Determining battery type

[Metallicite]

Hi, have got this battery in my caravan and it has drained down to 2.5V and the solar controller is not working, I'm guessing due to not enough charge.
1. Firstly out of interest if I bypass the controller and directly connect up the solar panel to the battery for a while to trickle charge the battery up to a point the controller will have enough juice will that hurt the battery?
I have a projecta ic2500w battery charger to charge up again but I have different battery types to choose from on the settings. There doesn't appear to be any markings to indicate what type of battery it is. I'm guessing either Agm or Gel.. So:
2. From the photos, can someone determine what type of battery this is so I can set the correct setting on the charger, otherwise what is the safest type to choose if unknown? Options are: power supply, gel, agm, wet, calcium.

Cheers,
Hayden

 

[Reed Cole]

The manual for that charger says it has a power supply mode, where it outputs 13.8v constantly. That should be safe for any lead acid battery type, though it may not fully charge. Alternatively you could try the Gell setting since it has the lowest maximum voltage. This is of course assuming that you are certain that it is a 12v battery. The manual also says you can adjust the current, I would turn it down as low as possible to start and feel reasonably confident nothing bad would happen.

Also, I would take it out of there, mostly because if it's really heavy you know it's a lead acid battery but also I would want to clean up that electrical tape whatnot anyways and just make sure everything is wired correctly.

 

[Metallicite]

The manual for that charger says it has a power supply mode, where it outputs 13.8v constantly. That should be safe for any lead acid battery type, though it may not fully charge. Alternatively you could try the Gell setting since it has the lowest maximum voltage. This is of course assuming that you are certain that it is a 12v battery. The manual also says you can adjust the current, I would turn it down as low as possible to start and feel reasonably confident nothing bad would happen.

Also, I would take it out of there, mostly because if it's really heavy you know it's a lead acid battery but also I would want to clean up that electrical tape whatnot anyways and just make sure everything is wired correctly.

Thanks Reed,
Fairly confident it's 12v battery and solar panel specs below:
Optimal power [Pmax]: 100W
Working voltage [Vmp]: 16V
Working current [Imp]: 6.25A
Short circuit current [Isc]: 6.8A
Open circuit voltage [Voc]: 19.2V

Don't have the solar controller specs but have attached a photo of it.

Thanks, yes I have been reading through the manual, I will look to set it to the power supply mode and the lowest charge rate to start with and thinking I may try the recondition mode first with the voltage being so low.

Thanks for the advice on taking it out to help trouble shoot the type. The only wires are 2 that went to an inverter that has been removed and the other 2 go to the solar controller but yes that's the next step to check all the wiring!

Cheers,
Hayden

 

[Reed Cole]

Also, I wanted to mention to take some reasonable safety precautions, do it outside if you can wear protective gear, and keep a close on eye on it, Have a plan for what to do if something does go wrong, etc

 

[Metallicite]

Thanks Reed, yes will take it cautiously.

I've just tried to lift it and it is very heavy so I'm guessing it must be a lead acid battery, but then again I don't know what batteries of other types that size would weigh ?

So if it is, does that mean according to the battery chemistry selection attached that it's "wet"? I did a google and lead acid seems to be aka wet cell

 

[Mattb4]

Just based on the caps (the flush plates) in the photo it looks like a maintenance free lead acid. Typically this is simply a wet lead acid where if you pry out the caps you can add distilled water to it. They are called maintenance free due to having a better seal against electrolyte loss. Overtime however it still happens.

 

[Metallicite]

Thanks Matt, handy info to know. Appreciate the comment. I took one of the caps off and there was 2 round rubber looking seals underneath that are likely the fill ports then.

 

[mikefitz]

battery in my caravan and it has drained down to 2.5V

If its been in this state for some time, more than a day, then it's useless and needs replacing. If the inverter is over a few hundred watts then this will have reduced the batteries service life.
It's worth checking out the complete system and adding fuses if they are not in place.

If the panel is functional then it's worth keeping but replace the controller, recomend Victron 75/15 , suitable for any battery type, also this would also allow an update with an additional 100 watt panel if required.

If power requirements are low , lights and water pump , then replace the battery with lead acid, ideally AGM or GEL, because its sharing your living space . If you need a inverter over a few 100 watts then consider a lithium battery if funds allow the expenditure.