Trojan T-105 battery charging tips

[tommyleyland]

Tommy, do you know how to set up a proper equalisation charge? I believe they have yet to have one.

 

If not, I'll guide you through it but you WILL need to have done these first:

 

1. Check and top up if necessary, PRIOR to your 'daily' charge tomorrow. Don't overfill, leave about 6mm below the lip inside the filler caps.

 

2. Do your standard 15.1V charge until you get to around 2-4A, if you can determine that.

 

Only then should you commence a 15.5V equalisation charge.

An equalisation is just choosing equalisation on the charger right?

 

I'll recheck the levels tomorrow before doing a charge again and I can do an equalisation if recommended

[WotEver]

I thought it was obvious by the phrasing of the question that I was referring to a battery on charge. Loafer certainly understood that instantly.

An equalisation is just choosing equalisation on the charger right?

Yes, for 2 hours. However you have to get them charged up first.

[Loafer]

An equalisation is just choosing equalisation on the charger right?

 

I'll recheck the levels tomorrow before doing a charge again and I can do an equalisation if recommended

 

Tony is correct.

 

Yes it is just 'choosing', but it is only available on your charger when you have it set at 'open lead acid' battery type, not your 'custom' setting. You will have to stop your charger after your daily charge, then set it to battery type 1 (top left) and THEN select equalisation. I can't remember the button press sequence for that, but I will look it up on request. My charger manual is all the way over there, and I can't reach it!

[tommyleyland]

 

Tony is correct.

 

Yes it is just 'choosing', but it is only available on your charger when you have it set at 'open lead acid' battery type, not your 'custom' setting. You will have to stop your charger after your daily charge, then set it to battery type 1 (top left) and THEN select equalisation. I can't remember the button press sequence for that, but I will look it up on request. My charger manual is all the way over there, and I can't reach it!

Yes I understand thanks.

Don't worry I've got my manual to hand also

[WotEver]

My charger manual is all the way over there, and I can't reach it!

Or here as a pdf: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0658/7343/files/full_cec_instruction_1.pdf?14012422295855460459

[bizzard]

My dad used to nick my model railway transformer to trickle charge his car battery, a Triang one would trickle at about 1-2 amps, which was amp-le, as the charging performance usually took a couple of days, meanwhile I had to push my trains along.

[Loafer]

Yes I understand thanks.

Don't worry I've got my manual to hand also

 

The manual isn't too clear on getting it to work from custom mode. I got it to work by experimenting, and it definitely needed to be on the top left battery LED and actually charging for a few minutes, before trying to select the 'equalisation' LED. It simply won't work from the custom battery setting. Not allowed!

[dmr]

I have lost the will to read this thread in detail, so forgive me if I have got this wrong, but, it sounds like something might be wrong, or at least that your assumption of full charge might be incorrect. YOU NEED A HYDROMETER. nasty tedious things but they are sometimes needed.

 

For day to day monitoring of batteries the best instrument is the Smartgage.

This is closely followed by an ammeter to monitor current consumption and charge current, especially tail current

 

When things go wrong, or are not as expected, then the best diagnostic tool is the hydrometer.

 

and for the battery geeks an amp hour counter is useful as used with the Smartgage it allows a good estimate of battery capacity to be made.

 

.................Dave

[Loafer]

My dad used to nick my model railway transformer to trickle charge his car battery, a Triang one would trickle at about 1-2 amps, which was amp-le, as the charging performance usually took a couple of days, meanwhile I had to push my trains along.

 

I just cannot state with enough emphasis just how good it is to see Bizzard here with another most excellent tip!

 

Brilliant!

 

PS off to bed now, got a cold!

Edited January 4, 2016 by Loafer

[Graham.m]

I thought it was obvious by the phrasing of the question that I was referring to a battery on charge. Loafer certainly understood that instantly.

 

 

lol Just because A understood you does not mean others do.

 

So in that case my answer was correct. Although you did not seem to know that fact about gas and batteries

[bizzard]

Tip, to keep your solar panels exercised during the winter when they don't do much is to make em work and charge the batteries by placing them on a sunbed and switching on.

[dmr]

My dad used to nick my model railway transformer to trickle charge his car battery, a Triang one would trickle at about 1-2 amps, which was amp-le, as the charging performance usually took a couple of days, meanwhile I had to push my trains along.

 

I think you're making this stuff up because Triang trains really did not push along very well at all because the wheels did not go round due to the huge ratio of the worm gear drive. or did you take the motors out so that they did push along? Then when you got your transformer back you could use one loco to pull another....but they had to face the same way or the couplings shorted out the electric.....

 

.........sorry trainset nostalgia moment.

 

............Dave

[WotEver]

I have lost the will to read this thread in detail, so forgive me if I have got this wrong, but, it sounds like something might be wrong, or at least that your assumption of full charge might be incorrect. YOU NEED A HYDROMETER. nasty tedious things but they are sometimes needed.

 

For day to day monitoring of batteries the best instrument is the Smartgage.

This is closely followed by an ammeter to monitor current consumption and charge current, especially tail current

 

When things go wrong, or are not as expected, then the best diagnostic tool is the hydrometer.

 

and for the battery geeks an amp hour counter is useful as used with the Smartgage it allows a good estimate of battery capacity to be made.

 

.................Dave

Spot on, Dave.

Yes I understand thanks.

Don't worry I've got my manual to hand also

Tommy - check your PMs

[bizzard]

 

I think you're making this stuff up because Triang trains really did not push along very well at all because the wheels did not go round due to the huge ratio of the worm gear drive. or did you take the motors out so that they did push along? Then when you got your transformer back you could use one loco to pull another....but they had to face the same way or the couplings shorted out the electric.....

 

.........sorry trainset nostalgia moment.

 

............Dave'

Quite so, that's why the engine ended up with flats on the tyres, when power was restored they ran along with great knobblyness and vibration.

[ditchcrawler]

My dad used to nick my model railway transformer to trickle charge his car battery, a Triang one would trickle at about 1-2 amps, which was amp-le, as the charging performance usually took a couple of days, meanwhile I had to push my trains along.

They were grey coloured if I remember right also had was it 15 ac outlet,?

[WotEver]

 

Agreed, but could be a little higher at 15.1V?

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to stop charging at around 15.1V / 6A, then re-set the charging voltage down to 14.7 and put the charger back on, to see what a more 'normal' bulk charge would produce at the same state of charge.

 

Any idea what I should expect?.

I'd be surprised if the difference was more than 0.1A.

[bizzard]

Once upon a time, one Sunday morning my dad attempted to take my mum to church after my dad had just charged and refitted the batteries. My mum used to sit in the back with the dog, as she embarked and sat down she suddenly disappeared in a cloud of acrid smoke. The car was an enormous 1938 MG SA saloon, like MGB's its two 6v batteries were situated under the rear seat squab, one on either side of the prop shaft. My dad under great pressure and naggetry by my mum to get her there on time had forgotten to replace the rubber mats over the batteries so when sat on the seat squabs springs shorted across the battery post. She leaped out and walked to church, got there late, crept in and had to sit at the back. But she would never sit in the back of that car again. Ps she never took the dog into church, he just liked the ride.

[bizzard]

They were grey coloured if I remember right also had was it 15 ac outlet,?

Yes, a kind of grey hammered finish. And the controller between the transformer and track was a small black box with a speed and reverse control knob, with a red button that would pop up if you shorted out the track and buzzed like fury if you tried to hold it down without fixing the short.

[ditchcrawler]

Yes, a kind of grey hammered finish. And the controller between the transformer and track was a small black box with a speed and reverse control knob, with a red button that would pop up if you shorted out the track and buzzed like fury if you tried to hold it down without fixing the short.

That's the ones

[Iain_S]

(snip). The car was an enormous 1938 MG SA saloon, like MGB's its two 6v batteries were situated under the rear seat squab, one on either side of the prop shaft. My dad under great pressure and naggetry by my mum to get her there on time had forgotten to replace the rubber mats over the batteries so when sat on the seat squabs springs shorted across the battery post. (snip)

 

I remember once having to fix a Mini which was in the garage for faulty headlights. It transpired that every bulb in the car had blown, with the exception of the interior light and one instrument bulb. Cause was the battery shorting on the back seat and flcking the electrics on and off ....

 

Here's something for you to think about to get you to the correct answer. If the electrolyte was pure water, at what charging voltage will it gas?

 

OK, I'll bite!

If the electrolyte is pure water, I think the device will cease to be a battery, as there is no sulphate ion for the discharge reaction. Therefore we are not charging (assuming a perfect battery to start with, with no sulphation), merely electrolysing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. Therefore, for a nominal 6V battery (3 cells) we will require a "charging voltage" exceeding 3.69V. (It will gas VERY slowly )

[WotEver]

OK, I'll bite!

If the electrolyte is pure water, I think the device will cease to be a battery, as there is no sulphate ion for the discharge reaction. Therefore we are not charging (assuming a perfect battery to start with, with no sulphation), merely electrolysing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. Therefore, for a nominal 6V battery (3 cells) we will require a "charging voltage" exceeding 3.69V. (It will gas VERY slowly )

He he... yeah, it wouldn't be much of a battery. I was trying to make the point that as the SoC increases, and the SG does likewise, so the gassing voltage decreases, because acid conducts electricity better than water. (Yes Graham, we are both talking about the charging voltage.)

 

Around 25V is reckoned to be the gassing voltage of our theoretical pure water 'battery'.

 

Tony ?

[nicknorman]

If the electrolyte is pure water, I think the device will cease to be a battery, as there is no sulphate ion for the discharge reaction. Therefore we are not charging (assuming a perfect battery to start with, with no sulphation), merely electrolysing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. Therefore, for a nominal 6V battery (3 cells) we will require a "charging voltage" exceeding 3.69V. (It will gas VERY slowly )

Surely if the electrolyte really is pure water, it won't conduct any current and so it won't gas at all? This presumes proper pure, no dissolved gasses etc.

[bizzard]

 

I remember once having to fix a Mini which was in the garage for faulty headlights. It transpired that every bulb in the car had blown, with the exception of the interior light and one instrument bulb. Cause was the battery shorting on the back seat and flcking the electrics on and off ....

 

 

OK, I'll bite!

If the electrolyte is pure water, I think the device will cease to be a battery, as there is no sulphate ion for the discharge reaction. Therefore we are not charging (assuming a perfect battery to start with, with no sulphation), merely electrolysing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. Therefore, for a nominal 6V battery (3 cells) we will require a "charging voltage" exceeding 3.69V. (It will gas VERY slowly )

Old VW transporters had steel battery covers in the rear engine compartment, which often slipped and shorted the battery out causing fires and sometimes the vehicle to burn to a frazzle. Very likely the Germans only fitted them to transporters exported to the UK to get a bit of their own back for loosing the war. Their home market ones seemed to have plastic ones.

[MtB]

 

I remember once having to fix a Mini which was in the garage for faulty headlights. It transpired that every bulb in the car had blown, with the exception of the interior light and one instrument bulb. Cause was the battery shorting on the back seat and flcking the electrics on and off ....

 

 

 

hang on a sec, that tale doesn't stack up!

 

The battery on a Mini is in the boot.

 

(Assuming you mean a real one, not one of these newfangled giant ones foisted on us by BMW.)

[bizzard]

 

 

hang on a sec, that tale doesn't stack up!

 

The battery on a Mini is in the boot.

 

(Assuming you mean a real one, not one of these newfangled giant ones foisted on us by BMW.)

That's right. The early minis had a dark greyish coloured cardboardy box cover over the battery, but I don't know if it was fire proof.

That's right. The early minis had a dark greyish coloured cardboardy box cover over the battery, but I don't know if it was fire proof.

The vans, pickups and estates had them behind the drivers seat, again with the cardboard cover over them.