Battery Equalization Amperage

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by obelisk

hmm, am i being fooled by my battery monitor? it reads 100% and has since beginning equalization and the charger is still putting in almost 10A.

Yes. It's not accurate, and needs re-calibration.

BTW, 14.8VDC is not enough to do a real equalization. You need at least 15.5VDC, increasing to about 16.5VDC.

Bill

[obelisk]

i know that 14.8 is not ideal but i had read that, given a longer period, it would accomplish the same thing. i guess i'll look into borrowing/renting a portable charger somewhere in Pto. Montt.

a note about battery monitor calibration: I have found in teh past that it does not read completely accurately until after a deep discharge/full recharge cycle once it has been unhooked. maybe the lack of equalization and resulting sulfation has got ti all mixed up. i'll let my batteries do the thinking for the time being and worry about the monitor later--it is reading accurate amps and volts, which is enough.

[obelisk]

I was unable to equalize the battery bank I was having trouble with so I contacted the battery shop here in Puerto Montt and they came to check them. after hooking up their machine, to each battery we found that the BEST of the 3 12V Rolls 113t batteries only had 32% of its life remaining. it was a sad site sitting in the battery box all alone. one crew member equated it to the Charlie Brown christmas tree:



I decided on a new 450AH bank with 4 6V Trojan batteries. 2 banks of two batteries hooked in series. after cuttien the battery box in half and re glassing (with some west system and an old cotton T-shirt!) it to acommodate the extra 1/2" needed, here is the setup: