Bought the Oasis Firefly Battery

[SternWake]

From that description it kind of sounds like valves can be removed. Threads and sealing surfaces cleaned. And retightened.
Try and
Make them ship you new valves.

Poor qc on such a new expensive battery trying to develop a good reputation should have them trying hard to rectify situation instead of saying no big deal.

 

[cortttt]

From that description it kind of sounds like valves can be removed. Threads and sealing surfaces cleaned. And retightened.
Try and
Make them ship you new valves.

Poor qc on such a new expensive battery trying to develop  a good reputation should have them trying hard to rectify situation instead  of saying no big deal.

Agreed - its a little weird that they would overfill the thing! He's offered, though, to ship them overnight express as soon as I find a place. He said replacement is simple.

 

[SternWake]

Well as said do not let any baking soda residue get inside. Definitely get the new valves offer.

 

[ZoNiE]

The problem with new battery technology, is two-fold:

1. The technology is actually brilliant, but does not transfer from the Lab to Manufacturing well (or at all) and once you figure out packaging that actually works in a true plug-and-play situation for the consumer masses, cost and/or other factors make it a commercial failure.

2. It takes Decades to get real world data on new battery types. This one has been around for 8 years, but an 8 year old version is an early version, so real world testing of the latest and greatest unit is still minimal.

 

[Trebor English]

Isn't it a problem to open the battery and let in oxygen?  I think that is an issue with regular AGMs.

 

[highdesertranger]

they should be sending you a whole new battery imo. they overfill them, what? why would they do that? I say BS. highdesertranger

 

[BradKW]

Is it normal for an AGM battery to have vents, and actually vent? I thought that was the whole point...

 

[cortttt]

Is it normal for an AGM battery to have vents, and actually vent? I thought that was the whole point...

I was surprised at that as well.....They do say it should vent only in the beginning...

 

[highdesertranger]

I was under the impression that AGM's only vented if they were overcharged. highdesertranger

 

[SternWake]

That was also my impression for regular agm The venting psi likely is different on different brands and likely has a wide tolerance. Carbon foam oasis,. Well i dont know.

My northstar has a single vent one can put a tube over. Has it gassed? No sure. Likely some as i underestimated the temperature it achieves when high amp recharging under vehicle body when moving and my alternator's voltage regulator used to allow 14.9v. I changed that to fully adjustable.

This northstar agm impresses me greatly so far. Time will ultimately tell.

 

[cortttt]

That was also my impression for regular agm  The venting psi likely is different  on different brands and likely has a wide tolerance.  Carbon foam oasis,. Well i dont know.

My northstar  has a single vent one can put a tube over.  Has it gassed?   No  sure. Likely some as i underestimated the temperature it achieves when high amp recharging under vehicle body when moving and my  alternator's voltage regulator used to allow 14.9v.  I changed that to fully adjustable.

This northstar agm impresses me greatly so far. Time will ultimately tell.

This has six vent tubes - one for each of the cylinders I guess. 

I just put some baking soda on top of the vents - five of the six vents fizzled - so it's coming out of most of them.

 

[cortttt]

Regarding venting and sealed batteries - this is what Rickey provided

[font=arial, sans-serif]AGMs are sealed against electrolyte loss, but if they do not vent excess gas, which is normal and frequently occurs from overcharge, the casing could be compromised. You can find more information in this article:[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]https://www.boats.com/how-to/sealed-batteries-still-need-venting/
[img=20x8]https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif[/img][/font][/SIZE]

 

[RCC Marine]

Regarding venting and sealed batteries - this is what Rickey provided

[font=arial, sans-serif]AGMs are sealed against electrolyte loss, but if they do not vent excess gas, which is normal and frequently occurs from overcharge, the casing could be compromised. You can find more information in this article:[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]https://www.boats.com/how-to/sealed-batteries-still-need-venting/
[img=20x8]https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif[/img][/font][/SIZE]

Cort:

I sent you an email re: your battery a while ago and have not heard back from you. I am writing here to see if you'll get this message.

Hi Cort,

Do you have this controller?

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/150V-TS-MPPT-Operators-Manual.pdf

If so, I vaguely remember telling you that these batteries need to be floated at 13.2V and that they do not require conditioning/equalization. These numbers and settings are also in the manual I gave you. The default settings on the controller are way too high. You'll need to enter these values as per instruction manual page 19 and 20.

Absorption: 14.4V
Float: 13.2V
Equalize: (anything)
Interval: (anything)

Switch 7: OFF/Manual setting

Best,

Rickey

 

[cortttt]

Cort:

I sent you an email re: your battery a while ago and have not heard back from you. I am writing here to see if you'll get this message.

Hi Cort,

Do you have this controller?

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/150V-TS-MPPT-Operators-Manual.pdf

If so, I vaguely remember telling you that these batteries need to be floated at 13.2V and that they do not require conditioning/equalization. These numbers and settings are also in the manual I gave you. The default settings on the controller are way too high. You'll need to enter these values as per instruction manual page 19 and 20.

Absorption: 14.4V
Float: 13.2V
Equalize: (anything)
Interval: (anything)

Switch 7: OFF/Manual setting

Best,

Rickey

Thanks for the settings. 29Chico helped to manually set them. I'm pretty sure we got them right. 

My concern with the battery now is the loss of fluids. Enough fluid was emitted at one point to flow down the side of the battery and stain the wood the battery was resting on... ???

 

[ccbreder]

Loss of fluid equals overcharging.

 

[cortttt]

Loss of fluid equals overcharging.

If the controller is set correctly I assume that there would be no problem with overcharging? The controller was set manually according to the specs  in the Oasis manual.

 

[SternWake]

I think with these new firefly's there are still some bugs to be worked out and the leaking is not necessarily indicative of overcharging.

if you have new vent seals, just keep using and occassionally recharging the battery fully. It is good that the seller signed up and came here to to see how you are fairing with it.

I'd love to have one of these batteries to beat on and test, but I will be on the sidelines as long as my Northstar AGM still impresses me as I beat on it , but continue to recharge it properly, fully and pronto.

 

[cortttt]

I think with these new firefly's there are still some bugs to be worked out and the leaking is not necessarily indicative of overcharging.

if you have new vent seals, just keep using and occassionally recharging the battery fully.  It is good that the seller signed up and  came here to to see how you are fairing with it.

I'd love to have one of these batteries to beat on and test, but I will be on the sidelines as long as my Northstar AGM still impresses me  as I beat on it , but continue to recharge it properly, fully and pronto.

Thanks - my worry concerns the loss of liquid.....I don't know how much liquid was in there but it's lost a good amount of liquid - enough for the liquid to flow down the side of the battery and stain the wood underneath.

 

[SternWake]

A LifeLine AGM group31 , same general size as your FireFly, a gpl-31XT, has 1.5 gallons of electrolyte.

http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Technical_Bulletin_GPL_Acid_Volume.pdf

 

[cortttt]

A LifeLine AGM group31 , same general size as your FireFly, a gpl-31XT,  has 1.5 gallons of electrolyte.

http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Technical_Bulletin_GPL_Acid_Volume.pdf

That's more than I thought. Thanks

Rickey asked me to weigh the battery; it should weigh 74 lbs. On my bathroom digital scale - accuracy unknown - it weighed 73.2 lbs three times in a row.

A gallon of battery equalizer weighs 9.5 lbs - https://www.batterystuff.com/battery-restoration/fluid/be128.html#WayPointInformation; if I have a gallon and a half of electrolyte in the battery that works out to about 14 lbs  of which, if the scale is right, I've lost about .6.....

That doesn't sound like too much????