Info on batteries

[Jason Wilkinson]

Hi to all  i purchased some used Hawker 2 volt batteries 12 batt in all, and was told by the people who sold me them that they were 3 years hawker  oldham and the Ah is 1280. (1280?) the voltage of each cell range from 1.80 to 2.00 when measured. I believe the batt are good but would love to have more info on them, a search on the Hawker and other web sites turn up info on all type and dimension of batteries  except the ones i have. My dimensions are H=20' W=6 1/4'  L=5 1/2 i've looked at opzv and the opzs  but can't find my dimensions. My two concernes are the Ah and if i've got a good buy of 3 years old. ps the only markings on the batt is the filler cap with the name Hawker  and ( e18B) engraved in the grey abs top case. Jason

[dnix71]

Oldham is the distributor. Hawker/Cyclons/Gates are good batteries, but fragile. Don't let them sit discharged.

They make up to 3000AH flooded cells.

I've seen the round cyclons in backup lights and ups's, but they're pricy to replace.

The BC Cyclons are 2v, 25AH and 2.57" L x 6.25" W x 6.82" H

Yours ar probably 80 AH.

[Simen]

I got a bank of forklift 2V cells with the brand Hawker; they are L:15.7" W:7.7" D:2.4", and rated 240Ah at C5.

I also got some 330Ah@C5 cells at roughly L:20" W:7.7" and D:2,4"; Yours had a W:6.25" and a D:5.5", which would make them about twice the size.

So if you connect your cells together to form a 12V battery,(2 banks in parallell with 6 cells in each bank.) 1280Ah is believeable.

you can see my batteries at:

http://www.mwlmf.net/gallery/forkliftbatteries

If your cells are like mine, they should be seated in a tight fitting box, to prevent the walls of the cells to flex too much.

[Jason Wilkinson]

I do opologize and offer thanks for resizing the photo this is the battery i was refering to
Jason
 

[zeusmorg]

 I'm sorry but there's just WAY to much mis-information in this post to even attempt to reply to sensibly.

 What's this? "You can not draw power from the battery while charging it without ruining the plates by heating them and placing the electron movement and ionic bond into turmoil with sulfating as a result" Dude, but you are SO misinformed it's not even funny.. plate heating is caused by a severe overcharging or a deep discharge situation! Actually using part of the charge voltage does not cause ill effects to a battery,it doesn't even go into it!

 How do you think an automotive battery system works? As low as the performance of those things are, compared to a good deep cycle RE storage system, they'd never last a year! The reason they do,rarely do they take a full charge off the alternator.

 Charging another battery off another? wow i can't wait to see those losses add up.

Me I'd recommend to the moderators that this entire post be killed due to the ghastly mis-information contained within.

 Prove this with facts not gobbledegook.Radiant charger? hmm... batteries are black which absorbs radiant wavelengths, so i could just charge up my batteries by sitting them out in the sunlight...

[Jason Wilkinson]

Going through some old posts i came across this one in which i never got a suitable answer to my query, but today   over 10 years later  the batteries are still going strong,    cant beat Hawker

[SparWeb]

Good to hear!
Thanks

[Simen]

Jason; my Hawker batteries are also still alive.

Though, they have only around 120 Ah @ C5 left in them, but it's enough to power a 600 W garden water pump for a couple of hours... They're maintained by an Air-X wind turbine.

[clockmanFRA]

I used to get Gel.AGM, (ie,no fluid but impregnated acid fibre pads between the plates) second hand and already 4 to 6 years old, they came from mobile phone mast installations in Europe by the pallet load. I paid scrap price.

Unfortunately today the big companies and service agents are no longer allowed to dispose of so called hazardous products, and they have to use licensed specialist recyclers. 

Old Hawker Powersafe are still available, but the source supply are now dubious, and the second hand price is ridiculously expensive. I now buy 12v Sealed lead acid, new, golf cart type batteries.

After 12 years I now have just 2 strings of 4 Hawker Powersafe in operation down at the 1300ah 48v battery shed that are good, and the 3 in my photograph, which have fallen to a holding voltage of 12.9v and are no longer on active duty.

Certainly the Hawker PowerSafe batteries have outlasted all my other AGM's. Not bad for 17 year old batteries in daily use.

In the photograph that grey AGM is a Marathon by Exide made in USA, its the last of those and is now just holding 12v so its about scrap.

Photograph showing my test rig for bench testing OzInverters.