end battery failure? [RE-wrenches]

[Windy Dankoff, Dankoff Solar]

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>Having different exposure could be the ticket.  Different temps require
>different charge parameters (the sun's not hitting the end batts, is
>it?).  Then again, I do know of folks who tear apart the battery pack
>periodically to swap them around and "balance" them.  I've never done
>this although I don't usually notice wide variances in cell readings
>regarding end batts.
>
>Kurt Nelson


Another factor -- this came up on the list a long time ago. Richard 
Perez suggested that the plates of a battery bank are, to some 
extent, plates of a crude capacitor. The ones on the end have less 
capacitive coupling to the rest of the battery bank. With steady DC 
current this has no bearing. But, an inverter draws highly pulsating 
current, plus highly transient current during heavy motor starting 
surges.

I've seen a battery bank where this happened several times over 10 
years, even though the temperature was very even throughout the bank, 
and no reason to think it would ever be significantly uneven (steady 
ambient temp, and air space between each battery). Richard's 
suggestion seems to be worth thinking about.

Maybe somebody can "scope" this out.

Windy

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