On 25 Jul 2016 at 11:55, Robert Bruninga via EV wrote:

> Im charging my 10 Lead Acids one at a time with a common 10A car
> battery type charger. Usually they come from low to high on the
> "percent" meter and then when they get to 100%, an LED comes on and the
> current tapers to zero. 

> But I have one battery that seems to just stay at mid range and after 20
> hours is not topping off.  And battery is not excessively bubling nor is it
> showing much heat gain.

Note that I am not an electrochemist, just someone who's used batteries for 
quite a few years.  There are other folks here with far more experience and 
knowledge than I have, but none of them has answered your question as yet, 
so I'll take a run at it.  :-\

First, one thing that makes remote diagnosis tough is that you haven't told 
us anything about the charger.  Automatic chargers' algorithms can affect 
the symptoms you see with a problem battery.

That said ...

It's normal for batteries' maximum on-charge voltage to fall as they age. 
Many automatic chargers know naught of this; they treat all batteries the 
same regardless of age.  They'll undercharge new batteries and/or overcharge 
old ones.  They may not shut off when they should.  They may claim a battery 
isn't charged when it's as full as it's ever going to get.

However, the fact that you're seeing this symptom with only one battery in 
your pack suggests to me that that battery might have at least one bad cell. 
If you can't get its voltage to rise above around 13 volts with the charger 
charging it (not open circuit), and after a few hours of rest if falls to 
around 11 volts (open circuit), then that's probably what's wrong.  

In spite of what the snake oil salesmen claim, there's no cure for this, 
short of replacing the battery.

As I suggested above, at least in my experience, the way automatic chargers 
behave can make it harder to diagnose battery problems, unless you know a 
lot about batteries and the charger's design.  Charging with a manual 
charger or a regulated power supply, and discharging with a 25 to 75 amp 
load, should tell you much more about what's really going on in that 
battery.

David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator

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