The best bet for deep cycle batteries with difficult access are the
Rolls or Surettes with the recombinant caps, also known as HydroCaps.

Clearly you haven't tried to buy batteries in Guatemala...

-- Geoff

On 24 Feb 2007 19:16:42 -0800, "GeoffSchultz"
wrote:

The best bet for deep cycle batteries with difficult access are the
Rolls or Surettes with the recombinant caps, also known as HydroCaps.

Clearly you haven't tried to buy batteries in Guatemala...

Thought you were in the states right now for some reason.

There is a Rolls dealer in Miami that offers good discounts.

I just bought a standard 8D at NAPA auto parts for $160 which
surprised me as being fairly reasonable. It goes into a difficult but
not impossible location, so it does get checked and refilled once in a
while.

"GeoffSchultz" wrote in
ups.com:

they suggested the use of a sealed battery to
avoid the build-up of hydrogen in this space. As is usual, boats are
a series of compromises. I took the advice of people who have far
more expertise than I do in this field.


I don't know about Guatemalan batteries, but wetcell lead acid batteries,
either those "sealed" (which all have gas vents to prevent pressure
explosions) or liquid wetcells, haven't gassed hydrogen during NORMAL
charging since manufacturers stopped using antimony grids to hold up the
soft lead in the grid. Modern lead-acid batteries use an alloy that
prevents gassing by the grid structure and reduces local battery action
to nearly zero. (The old batteries used to discharge themselves quite
rapidly because the antimony and lead formed a weak battery with the
electrolyte that was shorted because the antimony and lead were bonded
together. This ate the electrolyte over a short time. Remember "dry
charged" batteries way back? That was why.)

BOATERS, as a charging group always in a terrible hurry to speed up a
very slow chemical reaction (charging) against all the rules of chemistry
and physics, create hydrogen gas by hugely overcurrenting their battery
banks with massive alternators, giant chargers, overvoltage charging,
etc. in many ways. This causes a chemical reaction at the surface of the
plates that breaks down the electrolyte's diluting water into oxygen,
which creates lead-oxide coating on the plates, plus hydrogen gas, which
vents, no matter whether the electrolyte is a jelly, soaked in a guaze
AGM rolled up between the plates or in liquid solution. Of course, this
consumes the electrolyte's water supply, which requires replenishing.
This is not a problem on batteries charged properly, SLOWLY, which don't
bubble at all because their hydrogen and oxygen ions recombine back into
water not being driven hard apart by the overcharging.

All boaters know you can charge the house batteries in 20 minutes engine
time if you charge them at 250A, right? Your manufacturer's advise took
this into account...(c;

Larry
--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmc...elated&search=

Somehow or another my post to this with an update didn't make it.
Anyhow...

The problem was my Morningstar Tristar voltage regulator. According
to the manual if you push the (only) switch for 5 seconds, the unit it
supposed to drop into manual equlaization mode until you push the
switch for 5 seconds again. I did this, but it seems that it didn't
go into manual equalization mode. It was diverting any voltage above
14.2 V to the water heater. I found out the hard way that I can boil
water in my water heater!

I haven't had a chance to re-run the equalization. I'll do that in
the next day or two. I'm busy installing a new water maker.

-- Geoff

P.S. Larry, thanks for the info regarding hydrogen production in new
batteries. I didn't know that.

"GeoffSchultz" wrote in
oups.com:

P.S. Larry, thanks for the info regarding hydrogen production in new
batteries. I didn't know that.



Next lesson, we'll be discussing steam explosions in overheated hot water
heaters and its effects on boat humidity and mold production. Read pages
286 through 348 in your text book and complete the Chapter Eight section in
your workbook before class.....(c;

You're quite welcome. Let's all charge the house batteries at 250A and
turn the electrolyte water into hydrogen to fuel the genset....(c;



Larry
--
I have a new strategy to protect the Mexican border. From the border
to inside the USA, 1 mile, we turn it into our OPEN PIT nuclear
waste dump, turning it into a no-mans-land for tens of thousands
of years. Anyone attempting to cross will simply be eaten alive
by neutrons! Problem solved!

Unfortunately these are sealed lead acid and can't be tested with a hygrometer.

I thought SLA should not be equalised - taking them above 14.4 volts
will have them gassing without any way of topping them up??

(I will admit that some "maintenance-free" batteries are actually
"maintenance-resistant" - a determined user can remove the caps, to
check and replenish fluid levels.)

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI

I'll concur with this. I've met a number of maintenance resistant
batteries whose owners thought were maintenance free. Somtimes it
meant pealing off a decal to access the pry off caps. Sometimes the
caps come off as one piece for the whole six cells. Often there is a
way in if there are wet cells.