GHA
Well-Known Member
very much temperature dependent, mine can be a fair bit more than that in summer.
This before an equalise.
SG needs a fair while to settle with the battery disconnected as well to get an accurate reading apparently.
Trojan batteries
- Thread starter sailaboutvic
- Start date
This before an equalise.
SG needs a fair while to settle with the battery disconnected as well to get an accurate reading apparently.
pvb
Well-Known Member
I think you can safely disregard that advice. Trojan's literature for the T105, as an example, quotes 3000 cycles at 20% DOD, but only 1200 cycles at 50% DOD (and only 800 cycles at 80% DOD!).
RobbieW
Well-Known Member
Note that I'm fairly sure the 1% came from Marine How To - DIY for Boaters - Marine How To somewhere. I set this up in 2014 but with only 200w of solar and a nominal 720ah house bank it rarely got to float on solar alone
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
Robbie as I understand it , there 8A going to the batteries, because at that time there a load of 6.2 A going out to my mind 6.2+1.8 adds up , if I wrong please say so , I happy to lean.
Also if there no load and the batteries only accepting say 2/3 A thats also suggest batteries are on float .
Lastly if gravity reading are over 1.277 that also suggest batteries are full , again correct if any thing I said is wrong.
So any suggestion that the batteries are not getting fully charge IF my assumption are right can't be the case .
I got no idea why these batteries have lost so much capacity in such sort time , I wish I knew ,
And no one here or any where else I posted have come up with an answer .
It's ok for people to suggest different setting but surely one has to set setting to manufacture data .
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sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
vas
Well-Known Member
can you please explain how you measure battery bank capacity?
s/w looks old ver to me. Will be on the boat later on and will post mine to compare
V.
vas
Well-Known Member
when you disconnect the mppt, it starts from 0ish. I think that may happen even if you turn off/on from the BT s/w but I have to test it again, not 100% sure
V
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
I did two different test .
the first I wasn't happy with so I then I did a full drain of the batteries.
First test ....
Charge batteries full .
snychronise BM
Disconnect all charges
Put a Load on , I used every thing I had given me 18/21 v depend if the fridge came on or not .
When voltages reach 12.0v under load , I turn off load and let batteries rest with no load no charge
Took a rest voltage reading
Compare with SOC chart
Dived persentags from chat by Amps used .
Example..
100A used
voltage at rest 12,3v ....
12.3 is = to 30 % used .
sum is 100/0.30 333 Ah batteries bank .
Second test came from a good friend and another member of YBW , he give me this some years ago Chris Jones .
Again make sure batteries are 100% charged – use mains charger overnight to be absolutely sure.
Make sure meter is showing 100% and 0 Ah consumed – if not then manually snychronise.
Turn off all charging sources – solar and mains
Turn on enough load to get a discharge of 22.5 amps (or as close as you can)
Leave loads turned on for 20 hours!!
Keep an eye on the battery voltage – obviously it will go down!!
When you get down to 10.5 Volts with load still turned on then you can stop – yes I did say 10.5 Volts.
To be honest I only did the second test as I feel I have nothing to lost as the batteries are US .
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
Agree mind did rest highly in some cells , up to 1.300 just over 1.277 was the lowest.very much temperature dependent, mine can be a fair bit more than that in summer.
This before an equalise.
SG needs a fair while to settle with the battery disconnected as well to get an accurate reading apparently.
vas
Well-Known Member
procedure sounds very good Vic, actually have to do that myself as well at some point!
V.
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
I started to wonder when people go on about how long their batteries last ,
if they really know how good they are .
Mind are holding up well , they just lost most of there capacity and I probably wouldn't at realised if I did wonder while my voltage was so low in the morning when I know roughly how much Ah I use over night and started testing them .
Oh out of interest gravity test don't mean much , I did have a conversation with a Trojan dealer in the U.K. who said they had batteries back and the GT was high but the capacity had been lost .
if they really know how good they are .
Mind are holding up well , they just lost most of there capacity and I probably wouldn't at realised if I did wonder while my voltage was so low in the morning when I know roughly how much Ah I use over night and started testing them .
Oh out of interest gravity test don't mean much , I did have a conversation with a Trojan dealer in the U.K. who said they had batteries back and the GT was high but the capacity had been lost .
RobbieW
Well-Known Member
Hi Vic, if there is no load and the solar charger says 2/3 amp I'd say the batteries are charged irrespective of the voltage.
Where you refer to manufacturers data, are you taking about the charger or the batteries ? One of the problems with chargers when I changed my system (the current Victrons werent about) is that they are conservative with regard to voltages and settings. I found some data for my batteries and a solar charger that let me program the voltages and switch over points manually.
You would also expect batteries in normal liveaboard use to lose some capacity over time anyway. I have 10% pa in my head but cant find a reference for that number at the moment. The amount lost will depend a lot on the charging regime and bringing them back to full as often as poss.
I sometimes wonder how Gavin got on with his Lithium replacement set up long term, I think that was the year we were both in Licata (if not it was the year after).
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
Funny just PM you Robbie , as I know you personally,
The data came from Trojan data sheet ,
I have spoken to other over time and they all seen to use the same setting for their Victron MPPT .
Yes I too expect them to lost some capacity but not 3/4 in less then three years , that's crap my cheapo batteries where much better then that and I just plug them in and forgot all about them till the day they died and I had less panels in them days .
The data came from Trojan data sheet ,
I have spoken to other over time and they all seen to use the same setting for their Victron MPPT .
Yes I too expect them to lost some capacity but not 3/4 in less then three years , that's crap my cheapo batteries where much better then that and I just plug them in and forgot all about them till the day they died and I had less panels in them days .
vas
Well-Known Member
Vic, please update the Victron MPPT s/w, it's way too old. Not sure why your mobile doesn't try to update automatically. Mine wont let me use the application if it finds an update.
V.
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
Try by won't let me update through my Victron connect , how else can I update ?
vas
Well-Known Member
no idea, as I said when new version of s/w is out, as soon as I try to run the app (and there is internet connection on my mobile) it finds it and comes up with an update dialog. I guess you do have internet on board and you are allowing applications on your mobile to be updated?
try maybe installing the app in a new device/mobile and see what happens!
App version looks at least 1yr old
V.
try maybe installing the app in a new device/mobile and see what happens!
App version looks at least 1yr old
V.
Sailfree
Well-Known Member
I just replaced my "cheap" batteries that had lasted 7yrs (3 were still good but one was faulty and was leaking acid!) With Trogen.
Trogen were the only batteries where I could get 3 of suitable size locally.
They were overall slightly smaller in dimensions than the cheap batteries they replaced but in lifting all the batteries they seemed 50% heavier which i assume is an increased volume/area? of the lead plates inside the Trogen batteries.
So far Varta lasted 8yrs, Alphaline (battery megastore) lasted 7yrs. Boat is on a berth and connected to shore power.
No complaints about cheap batteries and had they been available here I would have bought them. In buying these I discovered no battery suppliers ships batteries cross borders.
Trogen were the only batteries where I could get 3 of suitable size locally.
They were overall slightly smaller in dimensions than the cheap batteries they replaced but in lifting all the batteries they seemed 50% heavier which i assume is an increased volume/area? of the lead plates inside the Trogen batteries.
So far Varta lasted 8yrs, Alphaline (battery megastore) lasted 7yrs. Boat is on a berth and connected to shore power.
No complaints about cheap batteries and had they been available here I would have bought them. In buying these I discovered no battery suppliers ships batteries cross borders.
geem
Well-Known Member
Vic, if you have Blue solar MMPT regulators they dont have temperature compensation. If you are in the Med and your battery box is at a considerably different temperature to the regulator, you are likely to have been charging at the wrong voltage. The new Smart solar MPPT solves this problem. The old firmware was also likely to under charge your batteries by sending the batteries to float before the batteries were fully charged. I suspect the problem with short battery life is not the batteries but the charging regime
