Mysterious Surrette Behavior [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Tritt]

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Hi Ray,

They may be a pain in the wazoo to deal with, but I've always had really 
good luck with IBE; long warranty, great build quality and somewhat 
reasonable price, considering the lead prices these days.

Matt T

Ray Walters wrote:

>
> Hi All;
>
> Well I'm ready for a better battery thats for sure.
> After reading everyones' post about Rolls needing a C10 to C5 rate of 
> charge, I'm starting to feel sick to my stomach. I just talked a bunch 
> of folks into buying  Rolls 5000s because they  had the best  
> "claimed"  cycle life of  any battery around. My relatively low income 
> customers laid  out very hard earned cash  to get  the best  possible 
> battery, and now  they  may have made  a  big mistake. Sorry, but I 
> don't think many of my customers have the ability to charge at a C10 
> rate. I dutifully sized their battery bank for 5 to 6 days of storage 
> based on their load profiles. That means about a C20 rate, Man am I a 
> loser....
> Now , I'm seeing Roll's warranty in action. They shipped us a brand 
> new cell that  was 0 volts.  Its hard to catch an under performing 
> cell, but 0 volts right out the door? Thats seriously bad QC, and I 
> and my customer are paying for it: not Rolls and not Conergy. If this 
> is their warranty right out of the box, what are these profiteers 
> going to offer in 5 or 7 years? ("You didn't charge at a C5 rate every 
> week?!  Hah!  No battery for You!")
> I get to haul batteries back and forth for 3 extra trips, spend about 
> a day total, trouble shooting, doing temporary battery first aid to 
> get the system up, drive several hours round trip to get the new cell, 
> siphon the acid out of  the dead cell into the new cell..... are we 
> having fun yet? making any money? losing lots of  money? And lets add 
> $200 shipping to expedite the replacement a  couple of weeks?
> Well, I sold a battery with a 10 year warranty, and I stand by what I 
> sell. (even if they don't)  I'll fix everyone of these. I guess that's 
> why I'm a "little" company and they're a "gweat big company". ( I knew 
> I should have signed up for that Cheney Business management class when 
> I had a chance)
> Prove me wrong, please, but the small installer gets screwed every time.
> Well, my meager little operation sells several tons of Rolls a year 
> and thats stopping right  now.
> I sell Trojan too, and they drop a new battery at my door, free, no 
> questions asked. I've had 2 bad batteries in 5 years.
> I guess its back to golf cart batteries, until somebody does something.
>
> Ray Walters
> ray at solarray.com
> NABCEP, RPCV, BSME
>
>
> Ezra Auerbach, DragonSun Consulting wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'd like to add some general comments about big batteries and off grid
>> systems. I've had occasions to discuss the matter of oversized 
>> batteries (or
>> undersized charging systems) with a few battery manufacturers. They have
>> been consistent in telling me that the ability to apply significant 
>> amounts
>> of minimum current to batteries is key to successfully charging them. 
>> As a
>> general rule of thumb they specify a minimum of the C10 rate for initial
>> (max bulk amps) charge rate and C5 if you can perhaps deliver it. In my
>> various jobs over the last twenty years I've also had the opportunity 
>> to see
>> countless battery systems which were oversized for the available 
>> charging
>> system, a very high percentage underperformed with respect to longevity
>> expectations. I think the battery manufacturers are correct in demanding
>> high capacity charging systems for their large batteries - especially 
>> those
>> offering long warranties.
>> I've lived with large capacity batteries for years (the same set for the
>> last fourteen) and I can attest that the only time I really get them 
>> fully
>> charged from renewable is on those bright sunny days when the wind is
>> howling as well - I can get pretty close to the C10 rate of my 
>> batteries in
>> those conditions and they respond very nicely to the extra charge 
>> current.
>> I've even been known to start the generator early in one of these 
>> perfect
>> weather charge cycles to add an extra 80 amps or so to the initial rate.
>>
>>
>
>


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