I don't get it why people don't use 2 volt wet cell lead acid batteries. They go forever, but you do need to do a tiny bit on maintenance.
Not difficult & not that time consuming. Usually just a bit of distilled water top up.
At work we had a 20 year old 1 tonne forklift with original wet cells. It ran rings around the new forklifts. 1.2 tonnes absolutely no issues at 20 years.
New 1 tonne forklift we would have to help push it up from 900kg (OH&S issue avoided with wet cells).
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MY 2 volt Gel cell's have been running for 18 years at my cabin. It is a 24 volt system, and have only dropped 15% in the last year. Will be getting the same again - Dia Mec's from South Korea. I expect these gel's to last another year or 2. They are not cheap new, I got the lot for $500, after they were used by Telstra for 6 years, so if they last another 2 years, their lifespan would have been 26 years. Not too shabby is it.
-- Edited by Bicyclecamper on Wednesday 11th of October 2023 12:49:45 PM
I don't get it why people don't use 2 volt wet cell lead acid batteries. They go forever, but you do need to do a tiny bit on maintenance.
Not difficult & not that time consuming. Usually just a bit of distilled water top up.
At work we had a 20 year old 1 tonne forklift with original wet cells. It ran rings around the new forklifts. 1.2 tonnes absolutely no issues at 20 years.
New 1 tonne forklift we would have to help push it up from 900kg (OH&S issue avoided with wet cells).
The 2V wet cells that we used in PMG Exchanges some 66 years ago went forever but certainly would not be suitable. They were enclosed in giant glass containers each about the size of a modern day wheelie bin. Each of our local exchanges had an entire floor filled with mostly open cell batteries.
These were the days of Valve operated long distance systems that required high capacity low voltage filament batteries and high voltage (132v?) batteries for Anode? Voltage as well as 12v Lamp Signaling batteries etc. etc. There were 'on load' & 'standby' Batteries for every function in the two manual local exchanges & large Long Line Transmission Room. Pilot cells on every battery were read (SG & V) & recorded daily & complete battery readings (SG&V) every week. Test discharges were performed regularly as well as tests on the Brown Boveri Voltage regulators. **** of a job, but a great source for replacement acid to keep our private car batteries going for a few months longer. Just take a hydrometer full of 1240 electrolyte from each open cell and replace it with a bit of distilled water, wash out the car battery & fill it with the stolen 1240!
The exchange batteries would hold the load for a few minutes until the Auto Start no break deisel generator kicked in. Great fun testing the no-break plant on sunday overtime. Just start it up & retire to the Pub over the road for a few rounds.
I was a full time job for a Technician and a couple of trainees to maintain them (although the Tech spent most of his time sleeping or out shopping) while the trainees played practical jokes & got up to all sorts of mischief.
We had one, problem was identified in July 2021.
The battery was replaced and compensation paid for the loss of storage between July 2021 and February 2023.
Full warranty on the new 10Kw battery supplied.
With open wet cell there are basically two main types, Deep cycle industrial rated at ~3500 cycles to 50% DoD which routinly do 10 plus years in offgrid. These require constant equalization to stir up the electrolyte preventing stratification and to deal with sulphation build up, too much EQ leads to the positive terminal corroding. The big killer is them never seeing enough voltage (due to the fact they need up to 7hours plus to get into float stage) which sulphates them badly. This is called psoc cycling. To mitigate you charge to a higher voltage ( technically overcharging) which pushes the CV stage back shortening the absorb time. If you want a cheap battery chemistry that can do minimum 4 to 6 years in a horrible psoc environment and you dont know or care about EQ, then wet cell is the only lead acid you want. The 12v wet cell are rated to 1200cycles but can do 10years plus in semi offgrid if well looked after. However the amount of money I wasted on keeping my wet cells going strong was simply not worth it, lithium is so much cheaper long run. AGMs can't tolerate much psoc and once sulphate you really can't do anything about it, any real attempt to EQ will just boil some of the water away which if not put back means capacity loss, the energy in a LA is primarily stored in the sulphuric acid (the electron bonds).
The second kind is stand by, these have a very long calander life but a completely useless cycle life, There are stories of them going up to 40 plus years in service.
There are stories of a Top notch Gel going up to 20years in semi offgrid houseboats, also conventional li-ion doing near 20 years when many could only get 5 to 7. Batteries are a dynamic system which is why so many vary wildly across the board.
With open wet cell there are basically two main types, Deep cycle industrial rated at ~3500 cycles to 50% DoD which routinly do 10 plus years in offgrid. These require constant equalization to stir up the electrolyte preventing stratification and to deal with sulphation build up, too much EQ leads to the positive terminal corroding. The big killer is them never seeing enough voltage (due to the fact they need up to 7hours plus to get into float stage) which sulphates them badly. This is called psoc cycling. To mitigate you charge to a higher voltage ( technically overcharging) which pushes the CV stage back shortening the absorb time. If you want a cheap battery chemistry that can do minimum 4 to 6 years in a horrible psoc environment and you dont know or care about EQ, then wet cell is the only lead acid you want. The 12v wet cell are rated to 1200cycles but can do 10years plus in semi offgrid if well looked after. However the amount of money I wasted on keeping my wet cells going strong was simply not worth it, lithium is so much cheaper long run. AGMs can't tolerate much psoc and once sulphate you really can't do anything about it, any real attempt to EQ will just boil some of the water away which if not put back means capacity loss, the energy in a LA is primarily stored in the sulphuric acid (the electron bonds). The second kind is stand by, these have a very long calander life but a completely useless cycle life, There are stories of them going up to 40 plus years in service. There are stories of a Top notch Gel going up to 20years in semi offgrid houseboats, also conventional li-ion doing near 20 years when many could only get 5 to 7. Batteries are a dynamic system which is why so many vary wildly across the board.
I often said that Battery theory is a black art. Looks like I was right. LOL.
We had lots of Engineers who we sent all of our data to (of course we 16 year old trainees never fudged the figures ) & they loved to study it and come up with all sorts of action plans. Takes all sorts I suppose. LOL
If you have a home solar system with this type of battery storage you definitely need to check it. BUT these are not the type of batteries that are ever used in caravan, the Lifepo4 batteries used in caravans are extremely low fire risk, lower than wet cell AGM batteries.
If you have a home solar system with this type of battery storage you definitely need to check it. BUT these are not the type of batteries that are ever used in caravan, the Lifepo4 batteries used in caravans are extremely low fire risk, lower than wet cell AGM batteries.
Absolutely! When I was building my 1650 watt Solar system on the van I did much research before purchasing 540 ah of Lithium, which lives under the bed. There's more danger driving your car to the battery retailer to purchase your batteries! Cheer
