has anyone heard of charging FLA to 2.7V each

[rajseth]

I saw this post on the "must be true" interweb

The Great Lead Acid Battery Swindle

Thanks to Peter Lindemann and John Bedini especially, I now know how the 12V lead acid battery manufacturers have been ripping us off for over 90 years. Consider the following figures from OA Witte's "The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair" dated 1922, which is available here

www.climtechsolutions.com

Any technical value to this?
I do see how some "smart" chargers, SCC, etc do use 2.7V / cell for an "equalization" cycle periodically - but this article is saying drive it to 2.7 regularly. Hmmmmm

 

[Substrate]

That author of the 2012 article exposes his ignorance right away by not differentiating between an individual 2v *cell*, and a battery made of multiples of those cells and trying to turn it into a conspiracy. Individual cells can be treated differently, especially at first before slightly different procedures are used as a multi-cell battery.

Part of the commissioning process for industrial users that actually buy 2V lead-acid fla's, *may* be taking them up to an eq voltage once prior to placing into service, but it all depends on manufacturer. Average consumers need not apply as we buy batteries at the local store, not individual cells.

There is a bright side to this - by exposing his ignorance up front, anything else published on the topic means you can safely ignore it.

Toss in some old graphs to make it look "technical" to justify conspiracy comments, only makes it even more laughable. He is trying to hoodwink the average joe who doesn't know about individual cells, with the "ive heard of EQ before, but never done it" as a possible hook to plausibility for the so-called conspiracy.

 

[Charleswgibbs]

My favorite part is where he talks about his free energy device that runs on water.

You'd think he'd be able to make a ton of money selling chargers that "properly" charge a battery. Must be worried about the lead acid cartel having him assassinated.

 

[Substrate]

Well, he name-drops John Bedini too, so the demographic for the article is clearly identified.

How about perpetual-energy?
I know - when the sun goes down, I'll just hook up some bright floodlights to my house-bank, and point them at my panels!

That's the kind of arena some of the conspiracy-tech articles pander to.

 

[rajseth]

Thanks folks. I have a house UPS build happening with 8x6V GC2 batteries. since it is for power outages, the FLA will mostly stay at full charge, so FLA was the way to go. I just want to make sure that the batteries are not being killed by my ignorance

 

[100 Proof]

Thanks folks. I have a house UPS build happening with 8x6V GC2 batteries. since it is for power outages, the FLA will mostly stay at full charge, so FLA was the way to go. I just want to make sure that the batteries are not being killed by my ignorance

I have a data sheet from Interstate Batteries stating thier GC2s should be charged at an absorption voltage of 7.65 volts per battery (2.55/cell). That's not 2.7 per cell, but it's higher than common knowledge for a 6 volt battery.

 

[wattmatters]

but it's higher than common knowledge for a 6 volt battery

Yep.

2.50 V is more common for an equalisation charge:

BU-404: What is Equalizing Charge?

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

Problem is most of us can't apply a voltage to individual cells, only the whole battery.

 

[100 Proof]

Yep.

2.50 V is more common for an equalisation charge:

BU-404: What is Equalizing Charge?

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

Problem is most of us can't apply a voltage to individual cells, only the whole battery.

The datasheet said 7.65 volts per BATTERY. I merely divided by the 3 cells to get the 2.55/cell. BTW, the recommendation is for absorption, not equalisation.

 

[wattmatters]

The datasheet said 7.65 volts per BATTERY. I merely divided by the 3 cells to get the 2.55/cell.

I got the divide by three part. I did miss it was absorption and not equalisation voltage.

Interesting they have different voltage settings for bulk and absorption, which makes little sense to me. As soon as CC (bulk) charging is finished then you are supposed to increase voltage again?

Their recommended equalisation voltage is pretty high at 2.60 V/cell.

 

[100 Proof]

I followed those charging recommendations when I had a GC2 bank in my travel trailer. They went 7 years, and I only replaced them because I had them for so long that I was getting concerned about them nearing end-of-life. I switched over to LiFePo4. They still had life in them though.