DAS26miles
San Fernando Valley, California
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Joined: 10/11/2003
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When the DES finished a few hours ago, I tried to recharge the batteries, each on a separate charger. Both were full after a few minutes. Then I put the linking cables on attaching both together and tried charging them. This time, I put the + on one battery and the - on the other. It has been charging for 90 minutes now at 2.1 amps. ??? Why if both were full?
Just checked the volts and the charger is putting out 14.85 volts at 2.1 amps. Is this equalizing them?
2004 Class C Winnebago Minnie 22E
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MELM
GA
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It sounds like the electrolyte needs to be "stirred".
I've got an idea on how to do that using the resources you have...
If the temperature where you are is going to be above 90* today, hook the batteries to the converter and manually select the Boost charge mode. That should cause the converter to bring the batteries to 14.4 volts for four hours.
That will cause the batteries to "gas" pretty good - it would be an "almost" equalization run. Leave the vent caps on and put something to catch any "spitting" mist of electrolyte.
And, WATCH THE BATTERY TEMPERATURE - you don't want them to get over 125*.
After the batteries cool and the surface charge is removed, you should have more uniform specific gravity readings.
Mel
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Hurricaner
Hurricane Utah
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Joined: 02/17/2007
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Dave, I think you should make a trip to Costco before you waste any more of that expensive California electricity.
Sam
Sam & Kari
Hurricane, Utah
2004 34' Damon Challenger 315
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DAS26miles
San Fernando Valley, California
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Melm- It has been 2 hours now and the battery charger is at 2.0 amps and 14.85 volts. I pulled off one of the caps and it hasn't started boiling. The temperature here in Los Angeles is supposed to reach 90 degrees. Why are the batteries taking a charge together, when they were FULL using separate chargers?
SAM- I don't belong to Costco.
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CA Traveler
Sun Lakes, AZ
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Quote:SAM- I don't belong to Costco. Might want to rethink that. I have a AMEX Costco Business card. 5% cash back on fuel anywhere that takes AMEX except Costco box competitor like Safeway or WalMart. The bad news is that I'm getting 25 cents/gal back, the good news is that I'm getting 25 cents/gal back on diesel
No AMEX yearly charge, 75 gal limit (just reswipe as required), cash back once a year to be used or cashed at COSTCO only.
I've used this card at gas/diesel fuel station across Western US like FJ, Shell, etc. Plus 3% on restaurants and 2% on travel including campgrounds. DW and I both have a card and it's always our first choice. Plus AMEX service is excellent. First they actually answer the phone and not hours after you call. Questions are answered. Disputes (we've had several over the years) are logged quickly and have always been resolved in our favor and we don't owe the money until it's resolved. None of the other cards come anywhere close to this level of service.
2004 Holiday Rambler 36 Endeavor PST with ISC 330 Cummins
2004 Honda CR-V
Bob
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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So far so good IMO. The pulser has got some of the crystals off some of the plates but not all yet-hence uneven SG per cell-needs more pulsing.
But the pulse-shattered bits are said to fall to the bottom of the battery. I don't know if they ever get dissolved into the electrolyte from the pulse method. Meanwhile, the charging current is what is supposed to convert the electrolyte back into "juice" you can use and it gets that from the now- exposed plate where the crystals were.
So a combination of pulsing and charging should get things right. Going camping and using the batteries will get get them down to where they need a complete recharge and that will also help a lot since it will even things out some.
Also there is a one day delay in the SG showing green where the hydrometer can get at it--the hydrometer sucks up the thin stuff more than the good stuff closer to the plates until dispersion evens things out. You also need to scoosh the hydrometer a couple times in each cell and not take the first reading (to warm the hydrometer, etc) and make sure there are no bubbles --after the float rises clear, squirt a little out and that will clear the bubbles, then read the float after it stops bouncing around when the last bubble pops.
After the charger shuts off from this session of 2amps at 14.8volts (that is nice and high and will help a lot) You could do another pulse cycle or two.
My new 27s were a month old (dated May) when I got them in June, and SG was just barely in the green, voltage 12.64 off the shelf. Went camping doing 50-80s (more like 60-85s I think) and did seven days of that recharging every day down to 10amps and stopping the charge.
At home after that, there they were in the white at full voltage after a complete recharge. So sulfation happens fast! 7 days of 50-80s on brand new batteries. Took me four days of pulsing and charging to get them in the green again.
I bet lots of people have sulfation and just don't know it. You can't really tell from using the voltmeter. Your batteries die after a couple years so you get new ones. That's life. Or you can make your life a living hell playing with desulfation for a week after each camping trip and get your batteries to last twice as long maybe.
Since you can get a new battery for the same price as a tank of gas for the truck, you really have to ask yourself, "Why am I putting myself through all this agony?" the answer has to be that it is just being stubborn and it is good for the soul to play with batteries. Like those monks that whip their own backs with tree branches till they bleed. It makes them feel virtuous 
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DAS26miles
San Fernando Valley, California
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Oooppps! Huricaner was right, just go out and buy new batteries.
Came home from the market and the charger says "FO1" code means "battery has internal cell short,unable to charge, battery is bad, replace".
* This post was
edited 07/05/08 02:08pm by DAS26miles *
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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That code also means too much load while charging. Funny things can happen with those codes when the batteries are "full" but you keep charging them and doing "recondition," so you need to confirm the code is real.
My brand new 27s showed F02 indicating low battery or bad connection after some of this routine. Wasn't. I put a load on the batteries and ran them down some and they charged right up no problem, no codes. Before believing your F01, suggest you separate the pair and try each charger on each battery to confirm a repeat of the code.
Try with a load on the suspect battery (an inverter running a power tool for a few minutes say) and then see if it charges ok with no codes.
IMO it is unlikely you will have built up enough deposits at the bottom of the battery yet to reach a plate and short it out for instance.
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DAS26miles
San Fernando Valley, California
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BLF13- I had the bad battery hooked up to the smaller charger. That kept saying FULL. When I hooked both up to the big charger, that's when I came up with the FO1 fault. I hooked the big charger up to just the bad battery and got the FO1 fault code. When I hooked the big charger up to just the good battery, it continued to charge for a few minutes and the went to "FULL". I checked the SG and the bad battery had one cell that was 1225 and all the others were 1265-1275. Rather than take anymore time with this, I am going to get new batteries tomorrow.
Thanks for all the help, we sure gave it the old colllege try.
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Hurricaner
Hurricane Utah
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Dave, since you are in southern California you should check around and see if anyone carries "US Battery" deep cycles. They are made right in Corona and they are more on par with Trojans. I'm sure they make a decent grp 24. http://www.usbattery.com/ I just took a look and it doesn't look like they make a grp 24. Too bad you can't squeeze the golf carts in.
Sam
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