Battery, green eye how reliable

[simonfraser]

Two lead acid batteries, wired parallel to a solar panel using a controller.
I check the eyes at least once a month.
Say one is not green any more as its wearing out, will that stop me starting the engine ?

 

[VicS]

Two lead acid batteries, wired parallel to a solar panel using a controller.
I check the eyes at least once a month.
Say one is not green any more as its wearing out, will that stop me starting the engine ?

Little more than a gimmick iMO as the eye is only looking at one cell in the battery and gives no quantitative information.

However the fact that one cell is now not showing green does mean that it is time to budget for new batteries

I have the contrary situation ... A battery in which the magic eye still shows green but , presuably because another cell, or cells, is deteriorating, Is barely able to crank the engine.

 

[pvb]

However the fact that one cell is now not showing green does mean that it is time to budget for new batteries

Not necessarily. I once dug the little magic eye out of a maintenance-free battery. It had stopped showing green, but the battery still worked fine. When the electrolyte drops below a certain level, the green stops showing, but with maintenance-free batteries there's usually still an adequate reserve of electrolyte covering the plates.

 

[[70521]]

They are there as a guide. Your multimeter is your friend.

 

[PaulRainbow]

They are a load of bollox. Almost every time i fit a new battery the old, dead one, has a green eye. I fit a lot of batteries.

 

[RichardS]

I once fitted a green eye battery in a car and the securing plate went right over the top of the eye.

Richard

 

[Heckler]

I once fitted a green eye battery in a car and the securing plate went right over the top of the eye.

Richard

I check my "sealed" batteries every so often. I unscrew the eye and the rest of the "sealed" caps if the electrolyte is below the eye then it doesnt work and also I find black cack inside it which jams it. good clean out, top up and they start working again!
Stu