I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.

If it were me, I'd buy/beg/borrow a quality digital voltmeter and check the
voltage at the battery terminals during the charging cycles. A clamp-on
ampmeter would be useful also to check/verify current drain and charge
current. There may be a wiring foobar somewhere.
Norm B.

On Thu, 06 May 2004 08:23:17 +0200, Len wrote:

I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.

Len,

I don't believe that many small discharge/charge cycles will harm the
battery. This is preferable to deep discharges.

Even so - you should be using deep cycle batteries - not normal start
batteries.

Best regards,

Bert van den Berg
CruzPro Ltd.
www.cruzpro.com
35 Keeling Road, #A4
Henderson 1008
New Zealand

Tel: 64-9-838-3331
Fax: 64-9-838-3332


Len wrote in message news
I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.

Len, AFAIK, there are no maintenance free deep cycle batteries because of
the need to replace water lost by normal deep discharges and recharges.
There may be some batteries labeled deep cycle, but the important
information is how many cycles they can live with. If your batteries were
the ones with removable caps, I would recommend that you run an
equalization cycle on them. I don't think that's practical in your case.

Float voltage depends on temperature of the batteries and the type of
batteries. If your batteries are cool, then I think your float voltage is
too low. I would think that it would take a temperature over 90 degrees
for that float voltage to work.

Golf Cart batteries are an inexpensive way to get a good compromise on
storage and maintenance. The temperature compensated charger should give
you some pretty good control during temperature swings. Add equalizing
charges once every month or two, and you should get some pretty good
results.

Many people have trouble when trying to run heating or cooling loads
because the power consumed is more than their systems are tuned to. Have
you converted the 120 volt amperage to the required DC amperage to verify
your loads? For example, our RV refer takes nearly 400 watts when running,
which is only 3.5 amps on AC, but it's eleven times that(38.5 amps) when
run on our 12 volt inverter.

I hope that you can make use of some of this.

Tom Caffrey
M/V Prince



On Thu, 06 May 2004 08:23:17 +0200, Len wrote:

I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.




--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

I must respectively disagree. VRLA (gel cel or AGM) batteries do not
require the replacement of water if propoerly charged. They are also
a great deal more safer to use in salt water applications. For more
information on these battery types, please see Section 7 in the Car
and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org.

Kindest regards,

BiLL.....

Doreen wrote in message ...
Len, AFAIK, there are no maintenance free deep cycle batteries because of
the need to replace water lost by normal deep discharges and recharges.
There may be some batteries labeled deep cycle, but the important
information is how many cycles they can live with. If your batteries were
the ones with removable caps, I would recommend that you run an
equalization cycle on them. I don't think that's practical in your case.

Float voltage depends on temperature of the batteries and the type of
batteries. If your batteries are cool, then I think your float voltage is
too low. I would think that it would take a temperature over 90 degrees
for that float voltage to work.

Golf Cart batteries are an inexpensive way to get a good compromise on
storage and maintenance. The temperature compensated charger should give
you some pretty good control during temperature swings. Add equalizing
charges once every month or two, and you should get some pretty good
results.

Many people have trouble when trying to run heating or cooling loads
because the power consumed is more than their systems are tuned to. Have
you converted the 120 volt amperage to the required DC amperage to verify
your loads? For example, our RV refer takes nearly 400 watts when running,
which is only 3.5 amps on AC, but it's eleven times that(38.5 amps) when
run on our 12 volt inverter.

I hope that you can make use of some of this.

Tom Caffrey
M/V Prince



On Thu, 06 May 2004 08:23:17 +0200, Len wrote:

I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.

Of course there are maintenance free deep cycle batteries. I use AGM's from
Lifeline. See: http://www.lifelinebatteries.com/marine.asp

--


Keith
__
'Hurhurhur, 2400 baud sucks' - V.bis and Baudhead
"Bill Darden" wrote in message
m...
I must respectively disagree. VRLA (gel cel or AGM) batteries do not
require the replacement of water if propoerly charged. They are also
a great deal more safer to use in salt water applications. For more
information on these battery types, please see Section 7 in the Car
and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org.

Kindest regards,

BiLL.....

Doreen wrote in message
...
Len, AFAIK, there are no maintenance free deep cycle batteries because
of
the need to replace water lost by normal deep discharges and recharges.
There may be some batteries labeled deep cycle, but the important
information is how many cycles they can live with. If your batteries
were
the ones with removable caps, I would recommend that you run an
equalization cycle on them. I don't think that's practical in your case.

Float voltage depends on temperature of the batteries and the type of
batteries. If your batteries are cool, then I think your float voltage
is
too low. I would think that it would take a temperature over 90 degrees
for that float voltage to work.

Golf Cart batteries are an inexpensive way to get a good compromise on
storage and maintenance. The temperature compensated charger should give
you some pretty good control during temperature swings. Add equalizing
charges once every month or two, and you should get some pretty good
results.

Many people have trouble when trying to run heating or cooling loads
because the power consumed is more than their systems are tuned to. Have
you converted the 120 volt amperage to the required DC amperage to
verify
your loads? For example, our RV refer takes nearly 400 watts when
running,
which is only 3.5 amps on AC, but it's eleven times that(38.5 amps) when
run on our 12 volt inverter.

I hope that you can make use of some of this.

Tom Caffrey
M/V Prince



On Thu, 06 May 2004 08:23:17 +0200, Len wrote:

I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.