Part of that could be luck with the electronics. The water not
boiling off can be explained by the low charging current and the
battery's apparent ability to develop a high surface charge.
Different battery, different results.


Ok Wayne,
That makes sense but I have tried 4 different batteries so far. You would
think that I would have at least burn out a light bulb or something...
Based on your thoughts would you think that in a system like this a bigger
battery or a smaller battery should work better? Remember, as many others
mentioned, these things ran perfect for years as did mine then just went crazy.
Some of the old posts I found state the problem starts with a new battery.
Do you know of any major differences in regular (not maintenence free)
batteries of the 80's and what they have now?

On 09 Jun 2004 17:06:30 GMT, obull (CCred68046)
wrote:
Do you know of any major differences in regular (not maintenence free)
batteries of the 80's and what they have now?

======================================

I'm not aware of specific differences but there are differences
between manufacturers and between battery types, i.e., starting
batteries vs. deep cycle. I'm guessing a little but my sense of it is
that a smaller battery would be more likely to achieve a 100% charge
and float up to the kind of voltage you're seeing. It might be
interesting to connect a good size marine battery like a 4D in
parallel and see what hapens to the voltage. My guess is that it
would drop as the larger battery should be more capable of absorbing
charge.

I'm not aware of specific differences but there are differences
between manufacturers and between battery types, i.e., starting
batteries vs. deep cycle. I'm guessing a little but my sense of it is
that a smaller battery would be more likely to achieve a 100% charge
and float up to the kind of voltage you're seeing. It might be
interesting to connect a good size marine battery like a 4D in
parallel and see what hapens to the voltage. My guess is that it
would drop as the larger battery should be more capable of absorbing
charge.

I was thinking along the same lines too and bought a 1000 CCA battery. The
motor specs call for a minimum of 360 CCA. So far it has done the opposite of
what I thought would happen.
Someone in the electricial engineering group suggested that I may have been
wrong buying a larger battery because its not discharging from the low starter
demand (the motor runs perfect and usually starts instantly). and the bigger
battery has more resistance.