Hi again cousins,
I finally got a hygrometer to check specific gravity in my batteries. I couldn't find one in Bonaire, and after several tries finally found one in Curaçao....crazy.

I am at the dock now and on shore power. Here's what I did:
I let the battery bank get down to 24.1 V, turned on the Charles 60 amp smart charger and fully charged the batteries. Initially it put 58 A into the battery bank but within 30 minutes it was down to 35 A. After two hours it was down to less than 10 A. I left the charger on until the next day, it was at float voltage of the 26.5 V, one amp was going into the battery bank.

I checked voltage of the battery bank after letting two fridges run for 10 minutes, then turning off all 24 V equipment. The bank voltage was 25.8 V. I then disconnected all batteries from each other, and checked the individual voltage on each battery. All batteries were at 25.89 V +/- 0.04V. Every thing seems appropriate at this point, am I wrong about that?

I then checked specific gravity of all cells in all batteries. Each cell was at 1150 +/- 20. The hygrometer scale says they should be at >1260.

Soooo...is it likely that all batteries are bad to the exact same degree???? That seems unlikely unless they all came from the same run, and were filled with a bad electrolyte solution. Even then, for the first few weeks they were lasting almost 24 hours before they were down to a little above 24V, so that doesn't seem likely.
Is it likely that the hygrometer is bad? It's such a simple tool that doesn't seem likely either. There's no liquid in the float.

My battery monitor agrees with my multitester when reading bank voltage and amperage in the primary cables.

I'm stumped.

Any suggestions welcome.

Masha Danki from Curaçao.
Kent
SM243
Kristy

 

Hi again cousins,
I finally got a hygrometer to check specific gravity in my batteries. I couldn't find one in Bonaire, and after several tries finally found one in Curaçao....crazy.

I am at the dock now and on shore power. Here's what I did:
I let the battery bank get down to 24.1 V, turned on the Charles 60 amp smart charger and fully charged the batteries. Initially it put 58 A into the battery bank but within 30 minutes it was down to 35 A. After two hours it was down to less than 10 A. I left the charger on until the next day, it was at float voltage of the 26.5 V, one amp was going into the battery bank.

I checked voltage of the battery bank after letting two fridges run for 10 minutes, then turning off all 24 V equipment. The bank voltage was 25.8 V. I then disconnected all batteries from each other, and checked the individual voltage on each battery. All batteries were at 25.89 V +/- 0.04V. Every thing seems appropriate at this point, am I wrong about that?

I then checked specific gravity of all cells in all batteries. Each cell was at 1150 +/- 20. The hygrometer scale says they should be at >1260.

Soooo...is it likely that all batteries are bad to the exact same degree???? That seems unlikely unless they all came from the same run, and were filled with a bad electrolyte solution. Even then, for the first few weeks they were lasting almost 24 hours before they were down to a little above 24V, so that doesn't seem likely.
Is it likely that the hygrometer is bad? It's such a simple tool that doesn't seem likely either. There's no liquid in the float.

My battery monitor agrees with my multitester when reading bank voltage and amperage in the primary cables.

I'm stumped.

Any suggestions welcome.

Masha Danki from Curaçao.
Kent
SM243
Kristy

 

Hi again cousins,
I finally got a hygrometer to check specific gravity in my batteries. I couldn't find one in Bonaire, and after several tries finally found one in Curaçao....crazy.

I am at the dock now and on shore power. Here's what I did:
I let the battery bank get down to 24.1 V, turned on the Charles 60 amp smart charger and fully charged the batteries. Initially it put 58 A into the battery bank but within 30 minutes it was down to 35 A. After two hours it was down to less than 10 A. I left the charger on until the next day, it was at float voltage of the 26.5 V, one amp was going into the battery bank.

I checked voltage of the battery bank after letting two fridges run for 10 minutes, then turning off all 24 V equipment. The bank voltage was 25.8 V. I then disconnected all batteries from each other, and checked the individual voltage on each battery. All batteries were at 25.89 V +/- 0.04V. Every thing seems appropriate at this point, am I wrong about that?

I then checked specific gravity of all cells in all batteries. Each cell was at 1150 +/- 20. The hygrometer scale says they should be at >1260.

Soooo...is it likely that all batteries are bad to the exact same degree???? That seems unlikely unless they all came from the same run, and were filled with a bad electrolyte solution. Even then, for the first few weeks they were lasting almost 24 hours before they were down to a little above 24V, so that doesn't seem likely.
Is it likely that the hygrometer is bad? It's such a simple tool that doesn't seem likely either. There's no liquid in the float.

My battery monitor agrees with my multitester when reading bank voltage and amperage in the primary cables.

I'm stumped.

Any suggestions welcome.

Masha Danki from Curaçao.
Kent
SM243
Kristy

 

Oh, yes I checked again and the charger is set for lead acid batteries.  I'll do the CCA test again after a 2-hour wait.

Kent

On Jun 26, 2016, at 1:09 PM, 'Bill & Judy Rouse' yahoogroups@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

Kent,

Why did you measure voltage in pairs? 

You said, "...checked the individual voltage on each battery. All batteries were at 25.89 V."

Although it probably has nothing to do with your problem, you did not check them individually if the voltage was 25.89.

You did not mention any correction for temperature. Did your hydrometer have a built in thermometer to correct the reading to 80 degrees F? However, this would not be significant with your readings because you are probably at about 90 degrees and the correction to 80 degrees would only correct the 1.150 to 1.154.

It sounds like your 1 month old batteries are acting like they are at end of life.

Is the Charles 60 selector switch set for lead acid?

When you used the SOLAR battery tester, did you actually check each battery individually and with the battery totally disconnected from the bank, both positive and negative? if not, totally disconnect a pair of batteries at a time. Let them rest for at least 30 minutes (2 hours may be better), then test each one. Then do the next pair until you have done all 4 pairs.

Bill

BeBe 387

 

On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 4:40 PM, karkauai@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

Hi again cousins,
I finally got a hygrometer to check specific gravity in my batteries. I couldn't find one in Bonaire, and after several tries finally found one in Curaçao....crazy.

I am at the dock now and on shore power. Here's what I did:
I let the battery bank get down to 24.1 V, turned on the Charles 60 amp smart charger and fully charged the batteries. Initially it put 58 A into the battery bank but within 30 minutes it was down to 35 A. After two hours it was down to less than 10 A. I left the charger on until the next day, it was at float voltage of the 26.5 V, one amp was going into the battery bank.

I checked voltage of the battery bank after letting two fridges run for 10 minutes, then turning off all 24 V equipment. The bank voltage was 25.8 V. I then disconnected all batteries from each other, and checked the individual voltage on each battery. All batteries were at 25.89 V +/- 0.04V. Every thing seems appropriate at this point, am I wrong about that?

I then checked specific gravity of all cells in all batteries. Each cell was at 1150 +/- 20. The hygrometer scale says they should be at >1260.

Soooo...is it likely that all batteries are bad to the exact same degree???? That seems unlikely unless they all came from the same run, and were filled with a bad electrolyte solution. Even then, for the first few weeks they were lasting almost 24 hours before they were down to a little above 24V, so that doesn't seem likely.
Is it likely that the hygrometer is bad? It's such a simple tool that doesn't seem likely either. There's no liquid in the float.

My battery monitor agrees with my multitester when reading bank voltage and amperage in the primary cables.

I'm stumped.

Any suggestions welcome.

Masha Danki from Curaçao.
Kent
SM243
Kristy