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Needing more amps to charge a 2v FLA cell

OzSolar

Whatever you did, that's what you planned.
Joined
Jan 5, 2021
Messages
2,693
Location
Southwest MO
Any ideas on how to get at least 30 but preferably 100 amps @ ~2.5 V?

Background:
I have a 48v FLA lead acid bank made up of individual 2V cells rated a 1104 AH. About a year ago I found one of those cells with a substantially lower SG reading of just over 1 when all of the other cells were at 1250 or better. After several substantial equalizations (as in 63v for 4 to 8 hours) of the entire pack it hadn't budget so I pulled it then adjusted my system from 24S to 23S.

Fast Forward to today:
I'm finally getting around to trying resurrect it. It's a fools errand I know but I'm not very smart and prone to be entertained by simple things. Dumped the old acid in a safe container which I will take to my local battery supplier, did an EDTA treatment then added fresh battery acid. Charged it at ~70 amps for around 10 hours until the SG returned to 1290. Yeah, 1290 surprised me too. Discharged it to ~50% according to SG. Played around with several ways to discharge it but so far 50 amps is the most I've asked of it but it held that very nicely for many hours. To my pleasant surprise it does seem to be coming back to life but I feel that I need to charge it at much higher rate than I am.

I've got two adjustable power supplies at 5 amps each plus my Iota DLS-55 which doesn't seem to care that it's hooked up to a 12v cell. I tried every other 12v battery charger I've have and they refuse to get along with a 2V cell.

One solution would be another >30 amp power supply but I really don't want to spend more any more money on this fools errand.

Here's a pic of the patient on life support.

1679791684049.png
 
I would be inclined to charge it up full to match the rest of the pack and put it back in service.
Should I assume there is a 100 amp 48v charger on the pack?
 
I would be inclined to charge it up full to match the rest of the pack and put it back in service.
Should I assume there is a 100 amp 48v charger on the pack?
I am inclined to do that as well. Late yesterday the SG did start to respond to the ~70 amps I could muster between the IOTA and my two adjustable power supplies. It's up to 1280 now so I think it's going to be as good as it's ever going to be so it's time put in back in the pack to fend for itself.

I had some concerns that it wasn't going to respond so that was a pleasant surprise. As usual, I'm guilty of overthinking something. "Perfect is the enemy of good enough"

That 100 amp figure comes from the minimum recommended for charging rate of at least C/10 to C/5 which works out to 110 to 220 amps. Between the two inverters and 5.4 kW of solar I've got the ability to charge the pack at a bit over 300 amps.

edit to fix typo
 
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