[RE-wrenches] Surrette Battery Question

William Miller wrmiller at charter.net
Sat Aug 9 18:03:03 PDT 2008


Allan:

We recently experienced some problems charging a new set of IBE batteries 
with XW equipment.  The apparent solution was reached just before I left 
for a back packing trip so I did not have time to post the 
results.  Apparently, the flags on the IBE batteries developed a talcum 
powder like deposit between the flags and the cables, in spite of being 
cleaned and sealed recently.  Re-cleaning them improved charging and 
discharging.  We may have a defective terminal sealant product.  We 
reapplied the same product because that is what we had on a Saturday and we 
want to know if we need to discontinue use of it.  I will post further results.

In the meantime, we are learning that higher equalize voltages on VLA 
batteries is better.  We theorize that industrial chargers of the type that 
are not micro-processor controlled allow higher voltages to occur during 
charging.  Battery industry techs are familiar with these devices but may 
not realize that they are not as precise at voltage regulation as a modern 
inverter/charger.  The batteries like these higher voltages and don't get 
them with your XW or VFX inverter.  This is just a theory and we are 
working to verify it.

William Miller



At 10:53 AM 8/3/2008, you wrote:
>Wrenches,
>Thank you for the whole set of responses.
>
>I haven't been to the site yet, but plan to stop there this week. As the
>symptoms are not easily explained, I wanted to put the problem out for ideas
>here first, to reduce the chance of missing something. I will report back
>with what I learn.
>
>I will first check whether the 0.4 V discrepancy is related to battery
>temperature. It seems to me that the simplest way to do this is to check the
>MX60 settings during equalization. If the measured voltage is at the MX60's
>temperature-compensated EQ voltage, then a warm environment is the apparent
>cause of the reduced voltage.





More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list