pewe
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| posted on 12/8/08 at 11:51 AM |
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Battery split...
Decided to charge up the battery by leaving it on trickle charge for a few days (1.5 Amps on a 55AH battery). Went in last night to find the battery
had split at BOTH ends. Fortunately the donor battery tray is rubber coated so that hadn't suffered but can't say the same for the
concrete garage floor. Copious amounts of strong bi-carbonate solution seems to have neutralised the spill. The word of caution seems to be not to
charge older, maintenance free batteries if the tell-tale is no longer visible as it means its out of water so effectively you cook the battery by
trying to charge it - you live and learn!
Cheers, Pewe 
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 12/8/08 at 12:04 PM |
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And 1.5A is not a trickle charge! That's a "takes a bit longer but still keep an eye on it" charge.
A true maintenance charger gives a decent amount of current until the battery voltage is good, then drops the current to a few 10s of milliamps to
maintain the charge.
Get yourself something like an Oxymiser - saves burst batteries!
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pewe
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| posted on 13/8/08 at 09:37 AM |
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Agreed but it's still not quite the 30amps we used to whack through batteries when I were a lad working in the local service station.
"Come back in half an hour, sir (and we'll have your battery well cooked)"
How we didn't blow one up I'll never know!
Cheers, Pewe 
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