I just picked up my new house batts, two Trojan SCS200 Deep Cycle Marine, 115Ah, group 27 batteries. I would have gone with golf car batts, but they wouldn't fit.
Fortunately there's a Trojan distributor nearby, and I picked them up. They were $263.50 each plus state sales tax. He let me give him one group 27 and a couple of oddball junk batts for the core charge.
These are impressive! The marketing literature is impressive, of course, with all of their proprietary technology, but their weight is impressive, too, at 60lb.
I learned a lot!
They are date code E18, so manufactured in May of 2018, with an "H18" sticker on the pod caps, which I take to mean that the electrolyte was added this month. They were at about 80% state of charge, at 12.48V, and the water level seemed low to me, 'though it covered the plates.
Reading the very good documentation from Trojan I learned the level goes up and down with charge, and to not add water until fully charged (as long as the plates are covered). I didn't know that!
The SCS200 specific data specify a charge voltage (Accept) of 14.8, float of 13.2, and equalize of 15.5. This is important, as their generic battery care docs call for a 16.2V equalization.
I charged at 14.4V, as that's what the charger I have at home does, and then equalized at 15.5V for 2 hours. Of course, my hydrometer and refractometer are on the boat, so I couldn't measure SG. (Can you use an anti-freeze hydrometer for this?) That was last night. Today the batteries (in parallel) sit at 12.92V.
Once charged the water level is up, perhaps even too high in most cells. It's supposed to be 1/8" below the vent well. One cell on each seems a tad low. I will make a 'dipstick' of rubber hose, per their recommendation, as it's really hard to tell by eye exactly where it is.
I have a good feeling about these, as it took a few hours to fully charge from 80%. My current, probably highly sulfated, house batts would be done in 20 minutes from there.
Also, I measure charge and equalization voltages at the battery terminals. It's important to run large enough gauge wire that is well terminated when charging at these levels. I was drawing upwards of 15 to 20 Amps in Accept mode.
This will give me about 115Ah useable, which I think is adequate for my needs.
jv
Fortunately there's a Trojan distributor nearby, and I picked them up. They were $263.50 each plus state sales tax. He let me give him one group 27 and a couple of oddball junk batts for the core charge.
These are impressive! The marketing literature is impressive, of course, with all of their proprietary technology, but their weight is impressive, too, at 60lb.
I learned a lot!
They are date code E18, so manufactured in May of 2018, with an "H18" sticker on the pod caps, which I take to mean that the electrolyte was added this month. They were at about 80% state of charge, at 12.48V, and the water level seemed low to me, 'though it covered the plates.
Reading the very good documentation from Trojan I learned the level goes up and down with charge, and to not add water until fully charged (as long as the plates are covered). I didn't know that!
The SCS200 specific data specify a charge voltage (Accept) of 14.8, float of 13.2, and equalize of 15.5. This is important, as their generic battery care docs call for a 16.2V equalization.
I charged at 14.4V, as that's what the charger I have at home does, and then equalized at 15.5V for 2 hours. Of course, my hydrometer and refractometer are on the boat, so I couldn't measure SG. (Can you use an anti-freeze hydrometer for this?) That was last night. Today the batteries (in parallel) sit at 12.92V.
Once charged the water level is up, perhaps even too high in most cells. It's supposed to be 1/8" below the vent well. One cell on each seems a tad low. I will make a 'dipstick' of rubber hose, per their recommendation, as it's really hard to tell by eye exactly where it is.
I have a good feeling about these, as it took a few hours to fully charge from 80%. My current, probably highly sulfated, house batts would be done in 20 minutes from there.
Also, I measure charge and equalization voltages at the battery terminals. It's important to run large enough gauge wire that is well terminated when charging at these levels. I was drawing upwards of 15 to 20 Amps in Accept mode.
This will give me about 115Ah useable, which I think is adequate for my needs.
jv
