Hoppecke fiber nicads [RE-wrenches]

[Peter Talmage]

Dear Jeff,

Oh Boy ! Back many years ago I heard of the Hoppecke
Fiber Plate batteries and my research into them
indicated a nicad that was far superior to the
standard pocket plate types. The FNC batteries had
higher charging efficiency, had life time electrolyte
AND could be fully charged with voltages as low as
14.8 volts for a 10 cell string. (Or so the factory
stated.) On the basis of the lower charging voltage
and the fact that the battery was indestructible and
would last over 30 years I used the FNCs in about a
dozen systems. It didn't take long for the calls to
start coming in. The batteries didn't seem to have the
capacity expected and the capacity was decreasing over
time. Naturally I was suprised and after talking with
the factory it was decided that the batteries needed
to be charged at a higher voltage and that every once
and a while the individual cells needed to be brought
to the same level of charge. This was most easily
accomplished by discharging the bank completely and
then recharging. (My customers loved this one !) After
many more months of frustration the factory finally
said that to have the batteries work properly they
needed to be charged regularly to 16.5 and
occasionally to over 17 to balance them out. Naturally
this was not possible so after many phone calls, (and
at the expense of about five years off my life),
Hoppeke agreed to replace all of the banks with their
heavy duty OPzS lead acid batteries at no cost. If
your use for the FNC is in a situation where you can
charge them at a high voltage and your equipment can
continue operating at those high voltages these
batteries are hard to beat. Otherwise I would not use
them.

(If you would like to experiment I have a new string
of 409Ls sitting in my shop that I will sell cheap!)

Yours,  Peter Talmage
 
--- "Jeffrey Wolfe, Global Resources"
<global at sover.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Well, so far we've avoided them, but it looks like
> we *may* get into a 
> system design using some Hoppecke Fiber nicads. (20
> cells FNC 306 L). While 
> I've asked the manufacturer for info and application
> recommendations, what 
> is everyone's experience with using these with Trace
> SW and RV Power 
> Products equipment? Everything I've seen connected
> to these (and it's 
> admittedly not much) is working poorly because the
> charge controller does 
> not charge the batteries high enough, and the
> inverter shuts down on over 
> voltage when the batteries get close to a correct
> voltage.
> 
> Are there easy and good solutions for these? Does
> anyone have long-term 
> systems out there with these that they are happy
> with?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jeff




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