Wow. 11A does seem quite high for that phase of charging and yes I wouldn't be surprised if it produced a lot of gassing.
- Peter Flipsen Jr On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Chuck Hursch <[email protected]> wrote: > More feedback from the guy that has an Elcon that gassed the batteries a > lot and ran warm at 120VAC. > > He said this is the only charger he's had, at least for this EV, and I > think this is the only car-sized EV he's had. His roundtrip daily commute > is 10 miles. Lost a battery after about five months of use starting in > April, although the car had sat through the previous winter (2011/2). I > suspect his batteries are from the summer or fall of 2011. So my guess is > he's got 1.5 year-old batteries with maybe 2-3K miles on them (assuming > ~200-250 workdays @ 10mi/day + misc. miles). Kind of young to be gassing > so heavily, since new-ish batteries should be able to reach the > USBattery-recommended constant voltage setpoint pretty easily without a lot > of amps. However, I am aware of USBattery recommending (at least at one > time) an equalization charge current of 11A, which if that is dialed in as > the third-stage constant current phase, that would produce a lot of gassing > and stink. It seemed that USBattery changed their charging recommendations > a year or two ago, from IU to IUI, so it's hard to guess what is dialed > into the charger. I'd really like to measure one with a voltmeter and > clip-on ammeter. > > Chuck > > On 2/1/2013 11:38 AM, SLPinfo.org wrote: > >> Chuck >> >> Thanks for that. I too am actually considering going to one of these with >> my lead pack at some point. I worry about how long my current charger will >> last (I bought it used and have been running it daily for almost 3 years). >> I'm probably pushing it too hard which will likely shorten its life - it's >> rated for up to 150 AH batts and mine are 170 AH. >> >> The "gases a lot" comment may be sort of relative. With my current charger >> when it's in the last phase (the final 20%) I can definitely smell the >> gassing (I run a fan in my garage to vent air out the window just in >> case). >> But my understanding is that with floodies this is what you want to get a >> proper charge and prevent sulfation. It would be good to know if that >> person has experienced the amount of gassing produced by other chargers? >> In other words is "a normal amount of gassing" which this person just >> thinks is excessive, or is it "more than you'd see with other chargers"? >> If it's the latter perhaps the charge endpoint on the algorithm is set too >> high. >> >> The comment about it running hot at 120V is especially interesting (not >> sure what your "hmmm" comment means btw). I currently use a Quick Charge >> Select-A-Charge which weighs in at 42 lbs and does get quite hot. I >> actually added a small external AC fan next to it that comes on during >> charging - not sure if it's really necessary, but I didn't want to take >> any >> chances. The "hot" comment suggests that while I might gain some weight I >> probably should keep the fan. >> >> While I think of it, will these chargers allow you to do a regular >> "equalization" charge (i.e., run two charge cycles back to back)? Or will >> the charger just notice full charge the second time and shut off right >> away? My current charger can be set so it will quickly charge up to 80% >> and then just repeats the last phase for 3 hours. I do that monthly. >> >> - Peter Flipsen Jr >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 1:57 PM, Chuck Hursch<[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I just wanted to throw out the feedback I got. Basically people seemed >>> to >>> feel that it was a plug it in and forget it type of charger - it does the >>> job. One person said the finishing charge seemed to gas the hell out of >>> his batteries; he just kills the charger early if he's available to do >>> so. >>> And perhaps most interestingly, someone said that the charger seemed to >>> run rather hot at 120V with a slow-running fan, cooler at 240V with the >>> fan >>> running faster - hmmm... >>> >>> Chuck >>> >>> On 1/28/2013 2:40 PM, Chuck Hursch wrote: >>> >>> Hi Peter, >>>> >>>> Thanks for the pointer. I sent some queries. >>>> >>>> Chuck >>>> >>>> On 1/26/2013 10:01 PM, SLPinfo.org wrote: >>>> >>>> Chuck, >>>>> >>>>> Have you searched the evalbum yet? A quick search under the category >>>>> "battery brand" yielded 160 hits for Elcon. By looking at the first >>>>> couple >>>>> of pages I found the following folks who are running Elcons with lead >>>>> acid >>>>> batts. There are very likely to be more. Hopefully you can find a few >>>>> with >>>>> significant experience. >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4339 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4290 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4176 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4168 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4046 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/4030 >>>>> >>>>> http://www.evalbum.com/3984 >>>>> >>>>> - Peter Flipsen Jr >>>>> >>>>> [snip] >>>> ______________________________****_________________ >>>> UNSUBSCRIBE: >>>> http://www.evdl.org/help/****index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/**index.html#usub> >>>> <http://www.**evdl.org/help/index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> >>>> > >>>> http://lists.evdl.org/****listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/**listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> >>>> <http:**//lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/**ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> >>>> > >>>> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA >>>> (http://groups.yahoo.com/****group/NEDRA<http://groups.yahoo.com/**group/NEDRA> >>>> <http://groups.**yahoo.com/group/NEDRA<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA> >>>> > >>>> ) >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ______________________________****_________________ >>> UNSUBSCRIBE: >>> http://www.evdl.org/help/****index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/**index.html#usub> >>> <http://www.**evdl.org/help/index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> >>> > >>> http://lists.evdl.org/****listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/**listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> >>> <http:**//lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/**ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> >>> > >>> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( >>> http://groups.yahoo.com/* >>> *group/NEDRA<http://groups.**yahoo.com/group/NEDRA<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA> >>> >) >>> >>> >>> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL:<http://lists.evdl.org/**private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/** >> attachments/20130201/e47b9e44/**attachment.htm<http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20130201/e47b9e44/attachment.htm> >> > >> ______________________________**_________________ >> UNSUBSCRIBE: >> http://www.evdl.org/help/**index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> >> http://lists.evdl.org/**listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> >> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/ >> **group/NEDRA <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA>) >> >> >> > ______________________________**_________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: > http://www.evdl.org/help/**index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> > http://lists.evdl.org/**listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/* > *group/NEDRA <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA>) > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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