Are these worth buying...

[bart]

   Called about 12 T-105's on craigslist. Bought new 1-1-12. They have been sitting since then.
No charging at all. $75.00 ea.

[bob g]

in my opinion, probably worth the effort, so long as they are not dead when you go look at them.

if they are dead, or nearly so, and have been sitting all these months, it is likely they will be heavily sulfated (the hard kind) and difficult to get back into shape.

i might be tempted to give them a try if the seller will allow you to check them out, do some charging and see what they look like.

in any case, it is likely you will be working on them for a week or more charging, cycling, recharging, equalizing, wash/rinse/repeat...
until you get the specific gravity back up to what it ought to be.

once that is done, you probably want to run a capacity test to see how they respond.

with the cost of these batteries being so high these days, it is tempting to give these a try.

bob g

[bart]

   Thanks Bob.
She texted  me back and said that it was the panels she bought in January and the batteries after a tax refund in May.
   Went to go look and voltages ran from  6.10 vdc to 6.20 vdc. By my cheep-o hydrometer SP went from 1.200 to 1.235 on all batteries.  On each battery, range was no greater than .010, except for two at .015.
   Exterior wise, all were clean and no marks on terminals.
I bought them. Let me know what you all think. Good or bad. I figure they will be a good starter set to learn on.
   Now to get butt in gear as I have all the major components, but not a thing installed or wired.
So, to get some charge in them, would using a sears 6-12 charger, think it has 3 steps per, be a good idea?

Oh, for the safety Nazis out there, yes its a good idea to wear the gloves and glasses. Da cheep-o hydrometer, during squeezing the acid back in, bottom came off. Good that most of acid was already in.
   Lots-o-fun!

[bob g]

i think you got a good buy

just get after charging them up as soon as you can, probably be a good idea to get them on an equalization too.

when you mentioned january, i was concerned that they might be sitting at 3 volts or some other very low level, which would have meant it would be a crap shoot getting them back into shape

with them sitting at 6.1-6.2, it dramatically improves your odds of having a good set in my opinion.

bob g

[bart]

....and that was good to hear.
   Thought they were in O.K. shape when checking voltages and just spot checking SG, before putting money on the table.
Was going through the Magnum manual and remembered that it needs a MC-RC remote to do equalization. Coming 2nd day air.
Tomorrow they'll get a charge from battery charger.
   One thing about these T-105 batteries. Some of the caps don't fit very tight.

[ghurd]

Get them charged up and equalized ASAP is good.

Not sure I'd have gone 2nd day air though.
I would have been happy with manual equalization!
G-

[bart]

    manual equalization?
If by that you mean wiring to the solar panels, yes that could be jerry-rigged. Not very keen on that though.
I've been collecting its and bits of this system for over 5 years as I could afford it. Nothing is wired or installed.
The batteries were the last major component. Do not have interconnects for them yet. On plate today.

[ghurd]

I meant a cheap 20A battery charger.  Or 2.  Or 3.
The older and heavier, the better.

Still can take a long time to get them up to 14.4V, let alone equalization voltages.
G-

[bart]

   These are T-105's 6v. Unless your talking a series connection.
 The duel voltage battery, 6v and 12v, charger that I thought was 3 stage, only does a boost  (40 amp) and start (pulsed 225 amp). So at 6v charging, is 40 amps ok or should I parallel 2 of them? 

[ghurd]

Series 2 of them.

Can use cheap jumper cables between them.

Usually, cheap 20A chargers sort of flaten out as the voltage increases.
Not sure any of my 20A chargers ever sent out more than about 12A unless it was pegged when crancking the starter.
Using 2 or 3 at the same time will get it up to equalization voltage a lot faster.

Make sure the plates are covered.
Then charge up to like 14V, then fill to the correct level.
Not sure why they say to do that, but they do.
G-

[bart]

   Series connected for 12v. Charging at 18 amps, 15.3 volts
Battery with Charger + lead is bubbling at a much higher rate than one with - lead.  ?

[XeonPony]

welcome to lead acid batteries! it is odd but that's what they do, you'll find you'll be refilling the positives more oft then the negatives.

[bart]

   Went to 12v boost, 30 amps, almost 17 v. Boiling real good now.

[bart]

   Got through first round of charging. Quit the 30 amp, 17v charging as smell was very strong and did not like the 17v charge rate.  They were boiling good though. By the spec. sheet on these, they recommend an equalizing charge of 15.48v. Charging in series. Advice please.
  I don't understand why it is not OK to charge at higher voltages, but OK to direct hook solar or wind turbine at higher voltages and let the battery clamp the voltage down.
   Have not done any discharging yet.
Went through, after 24 hrs., and checked SG and voltage. All came up 1.250 to 10285, volts 6.36 to 6.44. They all seem to reflect the same differences amongst themselves, i.e. one that had lowest voltage before is the lowest one now.

[ghurd]

Advice please.
  I don't understand why it is not OK to charge at higher voltages, but OK to direct hook solar or wind turbine at higher voltages and let the battery clamp the voltage down.

"KVL"

"Higher Voltages" are clamped to the battery voltage, meaning it can NOT get higher than the battery voltage.

Solar controllers (usually) stop the input current so the battey voltage does not get too high.

Dump load controllers (usually) drain 'the excess' power from the battery so the voltage does not get too high.

Grid battery chargers are a mess.
G-

[bart]

   Thanks for replying, as I figured this post got buried.
"KVL"   Thought there would be no calculus.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff's_circuit_laws
Reading through the above, as I understand, it is another way of stating the "conservation of energy".
   Some times got to have the obvious pointed out. Could see the above from using the potential power from the battery, just never thought about applying it from a charging point of view. Duh.
   Any one have any ideas on how to integrate the 4 extra batteries into the 8, series connected for 48v? From what I can come up with looks like a wiring mess to keep them in balance.

[WindyOne]

Any one have any ideas on how to integrate the 4 extra batteries into the 8, series connected for 48v? From what I can come up with looks like a wiring mess to keep them in balance.

I am not sure it is possible to add four more 6 Volt Batteries to an existing series string of eight 6 Volt Batteries and keep them all balanced. I think you need 8 batteries per series string?