[RE-wrenches] High specific gravity

[Dan Fink]

Mac, my advice, just to be sure, check the refractometer against a float
hydrometer on real battery acid from your home system, not just the the
distilled water zero mark.

Dan Fink
Buckville Energy
Otherpower
NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ accredited Continuing Education Providers
970.672.4342




On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 9:01 PM, Mac Lewis <maclewis1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the responses everyone.  I never considered that acid may have
> been added.  I'll have to press him a little bit on that.  He's definitely
> "old school" so I wouldn't be surprised if he tried this.  Dan, I
> calibrated the refractometer, so I have confidence in its readings.  When I
> say all over the place, we had 3 cells of specific gravity of 1.0, the rest
> ranged from 1.24-1.33.  He is going to equalize again, but we will see if
> he added acid.
>
> Thanks again.
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 8:13 PM, William Miller <william at millersolar.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Mac:
>>
>> Someone has added acid to the cells. I've had the same experience and
>> found out the truth later on.
>>
>> William
>>
>> Miller Solar
>>
>> On Aug 12, 2014, at 6:54 PM, Mac Lewis <maclewis1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello wrenches,
>>
>> I just went on a service call for a new client.  He had a bank of 4 year
>> old Interstate L16HCL batteries, 2 strings of 8, 48V system, 840Ahr.  We
>> went through the batteries and got specific gravity on all of the cells
>> post-equalization.  I was a bit surprised to see some very high numbers ie
>> over 1.32 for the specific gravities (higher than my refractometer goes).
>>  The specific gravities were all over the place, but I haven't seen numbers
>> this high.  I don't have a great explanation.  He has a stacked 3648 VFX
>> Outback system, and the set-points were 58.8V Absorb for 2 hours, and 62V
>> Equalize for 2 hours.  He has a decent amount of solar (about 3400W) and a
>> 1000W wind generator.
>>
>> Any ideas why the specific gravity is so high on some cells?  Also, is
>> there anything wrong with having SG this high, post-equalization?  For this
>> very standard battery, what settings do you go with (Bulk, Absorb, Float,
>> Eq, and times for Abs and Equalization).
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Mac
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Mac Lewis
>
> * "Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates *
>
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