The charging voltage was measured with the battery connected.
Although it says "ca 665" on it, judging by the size it must 65 AH!
I charged it for a period of 12 hours with an initial charging current of about 7A, which
dropped to 2A.
I replaced the old battery because it went dead, and then when I charged it it did not
recover. I think the voltage regulator was bad and not producing enough charging voltage.
Then the battery was damaged because I didn't notice it was dead for a couple of weeks.
The new battery also went dead. I then checked the charging voltage and it was 13.8V. I
thought it was marginal, so I replaced the voltage regulator. Now I'm getting 14.5V when
the engine is running. But I am thinking that I damaged the new battery when I allowed it
to die before replacing the voltage regulator.
The connections have been cleaned. It is not particularly hard to start (cranks for about
5-7 seconds and starts). No drain at all when it is off.
On 4/8/2013 11:22 AM, Fred Townsend wrote:
Vic let me clarify a few issues.
1.At 665 AH your sealed battery is almost certainly a wet battery (i.e. not a
gel).
2.A charging voltage between 13.5 and 14.2 is normal. 14.5 is a bit high unless the
charger is temperature compensated and the weather is very cold (in the area of your
generator). Another cause would be if you measured the charging voltage without a
battery attached (i.e. no load). _In any event your real problem does not appear to be
too high a charging voltage._
3.A measured voltage of 11.5 is a fully discharged battery. A 1 A trickle charger would
need 665 hours (actually even more because of inefficiencies) to fully recharge that
battery.
4.Why did you replace the old battery after 10 years? In your almost ideal circumstances
it could easily last 25 years. The nature of lead acid batteries is they fail when
_fully discharged_. That can kill even a new battery which may be the case now.
5.Logically I must ask: Have you fixed the original problem? Battery failure is likely a
secondary problem. Ruling out two bad batteries (the old and new batteries) has the
generator become hard starting or else is there another drain on the battery?
To find your problem you need to get a fully charged battery and monitor the operation
of the generator. Have you cleaned all the terminals and otherwise verified the cables?
Does it start hard? Does the started solenoid get warm when not in use? Is there 13.5
to 14.2 volts on the battery posts (don't measure the cable terminals) when the
generator is running? When the generator is off is there a battery drain? It may take a
milliamp meter to tell but be careful not to use it while charging or you may smoke the
meter. Remember ammeters are always placed in series, never in parallel (instant smoke).
Try these procedures and get back to us.
73
Fred, AE6QL
-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Vic K2VCO
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 10:13 AM
To: Elecraft Reflector
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [OT] Lead-acid battery question
I see that my original post was not clear. I should have said that after the first
instance of a dead battery, after the battery was tested and pronounced good, I replaced
the VOLTAGE REGULATOR.
I'm not sure about the type of electrolyte, whether it's gel or liquid, but I think it
is liquid. The battery is sealed, though. The capacity is 665 AH with "540 CCA."
I've received several responses to check if the battery is draining when the generator
is not running. I should have mentioned that I did this the first time it died, and
there was no current drain when it wasn't running.
On 4/8/2013 9:15 AM, Vic K2VCO wrote:
> I know there are those on this list who can help me.
>
> I have a 5 kW generator at my house. It runs automatically once a week
> for a half hour to charge the (sealed) battery. The first battery
> lasted for about 10 years! The present battery is about 2 years old.
>
> Some months ago, I noticed that it wasn't running. I found the battery
> dead. I took the battery back to Batteries Plus where I got it; they
> charged it overnight and tested it under load. They said the battery
> was OK. When I started the generator and checked the charging voltage, it was 13.8V
which I thought was marginal, so I replaced it.
>
> Yesterday the generator would not start. The battery voltage with no
> load was 11.5V. I left it on the charger all day. Then this morning I
> checked the voltage and it was 13.5V. The generator started up and the charging
voltage was 14.5V.
>
> Do I have a bad battery?
>
>
> --
> Vic, K2VCO
> Fresno CA
> http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
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--
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
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