Saturday, December 17, 2011

Re: [Electric Boats] AGM battery charging

 

My statement was based on anecdotal evidence, second hand at that and I don't know the particulars of the brand of AGM batteries that you have  but the story from my friend was that he was operating the voltage regulator at 14.4V from the alternator on his diesel after switching from lead acid batteries and it toasted his brand new AGMs in EXTREMELY short order. The guy where he got the battery said it should never be set to charge above 13.5V, it was his fault, and wouldn't make good on the batteries so he had some very expensive ballast. 
 
Perhaps his voltmetering was off or there was some other anomoly in the system. Maybe you're suppose to make adjustments for the output on some alternators, I don't know but the warning I was offering was simply that very expensive batteries can get ruined quickly when everythng isn't just right. 
From: Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net>
To: "electricboats@yahoogroups.com" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] AGM battery charging

On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 07:37:36AM -0800, Carter Quillen wrote:
>
>
> Maybe your voltage regulator is malfuctioning or something but if you keep
> putting 14.4V to those batteries they will be toast no time.

14.4V is the normal charging voltage for a 12V lead-acid battery. It's a
0.2V/cell differential, which is what's needed to initiate charging
(i.e., to drive the reaction between the lead and the sulfuric acid.)

> I know a guy who
> ruined his brand new agm batteries in about a week of overcharging from his
> alternator and they would not warrantee them.  I would upgrade your voltage
> regulation system immediately.

The warnings that are stamped into the plastic of the battery cases
themselves say not to exceed 14.6V, which makes sense - gassing AGMs
would be a bad idea. 14.4V is well within the safety margin, and
overcharging is the opposite of the issue that I'm having.


--
Ben Okopnik
-=-=-=-=-=-


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