I let them dry out... I've re-filled them and over two days of charging they have collected 6 amps, are they shot? Is there anything I can do to bring back some life, maybe enough juice to run a bilge pump over the weekend?
hope for my batteries???
- Thread starter KandD
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I suspect they are worthless. Chemical changes occur to the lead plates when they ar out of the solution. Impossible to undo. If they dried out, you can melt them and start a fire with agressive charging. Also, Don't think you are reading your meter correctly. Six amp-hours maybe?
They should have taken more then that even it they where totally bad. They get the amps pushed through but just don't hold a charge. clearly you do not have a shorted cell (yet). Try taking the bats off charge and measuring the voltage of each (three way turned off) over about a half hour.
The voltage should not drop rapadily below 12.0 volts. If it drops rapidly then they are shot. If it holds up there may be some small hope. Generally drying out the entire batt kills it. Just uncovering the top of the plates can be recovered from with some loss of battery capacity.
How much of the plates where uncovered?
The voltage should not drop rapadily below 12.0 volts. If it drops rapidly then they are shot. If it holds up there may be some small hope. Generally drying out the entire batt kills it. Just uncovering the top of the plates can be recovered from with some loss of battery capacity.
How much of the plates where uncovered?
Dried Out?
When you charged was the ammeter reading 6 amps constantly for say 12 hours or do you have a proper battery monitor and read 6 ampere hours (Ah) over the charging period? There is an enormous difference in the charge that may have gone in.
Is it that you just cannot see any liquid when looking down the vents? Maybe it was only ½" below.
Did the charger go bad and continually charge over a long period so you know for sure the water has all but gone and you only have concentrated sulphuric acid left?
So how much water did they take?
Have they just been left in a fully discharged state for months as this will do untold damage?
Sorry for so many questions but the likely condition of the batts will depend on the extent of the neglect.
Try a load test.
When you charged was the ammeter reading 6 amps constantly for say 12 hours or do you have a proper battery monitor and read 6 ampere hours (Ah) over the charging period? There is an enormous difference in the charge that may have gone in.
Is it that you just cannot see any liquid when looking down the vents? Maybe it was only ½" below.
Did the charger go bad and continually charge over a long period so you know for sure the water has all but gone and you only have concentrated sulphuric acid left?
So how much water did they take?
Have they just been left in a fully discharged state for months as this will do untold damage?
Sorry for so many questions but the likely condition of the batts will depend on the extent of the neglect.
Try a load test.
- After leaving the charger on for 24 hours do a load test.
- Measure the voltage off charge and off load with battery at rest.
- Read ammeter and turn on several cabin lights until you see about ten amps discharge.
- Read voltmeter and note both ammeter and voltmeter readings.
- Leave lights on, but nothing else, for say, 5 hours and read both again.
- If voltmeter reads 12 volts or less then either batteries (and/or charger) probably dead.
- Either - Take batteries to a vehicle battery shop and ask them to recharge and load test. Their tester only takes a few seconds but draws a very heavy current.
- Or - get man who knows how to measure charger output and who has a load tester to visit boat.
- Either of the above should be inexpensive when compared with a new set of house batteries so should be worth a go.
K & D .. consider a Qwik-Fill system .. http://www.flow-rite.com/battery-watering/qwik-fill
makes it a 2 minute job to top off all the cells in a bank. The quick connect can be placed wherever it is convenient .. Ya take the hand pump and immerse the suction end in distilled water squeeze to get teh air out, click connect to the tube that connects to the batteries.. pump a couple of times .. when the bulb gets firm, disconnect and you are done. Each cell gets individuallly topped off.. if they don't need water, none flows ... Because battery access is terrible on my 34, I put a system in about 5 years ago and have been very happy with its function. Used to take about an hour (and lots of contorsions) to water the banks, now about 2 minutes. since I water much more often, my batterys have lasted 5 years and seem still strong.. I was getting about 2.5 years before because of inconsistent watering.. Only change I would make would be to wash and rinse the tygon tubing carefully before installation to prevent "growies" .. I had to remove the tubes and clean out the bio material to avoid getting it into the batts.. They make a system that fits big 6V golf cart batts too.
makes it a 2 minute job to top off all the cells in a bank. The quick connect can be placed wherever it is convenient .. Ya take the hand pump and immerse the suction end in distilled water squeeze to get teh air out, click connect to the tube that connects to the batteries.. pump a couple of times .. when the bulb gets firm, disconnect and you are done. Each cell gets individuallly topped off.. if they don't need water, none flows ... Because battery access is terrible on my 34, I put a system in about 5 years ago and have been very happy with its function. Used to take about an hour (and lots of contorsions) to water the banks, now about 2 minutes. since I water much more often, my batterys have lasted 5 years and seem still strong.. I was getting about 2.5 years before because of inconsistent watering.. Only change I would make would be to wash and rinse the tygon tubing carefully before installation to prevent "growies" .. I had to remove the tubes and clean out the bio material to avoid getting it into the batts.. They make a system that fits big 6V golf cart batts too.
Sounds like it doesn't look good...
I have a heart interface charger linked to a link 2000 inverter/monitor. I get an error reading off that, but I've worked under the assumption that it's because bank 1 is empty and so it's a broken circuit. The batteries are two 6v with 210ah from 2009 (Interstate? from Sam's club).
I did mean 6 amp-hrs. It took 1 1/2 gallons of DI water to top them back off.... so I bet they were pretty dry. According the my monitor (which I never fully figured out) it's charging at 13.25 volts, % charged sits around .2 and the amp-hrs peaked at 6. Access is easy, I kept them topped off while living aboard, it's the visits since that I forgot about them. There is also a little corrosion at the terminals. I'm actually getting her ready to go on the market now...:neutral:
I have a heart interface charger linked to a link 2000 inverter/monitor. I get an error reading off that, but I've worked under the assumption that it's because bank 1 is empty and so it's a broken circuit. The batteries are two 6v with 210ah from 2009 (Interstate? from Sam's club).
I did mean 6 amp-hrs. It took 1 1/2 gallons of DI water to top them back off.... so I bet they were pretty dry. According the my monitor (which I never fully figured out) it's charging at 13.25 volts, % charged sits around .2 and the amp-hrs peaked at 6. Access is easy, I kept them topped off while living aboard, it's the visits since that I forgot about them. There is also a little corrosion at the terminals. I'm actually getting her ready to go on the market now...:neutral:
If it is charging at 13.25 volts your charger thinks they are fully charged - 13.25 is float voltage. If the charger sensed they were low it would charge at around 14.4 volts.
The Sulfur in the Sulfuric acid will have reacted with your lead plates(lead sulfate). Not water soluble. You may never get back to a sulfuric acid solution.
If you have a hygrometer, check the specific gravity of the water in your cells. Also disconnect the charger. let the batteries sit for a couple of hours, then put a load on them. Watch the voltage. When new your batteries were good for 10 amps for about 20 hours before getting to 11ish volts. I'd bet you get to down 11 volts almost immediately now.
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