Trojan 105 batteries

[bobanne]

I have 52 trojan 105 6 volt batteries given to me, i dont know what they were used for but they all show better than 6 volts on the multimeter, how do i test these batteries to see if thay are good enough to use for my wind/solar setup. I also was given 2 x 12volt j185P deep cycle batteries that show 13.65 volts after 1 nights charge on my 8 amp rms charger, i charged the 2 batts at the same time and they are bubbling away nicely, all info gladly accepted. i had better look for a good schematics diagram for a charger/controller/inverter, any good ones you know about?

Bob

cheap renewable energy is a can of baked beans

[Mink]

Good find, Bob! I was given 12 about a year ago, by a guy here in Ballarat, Vic. who had them in his electric car. I think officially theyr'e known as golf cart batteries, and the 105 is measured at the C10 or 5 rating. At C100 they are probably around 140 AH. When they couldn't take the constant 3-400 amp drain any more, he bought newies and I saved him a trip to the scrap metal. He said I should watch a couple in particular, but they got mixed up and anyway, they've all been terrific. In our 24v solar setup we generally dont pull out more than 20 amps on (sort of) average, so I expect a couple more years out of them yet. You should equalize them very regularly, though.

[pyrocasto]

52! Holy Cow!

If you ever need to get a few off your back you know who to call. :-)

[Volvo farmer]

Wow, that's a lot of battery.

The guy who helped me design my solar system was pretty adamant about using as few parallel strings as possible in my batteries. Apparently, when one cell begins to weaken, it affects that string, which in turn adversly affects all the other strings. The end result is a shortened life for the entire battery bank. He also recommended when I equalize the bank, it's best to do each parallel string separately.

From what I've read, three is the maximum amount of parallel strings you want to see in a solar setup. Even at 48V, you've got enough batteries there for six parallel strings.

For testing, you might hook up a load that draws 10-20 amps out of a pair of them and check the specific gravity and voltage every hour for a few hours.

[sparkz]

52! Man-O-Man what a find ! Your set now killer find enjoy

and if ya need to get rid of some ya know where to post it LOL  

Sparkz

SE highlands, Kentucky

[bobanne]

Could you help me with a couple of questions as im not fully conversant with 6 volt batteries,i put three of them on charge last night and they came up from 6.09 to 6.78

volts average each, but the big 12 volters dropped overnight from 12.65 to 10.5 .

How do i equalise these batteries?

What sort of equipment do i use to test for gravity?

Would a flush and clean then adding of fresh distilled water help them?

And guys im in South Australia

[ghurd]

Big batteries take a while to charge.

The big 12Vs may have been surface charged to 12.65V, so dropping overnight can be expected, because they probably were not fully charged.

Give them a nice long charge.

But if they keep going down to 10.5V, thats bad. A 'dead cell'.

Gravity tester is a little tube with plastic BBs.

Easy to find for $2 at the auto parts store... in the US at least.

I am Totally against flush and refills.

There is a balance between the plates and acid.

The problem is some stuff is 'stuck' in a place where it can not go back and forth between the plates and acid. Changing acid just throws the balance off.

The Trojan website has equalization specs.

G-

[Mink]

Sorry, I must be stupid or something. They are about 250 A/H or so. I guess that's why the inverter percentage meter has been so far out of kilter.   http://www.trojanbattery.com/Tech-Support/BatteryMaintenance/Charging.aspx  ...has the equalizing info - basically it is 7.8v for a 6v battery. And I've always been told to keep amps under 10% of capacity. My favourite way of getting old batteries going is to put them on a little automotive charger at some friends' house who is connected to the grid, and leave them for a month or two.... Then when they come home they're more receptive to the kind of charging I am able to do here.

[seanchan00]

I too got my hands on 12 trojan T-105 more than a year back after I bought a new set of 2 trojan 6V batteries. All the 12 were scrap from a golf club and the best 4 batteries registered between 4 to 5 Volts. Since I needed only one extra set for low power use I managed to rejuvenate it with home brew desulphaters which I made 3. By repeatedly charging with the desulphater on I managed to get up to useable voltage in a month. Still running 6.0 to 6.1 volts after a year use and going strong running a car air-con fan 2 to 3 hrs daily. Anyone interested on these desulphaters can go to these sites.

http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/desulf.htm

http://www.flex.com/~kalepa/lowpower.htm

They are supposed to keep your batteries running at least 10 years.

Sean Chan.

[wpowokal]

Bob, don't know if you will see this post but just in case, re your Trogans.

If you choose to run with a large bank, I use 9x banks @ 24v remember that they need to be worked.

That is although a bank would normally be designed to discharge no more than 20% for longivity, a significantly less discharge is also detrimental to your batteries.

Allan in upside down world