dmr

I think the yoof would want more than two pounds per hour if he had to monitor both voltage and current, that's skilled work. Trojan say equalise at 15.5 but I think US say work at a fixed current and watch the voltage rise to 16.5, or maybe I am thinking of the Trojan end of charge "topping" ? I can't answer your question and don't intend to investigate with batteries that are only 3 days old. I suspect either 1 lots of gassing at higher voltage or/and 2 It just won't happen, can't have high voltage without high current. Sort of Ohms law! ..............Dave

Wasn't someone asking a similar question just a few weeks ago? And did I not post a little graph of on-load voltage? A forum search should find this. I am happy to provide more detailed information if required I have the required equipment (batteries voltmeter and ammeter) but it might be much more rewarding for the op to do these measurements himself, especially in view of what I charge for engineering measurements!. ............Dave

A proper controlled voltage would be much safer but it should be relatively easy to implement a stabilised voltage. Get a cheap multimeter on long leads out on the roof and an old blanket, then employ a local yoof to constantly adjust the blanket to regulate the voltage. A couple of pounds an hour plus a can of lager should be adequate payment. You could get many years worth of equalisation for less than the cost of a Vicron jobbie. Mr Bizzard would approve of this too. .............Dave.

It can be done, I keep watching a local small company go from strength to strength, but they have a niche market and do things thoughtfully. A good supply of local liveaboards able to provide casual labour combined with boat expertise probably helps enormously. However for many companies any growth is probably related to in a trend away from "nice families" and towards drunken stag and hen parties, so a small part of your job may be repossessing boats in stressful l circumstances, sometimes even with police protection!, cleaning up a lot of mess, and if you are really unlucky dealing with your boat sunk in a lock. .............Dave

£400 for 4, free delivery. Wish I had got 6 now! Plan was to keep the best two of the old set to go up to a total of 6 in a semi split bank arrangement. However when I took them out there was quite obvious bulging at the ends so not sure if it's wise to keep them. I also asked Tayna about both their own brand and US2200 and interestingly they strongly recommended Trojans. .............Dave

Sounds like a lot of Trojans are getting sold at the moment. I also ordered a set from Battery Megastore last Friday. I asked for delivery directly to the boat, moored outside a pub. They told me that sets of Trojans are not usually next day delivery and it would probably be two to four days depending upon when their own driver was in the area. I said this was inconvenient so they agreed to send an email early on the morning of the delivery day. They sent the email Tuesday morning and the batteries arrived that lunch time. The majority of batteries in the van were Trojans! I could not negotiate Tanya down to anywhere near the Megastore price. ............Dave.

Cant help, I have never found a good method so am awaiting responses with interest. Its a hard lesson learned so it won't happen again. However note that the blue low stick stuff sold to avoid this problem is a bit better, but not a whole lot better, and if not stuck down well the paint can get behind it. The thin red see through stuff sold by Craftmaster is superb. ..........Dave

I work on the assumption that the human body can cope most toxins as long as they are in very small quantities. Just need to watch out for asbestos and plutonium! However even with the potable resin mentioned above I still gave my tank a good hose down, ..........Dave

I suspect that most epoxies will actually be fine once totally cured, but "Reactive Resins" do once specially for water tanks. Its light blue and makes your water tank look like a swimming pool!. http://www.reactiveresins.com/Armourguard-PW.html ................Dave

Assuming its an integral tank (part of the boat structure) then its very out of fashion these days but actually very good. It won't smell of plastic and it won't split, and will offer the maximum capacity in the available space. Pay someone to take it back to bare metal and paint it with suitable epoxy, then don;t worry about it for many years! ...........Dave

Not sure that I fully agree with you here Nick. It will obviously depend on the exact alternator voltage and quality of wiring (volt drops) but in general a leisure boat doing long cruising days and short evenings will most likely be fine as long as the voltage is about right. For a liveaboard using the the engine to charge the batteries in winter its different and every last tenth of a volt matters. My own experience is that the soft nature of the typical voltage regulator can also significantly reduce charging performance. The target is to get as many amp hours into the batteries in the shortest time and external controllers are good at this. ..............Dave

A greenie for you sir, The forum is a load of silly old men (mostly) who share the same interest but still like to argue with each other, and sometimes joined by outsiders who don't even own a boat but still like to argue, but a hundred times better than watching the Telly!!!! ............Dave

I reckon Nick is slowly turning into Gibbo!

Is it true that the 8 track was only invented because it was believed that the average American would not be able to drive and turn over a cassette at the same time???? ............Dave

How long have you had the boat? Its most likely that it's the discharge down to only 80% that is responsible for the long life, rather than the AGM construction. If we believe the figures from Trojan, their batteries will do 4000 cycles at that discharge, that's just about 11 years if used every day. ............Dave

This is how it all got noticed.....suspect capacity a bit low, do a long equalisation, then measure SG on a few cells...and observe very low SG on said cell. Bad cell is of course towards the back of the bank so less easy to get at, so I did not look whilst equalising, I only look inside one or two of the easy access cells. Have to admit I very very rarely measure SG on all cells. As long as the capacity "feels" about right after equalisation I assume all is well. I usually measure SG on just one cell in each half of the bank, and don't always bother to do that. I could have a look this evening towards the end of the daily charge. ...............Dave

There certainly are a small number of "convoys of rogues" on the cut, and it is a very small number. The boats described do fit the description (real rogues never have shiney boats). The problem is that there are a much greater number of very very lovely people who also fit that description. Rogues do gravitate towards Staffies which is very sad. They are now one of the most popular dog breeds, and like boaters, 99% of them are good. ..............Dave

Something has obviously gone badly wrong and I don't think it can be fixed!, but I am curious to understand it. I might play once it gets replaced. It has to be replaced, the batteries are inside the boat (trad engine room) so an exploding battery would be a disaster. Decision is whether to replace all 4 or just 2, not keen on replacing just one (of a pair in series). I have looked at the US batteries, they are heavier and slightly higher capacity, but do cost about 25% more (partly because I don't think Battery Megastore do them and Tayna have a hefty delivery charge). Interesting to note there is also a "Powerline" version which is Tayna's own brand and Tayna did not recommend this once they knew it was going into a boat?????? The gravity of the bad cell does not significantly change during charge or discharge cycles. ................Dave

Hello Tim, Yes of course I give my batteries names, they are One,Two, Three and Four!. Not sure what to call the next set though. I don't think its really all about cost, its also about ease of access and what kind of person you are. Getting cheapos and replacing them often would be my second (or maybe third) choice and its a very good option. I don't think it would really work for me though.....once they started to loose capacity I would start equalising and messing about etc., I can't help myself, I'm an engineer. The only certain thing is that buying expensive batteries and then not looking after them is not a good approach. Incralac solves the problem of polishing brass. The problem is then that the brass is always shiny so down on the K&A some people think we are a shiny boat.Next time we will only half polish the brass and then put the Incraalc on.

I still don't have an amp hour counter so can't easily measure capacity, but based on our typical daily usage, and Smargage reading at the end of the day,, I would estimate that the capacity is still over 90% of new, so if not for this failure another year, or even two, might have been possible. Bizarrely they are still doing a half decent job now despite a bad cell but I suppose I will have to replace them due to increased possibility of a catastrophic failure. With hindsight one half of the bank was always less co-operative than the other so maybe it was a less than perfect battery from new. .............Dave

and a periodic gap in the music and a huge clunk as the heads step from one track to the next. Why not install the 8 track as a talking point for visitors and get the music from a MP3 player. You could get loads of 70's disco track onto a MP3! ...............Dave

I come to exactly opposite conclusion. As off grid liveaboards/workaboards we never got more than a year out of cheapo leisures. The Trojans cost about 50% more and have lasted for 3 and a half years, thats a very comfortable win for the Trojans. I accept we have burned a bit of extra diesel for an equalisation now and again, but the Trojans still win hands down. I am now looking at prices for new Trojans and its just under £400 for 4 delivered to the boat. ............Dave

Just started charging, 84 amps in total with 42 amps going into each pair of batteries. After just a minute or two the balance started to shift Now have 48 amps into the good pair and 27 going into the bad pair I really really don't understand this. ..............Dave

Smartgage now says the batteries are at 60% and the specific gravities more or less agree with this.I have disconected the good pair of batteries and have run off the bad pair alone for the last 20 minutes or so. I am using about 9 amps. The voltage is steady at 12.0v with the battery with the bad cell contributing 5.95v.. I don't understand this .............Dave

There is a similar graph from U.S.Battery...... http://usbattery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/usb-expected-life-cycle.pdf This shows cycle life at only about 65% of the Trojan figures. U.S. Batteries are similar to Trojans (some people say slightly better) and as companies rarely publish pessimistic specs I suspect the Trojan figures are probably optimistic. ...............Dave