Caution: interested propeller head caught this and bought a version for myself to check out...
I'd be interested to see how yours are doing now.
My instinct tells me that even though this is a hybrid, GEL seems to be predominant, and as such if you find poor cycle life, consider reducing that CV voltage to 14.1.
I was so intrigued, that I ordered a very small Motorcycle starter version, with clear-cased top! I'm not interested in cycling it, but it was too cool for this ol' battery nerd to pass up.
Should be here in a couple of days for testing and see if I can make rice-crispies at typical agm voltages.
I found a few good articles and the actual patent from the inventor back in 2003. But there's a catch!
The first article about it that I ran across was this:
Importer & Distributor of Lighting and Solar for Caravan, Motorhome and Marine.
www.energyunlimited.co.nz
Ok, fine. Now let's look up that patent filed by the inventor:
A hybrid gelled-electrolyte VRLA battery and method for its manufacture are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, the VRLA battery includes both an AGM separator and a first gelled electrolyte. In accordance with the method, a first silica-electrolyte mixture is placed in contact...
patents.justia.com
I got through much of it, but I'm not a material scientist. Many improvements are mentioned, (agm construction allows for a lower IR, gel has higher heat tolerance- less electrolyte stratification, etc etc) but I don't see any mention that this hybrid gel / agm battery should in fact use agm charging CV's!
The only one that does say that, is the article from energyunlimited where they say the charge profile should be the same as agm simply because the SG being somewhat similar with the gelled electrolyte vs the more classic liquid electrolyte absorbed in the mat.
My experience with gel - even in this hybrid form, means a little bit of care, and not equating it to AGM, which has been the bane (or objective of salesman!) for decades.
I see a trend too out there in consumer land with reviews. Although many can be contributed to end-user error, or real manufacturer faults, my *suspicion* is that these hybrids are being burned up with agm CV voltages just like they have been doing for the last 30 years or more with devices that expected real agm's, and their chargers not dropped in CV to accomodate gel properly. Ie, the "It worked for a week, and then quit!"
When mine comes in, I'll see if I can get it to talk.
Update: I noticed that Renogy's hybrids seems to specify a cycling cv voltage of 14.2-14.4v. That seems more realistic to me, although I'd be tempted to stick to the low end until tested. A few tenths of a volt too high on gel can be drastic. The skeptic in me sees that spec, and thinks that maybe it was set just a smidge high to get to 14.4v so that users don't feel like they have to buy gel-specific chargers and use an agm charger that only goes to 14.4. See what I mean? It's a nightmare out there.
Sorry gang - I've been battling the gel/agm fiasco for sooooo long...
