New battery. Is it fresh?

[Richard19068]

I just bought a new group 31 130 AH battery. Actually. I had my wife pick it up from the vendor.

The date code indicates it was made in June 2013 so I consider that should be fresh enough but the volt meter showed it was at 12.53 volts. I thought it should be higher. Will that be a problem or is that normal?

Thanks.

 

[Benny17441]

That may be as fresh as you can get. Group 31s just do not fly off the shelf. In my experience that seems to be a normal voltage for a battery that has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of months. Go ahead and charge it to Full and then break it in by connecting a load and allowing it to discharge to approximately 60% or a voltage around 12.28V and then go ahead and charge to 100%. Voltage should be at 12.67V but it may take a couple of break in cycles to get to its maximum capacity. If after cycling a couple of times you only get a max of 12.5 volts then the battery may not be deemed fresh irrespective of the date

 

[Richard19068]

Thanks Benny. I charged it for 12 hours to float at 13.3 then after sitting disconnected from the charger for 24 hours it's still at 12.9 so I guess it's fine.

 

[Benny17441]

Sounds good, but check the calibration on the multimeter as the voltage at rest should have gone down to 12.67V after some 4 hours.

 

[Richard19068]

Sounds good, but check the calibration on the multimeter as the voltage at rest should have gone down to 12.67V after some 4 hours.

The charger manual says the maintenance voltage output is 13.3 and when I put the meter on the battery when the charger is on and indicates it is at maintenance stage the meter reads 13.29 so that should mean the meter is OK shouldn't it.

Thanks