Frequently Asked Questions
BATTERY OVERHEATS ON DISCHARGE
PROBABLE CAUSE:
- Over discharge
- Excessive load
- Not fully charged prior to work assignment - resulting
in over discharge
- Electrolyte levels low
- Operating in high ambient temperature
LOW ELECTROLYTE LEVEL
PROBABLE CAUSE:
- Broken or cracked cell case
- Water additions neglected
- Cell missed when adding water
- Too much over charging
UNEQUAL SPECIFIC GRAVITY AND CELL VOLTAGES
PROBABLE CAUSE:
- Overfilled with water
- Operating cell with cracked cell case
- Acid not adjusted properly after cell change
- Operating cell with vent caps removed
- Sealing compound leaks
- Operating battery with broken cell cover
- Neutralizing material in cell
- Over discharge
- Lack of equalizing charges
- Dirty battery top
- Cells operated with low electrolyte level
- Low fully charged specific gravity of cell
- Sediment space filled
- Tap on cells for lower voltage circuit
- Impurities in cell
EXCESSIVE CELL TEMPERATURES
PROBABLE CAUSE:
- Defective or weak cell
- Insufficient air circulation around battery on
charge
- Charger is too large for battery
- Low electrolyte level
- Shorted cell(s)
BATTERY DOES NOT "HOLD UP"
PROBABLE CAUSE:
- Undersized battery
- Undercharged battery
- Defective cells
- Defective cable or connector
- Battery wet and dirty
- Defective truck
- Battery at end of useful life.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AN "AUTOMOTIVE"
AND A "DEEP CYCLE" BATTERY
People who have Recreational Vehicles
(RVs) and boats are familiar with deep cycle batteries.
These batteries are also common in golf carts and large
solar power systems (the sun produces power during the
day and the batteries store some of the power for use
at night). If you have read the HSW article entitled
How Emergency Power Systems Work, then you also know
that an alternative to gasoline powered generators is
an inverter powered by one or more deep cycle batteries.
Both car batteries and deep cycle batteries
are lead-acid batteries that use exactly the same chemistry
for their operation. The difference is the way that
the batteries optimize their design:
A car's automotive battery is designed
to provide a very large amount of current for a short
period of time. This surge of current is needed to turn
the engine over during starting. Once the engine starts,
the alternator provides all the power that the car needs,
so a car battery may go through its entire life without
ever being drained more than 20% of its total capacity.
Used in this way a car battery can last a number of
years.
To achieve a large amount of current,
a car battery uses thin plates in order to increase
its surface area.
A deep cycle battery is instead designed
to provide a steady amount of current over a long period
of time.
A deep cycle battery can provide a surge
when needed, but nothing like the surge a car battery
can. A deep cycle battery is also designed to be deeply
discharged over and over again (something that would
ruin a car battery very quickly).
To accomplish this, a deep cycle battery
uses thicker plates.
Typically a deep discharge battery will
have 2 or 3 times the RC of a car battery, but will
deliver one half or three quarters the
- CCA's. In addition, a deep cycle battery can withstand
several hundred total discharge/recharge cycles, while
a car battery is not designed to be totally discharged.
" CCA is the number of amps that the battery can produce
at ? degrees ? for 30 seconds.
- Reserve capacity is the number of minutes that the
battery can deliver 25 amps while keeping its voltage
above 10.5 volts.
QUESTIONS / COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS
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If you have any further queires please
email info@rolls-europe.com
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