How to put a battery through a bench test

richardimorse
richardimorse Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
I have two weak 12V Sealed GEL batteries taken from a 48V system and luckily I have available a 24V inverter charger and a 12V car battery charger to put them through an extended re-conditioning and battery test exercise, what is the best approach to attempt to bring them back.
Tagged:
· Share on Twitter

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,641 admin
    #2
    That is a difficult question to answer... It does depend on what is 'going wrong' and how your battery Mfg suggest to recover them (if they even document a procedure).

    The following would be my suggestion (fairly conservative--should not make things worse--But I am not a battery engineer):

    Discharge them to below 50% state of charge and recharge them to near 100% using C/20 (5%) rate of charge @ 14.2 volts (~25C).

    GEL batteries can have issues if they "gas" -- This can cause "permanent" bubbles in the GEL/Plate interface and further "ruin" your batteries if they are charged at too high of voltage for too long.

    Do this several times and see if the capacity/current capacity is improved or not. If you recover to 80%+ of capacity--That is doing well...

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
    · Share on Twitter

Categories