[RE-wrenches] intermittent battery problem

[Ray Walters]

I've seen behavior like that from Series 5000 Rolls that were only a 
year old, but chronically under charged. (20 amp load and the inverter 
would reach low shut off in minutes, 30 amp charge and it hit high 
voltage and quit charging) Any other battery, and I would assume its 
capacity was gone.
It seems to be something about their slightly different alloy in the 
plates, but I don't know for sure.
Enough time held at high enough voltage, and they seem to recover, but 
its definitely concerning to have a 1000 AH battery behave like a 10 AH 
battery. I found that if the voltage is held at the high side, that the 
charging amps would actually increase over time, which is opposite of 
other batteries. It must have a coating of sulfation on the plates that 
initially keeps the battery from working right, then with enough time it 
knocks that layer off to expose the actual plates and begin actual 
charging. (just a guess)
I'll actually set the charge amps down, and the voltage up at first, 
then when I see it start taking more amps, I set it back to normal 
charge parameters.

Ray

On 10/22/2011 9:01 AM, David Katz wrote:
> When they said they reached 29 volts in 5 minutes every morning with a 
> charge of less than 30 amps (an assumption, since they are running a 
> 2500 watt generator), that sounds like a battery with very little 
> capacity.
>
> David Katz
>
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