Two things I forgot.
1. NEVER add anything but water to battery. I know I will start a fight here but any battery manufacturer will tell you this in BIG letters. That goes double for EDTA - the only ones benefitting from that are those that sell it. Deionized is best then distilled then clean creek water - Seattle water can be used and is creek water 50 miles away.
2. Add WATER only to cover the cell tops before charge. Unless your dream in life is cleaning batteries (water/baking soda, paint brush then clean water rinse)
[quote=Denny Graham]Well all she’s gonna take is 2.31v I guess,
REPLY is that each cell voltage or battery voltage
IF battery and after 12 hours charge you are still at 2.3 scrap it.
this battery just taint gonna cut it. I guess it’s headed for the scrap yard next trip. This one was starting my Stovebolt just fine a few years ago and I just decided to put a new one in because of the age of the Interstate battery. I suppose sitting for a few years caused the dreaded sulfate disease to set in, what ever that is. Never did understand chemistry, probably should have taken a year of that instead of all those shop courses in HS.
REPLY lead + acid >> lead sulfate + water
Pb + H2SO4 >> PbSO4 + H2O
SO all discharges result in lead sulfate. Recharge takes almost but NOT all sulfate and puts it back in acid. This is why you need what is called Temperature Volt Gassing voltage = 2.51 volt per cell plus a temperature corretion - if you can hold battery at 80 you dont need to worry about correcting. Quick n dirty in shop if gassing you should be there - just bubbling you dont need a folling boil or roaring tempest. Do NOT overheat battery ie no more than 100 to 105.
585 CCA if that means anything Dan. That is just cranking amps - close to maximum deliverable amps. Look for number such as 100 Ah at 4 hours - common now is 20 hour. Some starting batteries have it and I think ALL deep cycle do.
Not sure if I understand your explanation but if your formula is correct then 12.675 hours should have brought it up to the top if it was gonna.
REPLY IF a 96 Ah battery and charge rate is 6 then about 16 hours. IF the battery is NOT heating up then put it back on charger. I dont hold much hope for it.
I’ve read articles which said completely draining the battery with a load then slow charging a few times will sometimes bring a battery back up to snuff.
REPLY Yeah I have heard the same thing from the EV community (mostly hobbyists) and from ONE manufacturer when battery is new. Sorta makes sense on new on - gotta get the electrolyte stirred up after sitting on shelf and get all them metal ions exited or something.
However I’ve never been able to talk my self into spending $150-$300 on a fancy commercial grade battery charger.
REPLY ANY source of fairly clean DC is good. The best in my mind is a DC generator, followed by 3 phase alternator (car type is fine) followed by single phase transformer rectifier with a good set of ripple capacitors.
A good transformer rectifier unit will do just fine. The money in my mind should be spent on good volt and ammeters and a good hydrometer in range of 1200 to 1300. Yup the glass sure does break when you drop em. there are the "solid state" ones based on index of refraction - well known and long established technology - I am tempted to buy one but cannot recommend because do not have one and not enough experience using it - stuck on old technology I guess.
Always seemed cheaper in the long run to just buy a new battery. The $79.95 Harbor Freight junk chargers I refuse to buy. I did get stung by them when bought one of their little over night chargers on sale for twenty five or thirty bucks a couple of years ago. The cover was made from old beer cans and fit so bad it popped off before I even got it out of the box, never could get it wrapped back around the tinny makeshift framework. Even in the high price range the slow (2A) charging rate on the ones I looked at is only for 12v. The 6v ranges start at 20A input.
Looked at FLAPS and they don’t seem to have the old style Hydrometers with the floating bulb. I can remember selling a lot of those bulbs when I was a parts man back in the day. Seems like the guys were always dropping them and breaking the bulbs in them and the antifreeze testers.
REPLY I think I got mine from NAPA ??
You suppose with the sealed batteries now days there isn’t any way to use a hydrometer?
REPLY Yes just drill a hole in top. I dont know how you are going to deal with the gel in a hydrometer but,,,
- OK so much for being smart [censored] and cute. You cannot use a hydrometer on these - one reason I do not like em.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
REPLY Dan Bentler
Seattle Wa
