Maine, have a question on commissioning and breaking in a new set of batts.
Background for you first:
They are Costco 6V GC2's and replace a pair that have been in service since 2012. The old ones were still working fine, but are being replaced because I haven't been able to treat them with the respect they require. I'm on a mooring and up until this year have only had a 60 watt PV panel with SunSaver 6. With these components, I knew I couldn't equalize from solar and we never go to a dock when out, so literally the batts have not been equalized since 2012. This winter I've added another 60W panel and switched up to the GV-10 for a charge controller. That should get me to where I need to be charge-wise.
The new GC2's are sitting on my bench and I want to give them a commission charge, then break them in. Costco has "no information" on who actually made the batteries, so I cannot be sure of the optimal voltage settings. (Because of this I also did not order the GV-10 with custom settings.) What do you think about me using my NOCO G3500 charger to do the break-in?
https://no.co/media/nocodownloads/format/g/3/g3500_user_guide_v2.0_f.pdf
If I set it to think they are AGM batteries I can do 14.8V @ 3.5Amps. This would get them charged up, though I know that all of the cells might not be perfectly balanced... Then I could switch the charger to "12V Repair" mode which would hit them with 16.5V @ 1.5Amps. Maybe leave this on for 15-20 minutes?
Ideally, I would have a Mastech charging unit that I could control everything, but they're expensive up here in Canada. And I'd obviously much rather use the tools I've already got!
Cheerio,
Mike
Background for you first:
They are Costco 6V GC2's and replace a pair that have been in service since 2012. The old ones were still working fine, but are being replaced because I haven't been able to treat them with the respect they require. I'm on a mooring and up until this year have only had a 60 watt PV panel with SunSaver 6. With these components, I knew I couldn't equalize from solar and we never go to a dock when out, so literally the batts have not been equalized since 2012. This winter I've added another 60W panel and switched up to the GV-10 for a charge controller. That should get me to where I need to be charge-wise.
The new GC2's are sitting on my bench and I want to give them a commission charge, then break them in. Costco has "no information" on who actually made the batteries, so I cannot be sure of the optimal voltage settings. (Because of this I also did not order the GV-10 with custom settings.) What do you think about me using my NOCO G3500 charger to do the break-in?
https://no.co/media/nocodownloads/format/g/3/g3500_user_guide_v2.0_f.pdf
If I set it to think they are AGM batteries I can do 14.8V @ 3.5Amps. This would get them charged up, though I know that all of the cells might not be perfectly balanced... Then I could switch the charger to "12V Repair" mode which would hit them with 16.5V @ 1.5Amps. Maybe leave this on for 15-20 minutes?
Ideally, I would have a Mastech charging unit that I could control everything, but they're expensive up here in Canada. And I'd obviously much rather use the tools I've already got!
Cheerio,
Mike
