Time taken to charge batteries VS alt size.

[pistnbroke]

oh **** opposite to sulphation these have been over charged and disinteration of the positive plate leads to a redish brown colour in the electolyte ...think you need to look to your solar and wind gen ...if they went over 14.7v for a long time that would ffffuuuukkk them

[DennisRB]

Hmm. I have never witnessed the battery voltage being high. Its always low. but who knows what happens when we are not there. The wind gen seems to turn off and on by itself as the batteries get in 13s somewhere. Is the reg for a wind gen usually in the gen itself? It looks like this



There is only one solar panel and it appears to be connected to a pretty trick looking reg with digital display and all sorts of adjustments. However I have not taken a look at the settings. What are the symptoms of a battery that is dammaged from overcharging? Does it still have a high internal resistance? Is it still reluctant to take charge? How long does a battery need to be over 14.7 to damage them? I had them over that on charge in the last few days but only for a periods of a couple of hours or so at a time.

[pistnbroke]

all i can tell you is that if the electolyte has gone redish brown then they have been over charged and the positive plates have disintegrated .....

[DennisRB]

Sounds awesome. Should melt em for the lead.

[pistnbroke]

dont understand that

[DennisRB]

That was my way of saying they are only worth the scrap metal for the lead. Sorry for being a bit cryptic.

[pistnbroke]

TDhe sulphation takes months ..ie if reg drops to 13.6v the life is only about 6 months on a car .....similar for the over charging ...bubbles break up the plates as they burst out ..lead grid can disintegrate ...gassing starts at over 14.4v... I think I should be looking to my solar and wind gen controlls .....

Since the car strikes of the 70s in the UK you can stand modern batteries for 6 months with out damage if disconnected .....they took the antimony out of the plates and used calcium ....imagine a car stike and 70,000 cars in a field needing there batteries charged every month !

[DennisRB]

I am gonna load test one battery again tonight to see if they got any better or worse.

My mate reckons you can get N70 truck batteries for $100 sometimes. Seems like a good option.

[pistnbroke]

if you are going to sell it why not just put on two of the N70s ..you dont know how long it will take to sell and what use the new owners will put it to ....

[DennisRB]

If it were mine I would do that. I would put in at least one if these don't come good. I want an N70 for my boat. My mate said he used to wait until he saw them for $99. The last one was a century with normal caps to check fluid. Some truck places sell em for that sometimes. If I can find one for $99 I will buy it right away.

I'm load testing again now.

[DennisRB]

The load test went for about 1.75 hours last time. This time it went to 3 hours. Is there hope?

[pistnbroke]

not if the acids red ..thats 15 AH at the 3 hr rate ....maybe 20 ah at the 10 hr rate ,,,,What was the SG at the start and end of the discharge ..???

[DennisRB]

Its not really that red. Maybe a very slight haze. I know it only had 15ah in it this time but last time it had like 8ah so it got better. SGs were still too high both before an after charge. Can't remember exactly, but they didn't go down all that much. I will write the figures down next time.