Best value for money batteries ?

[carlt]

12 minutes ago, dmr said:

.... a feeling that they are not lasting as long as they used is a sign of old age ?

 

Ain't that the truth... 

[canals are us?]

22 minutes ago, dmr said:

If you are on a shoreline its a bit harder, but if you are running off the batteries then a feeling that they are not lasting as long as they used is a sign of old age ?, though this can be down to sulphation that an equalise will fix.

 

A significant increase in water consumption is a sign of old age, are the old ones a lot thirstier than the new ones? Is the acid in any cells looking a bit mucky?

The wavy plates that you can see are almost certainly the separators, and this wavyness is normal.

To find out more you really need a hydrometer. Get the batteries fully charged, and do an equalise for a couple of hours, then measure the gravity of every cell. If they are all about 1.260 or more then they are probably ok. The definitive and tedious test is to then to take a known amount of 'leccy out of them and measure the SG again.

 

The danger with mixing old and new is that you don't notice how bad the old ones have got because the new ones are still providing the capacity, and its pretty important to replace the old ones before the risk of catastrophic failure gets significant.

 

I suggest measuring the gravity of the new ones (whilst wearing old clothes) and if they are decent then "weigh in" the old pair and get a new pair. A nice tip from that Mr Ditchcrawler is to check and top up the batteries everytime you service the engine but that's probably not much good if you are on shorepower!. Maybe once every two months would be about right but adjust this depending upon how much water they need.

 

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

Not done any battery maintenance, but when I installed the 2 new ones I topped up all the batteries.

Must be a year ago! Normally try to do it twice a year but been very busy. certainly the old pairs level had gone down, new hardly need topping up even though must be a year. The acid looks ok. I will check with a  refractometer, then if low carry out a EQ charge and take it from there.

 

James 

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, CompairHolman said:

I'm not on Facebook, can you copy and post the tables ?

It’s copyright that group so it wouldn’t really be on to steal it.