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On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:14:06 -0400, Larry wrote:
"Rusty" wrote in news I've already done that. The 750 amp-hour 24 volt main system of Trojan industrial cells is charged by a Trace SW4024 inverter/charger. Went two years without HydroCaps and added at least some water every month. Changed to HydroCaps and now I only add a little bit after every six to eight months. Right now the last time I added water was almost nine months ago and they're still full. Batteries are showing no signs of losing capacity and the tops are always clean. Rusty While I'm sure the caps do exactly what they are supposed to, that's fine. But, the reason the batteries are using water in the first place, i.e. being overcharged, isn't resolved when you keep gassing off the water with the overcharging, to recover it in these magicaps. At your "full charge" voltage setting you should rarely see a bubble coming out of the electrolyte. 14.2 seems too high on some cells. When the specific gravity gets to 1.260-1.270, the charger should be OFF, not pulsing away momentarily unless there is some load on them. Larry, I've always enjoyed your posts and the knowledge you clearly have. However, I think you need to study up on batteries a little more. Batteries will always loose some water, even without overcharging. Rather, I should say batteries are always slightly overcharged as a practical matter. If you charged below the gassing voltage- say 13.8 volts, the amount of extra charging time required to top-off the batteries is extreme. Charging at say 14.5 volts (standard for solar charging) and letting them gas a little shaves a heck of allot of time off the charging time- thus the costs as well. Controlled slight gassing is also good for the batteries as it prevents the electrolyte for stratifying in the cells. Battery manufactures recommend that the batteries are charged at voltages that will do just this, when in cycled service. The only time you don't want to charge above gassing voltage is batteries used in float/standby service. Hydrocaps also solve the problems of loosing water to evaporation and the problem of losing the acid, thus weakening the electrolyte. They also virtually eliminate dirty acid covered and dirty battery tops. Hydrocaps are expensive, but well worth the costs. Shop around, as there can be a significant discount at some shops. -- BRENT - The Usenet typo king. |
#2
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Brent Geery wrote:
Charging at say 14.5 volts (standard for solar charging) and letting them gas a little shaves a heck of allot of time off the charging time- thus the costs as well. It is unclear what costs saving accrue with solar charging. Controlled slight gassing is also good for the batteries as it prevents the electrolyte for stratifying in the cells. Battery manufactures recommend that the batteries are charged at voltages that will do just this, when in cycled service. The only time you don't want to charge above gassing voltage is batteries used in float/standby service. True. Hydrocaps also solve the problems of loosing water to evaporation and the problem of losing the acid, thus weakening the electrolyte. Losing acid? Elaborate. They also virtually eliminate dirty acid covered and dirty battery tops. Hydrocaps are expensive, but well worth the costs. Shop around, as there can be a significant discount at some shops. Surely a *significant* discount could alter the picture in terms of eliminating periodic cleaning problems alone - an ongoing contamination & labor item worth getting rid of. Yet Hydrocaps are not seen in industrial banks, and one would reasonably expect competitive versions of a simple platium catalyst vented & draining knob, yes? |
#3
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#5
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Hi Larry,
I'm not going to get into a long debate about the value of Hydrocaps. They work as advertised, and people can decide if what Hydrocaps do is worth the cost. Al has been said on both sides of the argument. For those that can't justify the costs of Hydrocaps, *a least* get yourself some "Water Miser" caps for your batteries. They provide much of the value of Hydrocaps, are cheaper, and last forever. -- BRENT - The Usenet typo king. |
#6
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Larry wrote:
The solar store also makes an interesting statement: "Hydrocaps will not last forever, though - life will vary from 2 years to 8 years, depending on charge rates and how they are treated. If left on during battery equalization, they can be quickly used up and/or ruined." Notice how it also tells you about combining O2 and H2 recovering water, but says nothing about what the effect of acid ingestion into the cap causes. The sales site I read did - it said if you slop electrolyte up into 'em you'll puke 'em. These fans *have* to be talking about their dock condos & fla****er party platforms, yes? Unless the catalyst got pooped early on & the cap design happens to hold & recondense water droplets better that other caps. When the batteries are kept too full, by the way. ;-) I can also attest that I once destroyed my shoreside house bank by subjecting it to a nice/new/expensive/famous 24/7/365 4-stage autofloat marine charger, these things float too high and programmed-stepping PWM switching is NOT the be-all/end-all of battery care. It is only the be-all of profits in the battery care product biz. IMHO & 40+yrsE the best battery bank condition & longest life is only obtained by having it owned or maintained by an intelligent, not-lazy person with a hydrometer, distillate & ordinary charging equipment. And yes, people have been parallel charging unequal banks for generations, do ya think? But then, we just can't open up that whole can of worms with its costly & arcane electronic monitoring panels to play with, and the highly-analyzed system specs which are accurately approximate but worshipped, right? It would be very unpopular, and the Model M Poppin' Johnny also DOES drive much better with an ECM & emission controls backfitted too, yes? IMHO the true joke, is that the people have lost sight of where higher technology is precious vs where it is unnecessary garbage that subtracts from results & provides illusions. "Honey, how many amp-hours are left (or lying to us again) on the Link 2000?"barf. :-) - f. |
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