AGM Equalization - Some Benefit

[merle&louise]

I have a bad AGM in my house batteries. My 6 Lifeline 8Ds are 4 years and 7 months old.

Has anyone gotten much more than about 5 years out of a set of AGMs?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I had about 5 years 6 months on mine when I pulled them.

They all tested OK but the ability to hold a charge compared to the new ones was poor. After 8 hours on the old ones I would be down to 24V and with the new ones, same time period and loads the end voltage is 25V.

I do not use auto start. If I did I am sure the life span would have been less but I have no proof of that.

[merle&louise]

Do batteries have a certain number of charge cycles in them?

If a fully charged battery is at 13.2 let's say and then it is run down to 12.4 volts then the charger kicks on and charges it back up to 13.2. Is is better for the charger to be set to kick on at 12.2 than 12.4? It would seem that the lower setting would give you more charges in the life of the battery.

How about if the cut-off voltage is raised from 13.2 to 13.6 - would that reduce the life of the battery?

Am I understanding this right?

[ajducote]

Tuga,

Check out this link. The downloadable manal has a lot of information. Check out the chart on page 35.

http://www.lifelinebatteries.com/

All the way on the right side click on "Technical Manual" , then "LifeLine Technical Manual"

example: 50% discharge rate will give 1000 charge/discharge cycles.

[merle&louise]

Thanks Andre, I appreciate the effort. I will read the Lifeline info tonight.

Karen said to tell Ann Hi !

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Tuga,

The charge voltages for a battery are specific to the type of battery and are important. The manufacturer specifies the bulk, absorbtion and float voltages and the inverters need to be programmed to provide that set of charge rates.

Undercharging a battery is as bad as overcharging.

The number of charge cycles a battery can expect is based on how low a voltage they are before re-charging. The lower the voltage the lower the number of cycles a battery can take. That is why Jack modified his autostart set point. By going to a higher set point he will get more cycles. There is a thread in which that was discussed.

Batteries are also affected by their environment. A gel cell battery cannot handle a high heat environment, but a conventional lead acid battery is much more tolerant of heat.

Here's more good reading....

http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/01.Type/index.html
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Bat...ting%20battery

There will be a test in the morning.

[merle&louise]

Thanks Jon, I have read the some of the attached articles and if I have to replace any batteries I will surely go with AGM. Those are both good information sources about batteries. I've got some reading to do.