up the link to the website, for others to learn from.

Borrowing a charger to charge your brand new expensive batteries is not a good idea, buy the correct, non compromised equipment you need to maintain the batteries correctly, or don't bother.

[pianotuna]

I see little reason to equalize brand new batteries.