Leon 12

Hi Tony's, thanks for the reply, the victron is quite a great piece of kit but not understanding the parameters that you have to input for Trojans t105 is futile to some degree. Especially as they are still new and I'm trying to build up the capacity. Any help with the Bmv 700 would be great. Kind regards Leon. Not if you build it yourself. The toilet cost 90 pounds all in. Once I put some photos on here you will see the work I've done.

Boat toilets ehhhhhhhhhh. Well I constructed my own composting toilet. It works a treat

Tony ,that was a wonderful and explanatory answer. I have the victron and also the smartgauge to which has to be calibrated then im sure it will be as they be say good to go. I am trying to look after the equipment as best as I can, however certain nievity has bitten me a little. cheers leon Since the equalization advice from all of you I am seeing a marked improvement in amp hours as monitored on the victron. Nearly double.

Read the manual before installing, found it very numpty proof. People talk about the accuracy of it. I think in time it might prove my lack of trust as it I performed specific gravity tests and it matched the voltage yet the smart gauge was lower. Hopefully it will become more accurate. I think I will utilise the victron more for an ammeter, volt meter and tail current. Electric cupboard looks good with it in..... Now that's sad. Maybe it's the ocd running through my veins. Why does this piece of equipment cause so much heated debate?

What did you all do before smartgauge mmmmmmmm , voltmeter, hydrometer. I think you were all sucked in by clever marketing. its a volt meter, just a very expensive one. ... Sorry if that grates a bit folks. Invented for his wife..... lightbulb moment.. Oh people will buy this. I do understand the inventer is a very intelligent man. but its flawed in too many ways.

Just don't trust the smartgauge it lies.

it is only an update not for an ah judgement yet.

Well folks slightly better, AH used 35. Voltage 12.64, Smartgauge 85% .I reckon a couple more good equalization charges and Trojans should recover. Smartgauge is an over priced voltmeter end of.

cheers dude. it aint the voltage or state of charge or specific gravity that concerned ne all it was, was the ah or relative small amount that I received. I do thank all for the advice.

I think the comments are a tad unfair, you were all novices at one time. I haven't gone into boating blindfolded. I have researched and read and I have made schoolboy errors along the way. boating is a learning process.

Answering more than one reply, the covers being made was something that is taking my mind off the battery thing that's all. The capacity part was an answer to 'wotever'

How does the smartgauge know what size bank it is on.?

I ain't been on the boat today, stay there four days per week, so going to take a while to get down, get home from work at 6 in bed for 9 up at four, day off thursday so on weds night,will leave lights on and force drop,then charge from 8 am back to full. And see the result. This might be a daft question, the smartgauge is connected on the far corner neg and pos on opposing corner in a series/parallel set of 6 batteries. The smartgauge will deffo see the whole bank??? It wasn't any statement of capacity just an update on status of equipment.

I'm going down to 50 % then I will see. Then a four month recharge lol.

Gunna chuck em in the cut........

Ok no stratification then, maybe some Duracell 9 volts will be better lol. Going to upload some pics to here of work I've done. Popped to boat, voltage was 12.8. The input from solar was 0.24 kwh, the victron said 10.8 ah used, the smart gauge at 93%. Something to make me smile cratch cover and stern cover to be made. Templates this week.

yeah the gravity tests were high, voltage high only capacity low very low. Which from what I read leads me to believe stratification. Bubbling and spitting nicely. but no water loss. still very full. one 8th of an ich below fill level. I know im new to the boating game. Stratification results in false reading ie high but low capacity. the plates were and and are as clean as a whistle. liquid clear just very low %. Even as I said the battery icon always said high voltage but low on the full. I think ive always had them 80% and never gone below what I thought was 90%. So very shallow discharge and never knew about tail current. So as soon as hit float I thought (oh full)(. I might be wrong ......

The electrolyte was full, they haven't lost any. Will top up if required in future.

Exercise??? Is that make them work or take them down to a deeper discharge. What would you recommend ? When I rang Tayna he said 12 volts is trojan at 50 %

My hydrometer has a thermometer on the front, after the charge was finished it read 1.285 across the board, the thermometer indicated an eight point deduction due to temp. Which gave 1.277. As I wrote earlier the electrolyte wasn't strong to taste at first ( albeit by accident) but after charge it was defo strong. Maybe a daft way to test. am i wrong but surely that is what an equalisation charge does to some degree, mix the electrolyte up. Also to remove some sulphation,if its not too far gone. I did get a few answers from trojan even if they were not too explanatory .

If you know of any chargers that give out 16.2 volts on an equalisation charge let me know. The sterling gives out 15.5 volts, that is the charge current I applied for 5 hours which resulted in tail current of 7.5 amps. Could stratification be the cause with my undercharging and low discharges?

How does the tail voltages appear to be ....in my last post. Regarding a 675 amp hour bank.....capacity unknown.

Ok.... Batteries update. Performed charge until tail read 4.58 amps fluctuating slightly..(took 3 hours). Then perforformed equalization charge at 15.5 volts..(actually 15.43 at battery posts) for 5 hours. First thing I noticed all cells were bubbling differently, the post which was directly connected to charger (first in line so to speak) was bubbling great guns ,the rest were all different. The battery at the opposing corner was hardly doing anything. At the end of the equalization charge all cells were even in bubbling. Next a weird one..... ( if anyone has had any battery liquid on their fingers and forgot and placed said hand in mouth....yak). Well at first not strong.....at the end it was strrrroooooongggg. Yes your thinking crazy fool. Also one thing I have noticed on my tracer since installing that even though voltage was high the little battery emblem showing capacity would always be low.....mmmm. This time the emblem shall we say was at a steady 80% after resting for 30 mins. Everything turned off. Voltage crept down from 15.5 to 13.00 ran fridge to remove surface charge. My conclusion is this, at time of purchase those batteries could have been stood on shelf for a while, I didn't perform a charge until a long while after install even though they had two 100 solar panels connected but the setting were left on factory. No voltage setting reconfigured to trojan requirements . So a little knowledge was bad. I have changed the tracer to fit with what trojan say ( placed slightly higher for the cold and voltage drop from busbar connection. 15.1 absorption 13.9 float. 16.2 equalisation. Tail current on equalisation charge dropped to 7.5 amps, over the next hour it stopped dropping so ended the charge. How many more charges of this nature will I have to perform to try to get the lost capacity back. The specific gravity read the same across all 18 cells.

Hello, what effect does temp have on SOC, ie 12.60 volts at 20 degrees. I understand there are different views on this matter. Any advice welcome.

Sorry for the point in the wrong place. 1.285 I am just going to go with voltage on recharging, when It drops I will recharge. I do not heave any confidence in Smartgauge what so ever... sorry if that gripes a few folks. All cabling is 70mm sq now.I changed all interconnects. gave all the posts a good fettle applied petroleum jelly to protect. Trojan recommend 16.2 volts for equalization......are there any chargers that can give that voltage?