Gel Cycle Life [RE-wrenches]

[Doug Pratt]

Hi Clive,
  There's a lot of relabeling, licensing, etc. of batteries. Here's how
I understand the lineage (and if someone absolutely positively knows
better, feel free to chime in).
  Sonnenschein licensed their gel battery technology to East Penn
Batteries in the U.S. These are only gels we're talking about, not AGM
types. East Penn markets their products almost exclusively thru MK
batteries, so that's the name we see on most of the literature, and it's
always the sales rep we work with. I don't believe there's any
connection between East Penn and Concorde. Between Sonnenschein and
Concorde...? Beats me.  
  And yes, with *any* sealed battery you've got to be careful about
charging voltage. Anything over 14.2v (per 12v battery) for any time,
results in gassing, which is lost water. Since there's no way to replace
the water, you've got dry batteries and early death. But if you've got
decent charge control, sealed batteries are far happier doing long
stints of float service, that's what they're designed for. And since the
customer is going to forget to water the batteries in his emergency
back-up system anyway...sealed cells are a far better choice for most
back-up systems. 

-Doug Pratt
Real Goods Technical Editor

-----Original Message-----
From: Clive Wilkins, PowerSense [mailto:powersense at horizon.co.fk] 
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 4:55 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Gel Cycle Life [RE-wrenches]

Hi Doug, I'm a bit confussed here....so who make these batteries.....MK
,
Concorde, or Sonnenschein ( now owned by Exide )
>From my experience the AGM  cells are good for instant rapid discharge
duty,
but like to be  fully recharged, if not they fall over 100 plus cycles
down
the line.
Gels are  better for cycling duty, however both suffer if over charged,
both
have same self discharge characteristics which are much better than wet
L.A's
I  use Sonnenschein Dryfit 3 GMF 240  6 volt. TRACTION cells for R.E.
systems when I have doubts about maintenance, they'll give you 1000
cycles
to 80% discharge.
contact for these cells.....Dave Harris   gvanman at ameritech.net
Cheers Clive

PowerSense
Dunnose Head Farm
Falkland Islands
Tel  00 500 42202
Fax 00 500 42203
powersense at horizon.co.fk

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