Care of New Batteries

[happyVanderer]

Can anyone recommend a website talking about best practices for making 12v AGM 100 ah batteries last? I've got a year of full-time living under my belt now and want to learn all I can. I have almost killed my batteries and I thought I was being careful, so I guess I have a lot to learn. Fortunately I didn't spend much on them, but now I want to get some good ones and don't want to make the same mistakes. Thanks!!

 

[Sofisintown]

You know how you 'almost killed' your old batteries, so don't make the same mistakes again.
If you avoid depleting them more than 75% of their capacity, they will last a long time.

 

[jonyjoe303]

from my own experience with agm's is to get the voltage from the battery terminals with a multimeter directly especially if charging with solar. Every single charge controller I owned was off by .5 volts, instead of charging to 14.4 volts I was only charging to 13.9 volts for years. Some agms require 14.7 volts, so you need to check what your batteries require for a full charge. Undercharging will destroy a battery by reducing its capacity slowly over time.

Discharging to less then 11.5 volts several times will usually kill a battery, you need to try not to go under 12 volts on a regular basis. My kinitek 102 agm, I undercharge to 13.9 volts for years (I was going by the charge controller that read 14.4 volts) but I never went below 12 volts. On a very hot summer where I had to run my swampcooler and fans all night, the battery went to 11 volts about 2 or 3 times, I didnt think it was a big deal, but then the battery was charging quickly to 14.4 volts but once I started putting loads on it, it quickly drop to 11.5 volts. Its capacity was maybe 20ah. It happen quickly in less then a month.

 

[abnorm]

"" The problem is that I can't run my 700 watt microwave, my 700 watt blow dryer, or my 600 watt flat iron""

2000 watt inverter 200 ah AGM batteries.........Epever solar controller


I don't think you have enough battery................Where are you now ?...we're back at YARC...come visit if you're near

 

[highdesertranger]

Voltage is a poor indicator of state of charge(SOC). Use an amp counter that measures amps both in and out and get the batteries to 100% everyday. Highdesertranger

 

[happyVanderer]

Thanks!

 

[future_vandweller]

Thanks!

Amp-hrs based battery charging

It discusses the need for Amp-hrs based charging & why it's important

 

[user 37446]

HDR is 100% right.  You cant go by voltage, its usually falsely high if being charged and falsely low if under load.  Difficult to leave it a “rest” long enough as most folks have some draw on.

The DC amp in/out meters are under $30 on the big sites...

Visit the MORNING GROUP Store
4.2 out of 5 stars  782 Reviews
DC Multifunction Battery Monitor Meter,0-200V,0-300A (Widely Applied to 12V/24V/48V RV/Car Battery) LCD Display Digital Current Voltage Solar Power Meter Multimeter Ammeter Voltmeter

$24

NOTE- I don't have one so cannot tell you for sure how accurate they are!

 

[JDub]

Just got in a few minutes ago from doing about 45 min of battery care on all the stuff in the garage. This cold snap (for SW AL getting down to 13 F is a big deal) has definitely weakened a couple of them. I've got an auto battery charger that I rotate among all of the currently unused battery bearing equipment (lawn mowers, gennies, vehicles, battery bank, emergency lithiums, etc - yeah I know, WAY too much stuff, but for my current lifestyle I need them). On the road I'm going to start with my current 4 WM 90 group Marine Deep Cycles and as they wear out(be a while, they're new), I'll replace them with Trojans - we have a factory store for them up in Birmingham. You can bet your okole that I will be THOROUGHLY read up on the breaking in and routine care for those things. Just looking at the price of them makes my eyes water and my hand twitch for a beer...

Cheers