Battery Question

[spareparts]

go to Harbour Freight and buy a load tester, get the obne with the analog dial, not the digital one. Its the best way to check a battery. You can also take a volt meter and go from the negative terminal to the first cell, then the first cell to the second, and so on. Each cell should have a little over 2 volts on a charged batteyr, any of them that is substantually lower than the rest of the cells is bad

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by spareparts

go to Harbour Freight and buy a load tester, get the obne with the analog dial, not the digital one. Its the best way to check a battery. You can also take a volt meter and go from the negative terminal to the first cell, then the first cell to the second, and so on. Each cell should have a little over 2 volts on a charged batteyr, any of them that is substantually lower than the rest of the cells is bad

Wow...never heard of volt meter used from neg post to cell??...are you sayin' probe into water or conact w/ plates or what ... neg to 1st cell, then cell to cell??


Does "Load Tester" you mentioned above work on Maint Free batts??...

[Airslot]

Load Tester works on all 12v batts. We use them from time to time for our golf car batts, which reminds me, it obviously works on 6 volt batts too ;D What you wanna know about batts, I've got 216 of em right outside. And I'll correct myself again, they work on 8volt batts too, cause thats what our new ones are. 48v golf cars nowdays. ;D

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by Airslot

Load Tester works on all 12v batts. We use them from time to time for our golf car batts, which reminds me, it obviously works on 6 volt batts too ;D What you wanna know about batts, I've got 216 of em right outside. And I'll correct myself again, they work on 8volt batts too, cause thats what our new ones are. 48v golf cars nowdays. ;D

Only thing I need to know about batteries now is where to get 'em at true wholesale ;) ...I guess 3 of those 8s would get me 24 for the trollin' motor...


::) ...

[spareparts]

reel, just drop the leads in the water, check voltage, each one from cell to cell should be a little over 2 volts( thats why there are 6 of them), kinda like a compresion test for batteries, you can find out which one is bad, but you can't do anything to fix it. I did see a battery on a trawler that used independant cells, had a manifold water distributor with a recovery tank so you never had to topp off the water, if you had a bad cell, you just replaced that one cell, look very expensive

[turbinedoctor]

Spare Parts you are sounding good with your battery knowledge, except there maybe help for a battery with a lower cell volt reading.

If you happen to get a cell a little lower then the rest you can try to discharge the battery over a couple of hours with a small load like a spot light and the put it on a charge with a higher current at around 14.5 - 15 volts. You may have to repeat it a couple of times but it will help to remove any sulfate that has built up on the plates and regain the surface area.

Sometimes just a equalizing charge will help if the battery isn't damaged to bad.

You need to keep in mind that the above process will shorten the remaining life of a battery, but if it is close to being replaced any way who cares. This will only help extend your battery for maybe a season.

One of the easiest ways to protect a battery is to install a battery minder. You need one that has enough amperage to maintain the charge of the battery and yet be able to reduce the charge low enough not to cook it when it reaches full charge.

[spareparts]

shhh! how do you think I get batteries for my boat ;D
Seriously, I've saved a few by charging and discharging them like you said(i use the load tester to discharge them), also someone told me to pick the battery up about 6" off the ground and drop it, to break the scale loose from the plates( don't know if it works but sounds good).

[turbinedoctor]

Yeah it sounds good but what else will you break loose. You try it on one of yours and let me know how it works. ;D