HI Dan, I would respectfully disagree that hydrometers are always accurate.
However both can be easily tested with distilled water, should be 1.0 Jay Peltz Power On Aug 12, 2014, at 7:40 PM, Dan Fink wrote: > Brian; > That was to be my next response to Mac after he checked the refractometer > against the the old fashioned float. A customer saying "My grapnpappy said ya > gotta add acid, not water, and ya better not put them batteries on concrete > floors, all the power drains out......" ---it could happen > Hopefully that's not the case, but in any case it's probably fixable. I don't > like the SG readings "all over the place" part. Sounds to me like the > refractometer got damaged.....and such damage would not neccessarily be > visible. > > The float will always be true, and if ya drop it, the glass breaks. ;-) > > Dan Fink > Buckville Energy > Otherpower > NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ accredited Continuing Education Providers > 970.672.4342 > > > > > On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 8:31 PM, Brian Teitelbaum <[email protected]> > wrote: > Mac, > > > Sounds to me that “someone” (ahem…) added some sulfuric acid to the cells > instead of plain distilled water. > > > Either that or there is some sort of contamination in there that is raising > the density or “weight” of the fluid beyond just what the proper amount of > acid would do. “Specific gravity” is just a measurement of how heavy the > fluid is compared to plain water (specific gravity of 1.00). Sulfuric acid is > heavier than water, so when mixed will increase the density and raise the > weight of the fluid. Temperature effects the measurement too of course. > > > If it turns out that acid was added, you can balance them out by removing > some of the electrolyte from the high cells and replacing it with distilled > water. It would be a process of trial and error to get them all the same. > Remove a little, add some water, equalize again, measure S.P. and repeat as > needed. > > > Leaving the electrolyte too strong will shorten the battery life, although > maybe not enough to go through this ritual. > > > Brian Teitelbaum > > AEE Solar > > > > From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Mac Lewis > Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:55 PM > To: RE-wrenches > Subject: [RE-wrenches] High specific gravity > > > Hello wrenches, > > > I just went on a service call for a new client. He had a bank of 4 year old > Interstate L16HCL batteries, 2 strings of 8, 48V system, 840Ahr. We went > through the batteries and got specific gravity on all of the cells > post-equalization. I was a bit surprised to see some very high numbers ie > over 1.32 for the specific gravities (higher than my refractometer goes). > The specific gravities were all over the place, but I haven't seen numbers > this high. I don't have a great explanation. He has a stacked 3648 VFX > Outback system, and the set-points were 58.8V Absorb for 2 hours, and 62V > Equalize for 2 hours. He has a decent amount of solar (about 3400W) and a > 1000W wind generator. > > > Any ideas why the specific gravity is so high on some cells? Also, is there > anything wrong with having SG this high, post-equalization? For this very > standard battery, what settings do you go with (Bulk, Absorb, Float, Eq, and > times for Abs and Equalization). > > > Thanks in advance > > > > > > -- > > > > > Mac Lewis > > "Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org >
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