Series 3 batteries

wammers said:

Full calcium batteries need a much higher charge rate than lead antimony batteries. If they are not kept fully charged they can sulphate up and become useless. Can sometimes be recovered by charging at 15 volts + or higher for an extended period subject to electrolyte temperature. But a fully charged 12 volt battery should be no less than 12.6 volts after being allowed to stand for an extended period after charging. Suggest you get a better charger. If you don't sort something out you will ruin your new battery if you have not done already.

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hmm, don't like the sound of that sulphating up, might just stick to an ordinary one

wammers said:

Full calcium batteries need a much higher charge rate than lead antimony batteries. If they are not kept fully charged they can sulphate up and become useless. Can sometimes be recovered by charging at 15 volts + or higher for an extended period subject to electrolyte temperature. But a fully charged 12 volt battery should be no less than 12.6 volts after being allowed to stand for an extended period after charging. Suggest you get a better charger. If you don't sort something out you will ruin your new battery if you have not done already.

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Thought about this and it occurred to me when you turn the ignition key the heater plugs cut in they are quite a heavy load, that will affect the Voltage. So at lunch time I lifted the seat and put the fluke meter onto the terminals, sure enough after standing since last Sunday 12.5V at the terminals.
So while the seat is up I took out the charger ( Black and Decker) and connected it up it has three rates of charge and at 2 Amps I see 13V at the terminals, at 6 Amp I see 14.6V and at 10 Amp I see 15V at the terminals so that seems OK.
Left it on 10 Amp rate and after less than 5 minutes the charger was showing 4 Amps charge, I think it must be pretty well charged.

raywin said:

Thought about this and it occurred to me when you turn the ignition key the heater plugs cut in they are quite a heavy load, that will affect the Voltage. So at lunch time I lifted the seat and put the fluke meter onto the terminals, sure enough after standing since last Sunday 12.5V at the terminals.
So while the seat is up I took out the charger ( Black and Decker) and connected it up it has three rates of charge and at 2 Amps I see 13V at the terminals, at 6 Amp I see 14.6V and at 10 Amp I see 15V at the terminals so that seems OK.
Left it on 10 Amp rate and after less than 5 minutes the charger was showing 4 Amps charge, I think it must be pretty well charged.

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So your cheap voltage gauge is as useful as tits on a Mars bar then.

wammers said:

So your cheap voltage gauge is as useful as tits on a Mars bar then.

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Well no, it shows the true Voltage present, the lower Voltage is whats there with the heater plugs on so it tells me the plugs are OK. Main use is to see the 14.5 V when I'm running it tells me the alternator is working and the battery is charging. All for less that a fiver.

raywin said:

Well no, it shows the true Voltage present, the lower Voltage is whats there with the heater plugs on so it tells me the plugs are OK. Main use is to see the 14.5 V when I'm running it tells me the alternator is working and the battery is charging. All for less that a fiver.

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You said voltage was at 11.6 after car had been stood a few days. That would be no good. The main property of full calcium batteries is that they retain their charge better than a lead antimony battery. So in storage situations like standing in a store waiting to be sold, they don't need as much periodically charging to be fully charged when sold. They also can take a much higher charge rate without gassing. But they do need a higher charge rate to maintain them at fully charged. A low charge rate will cause them to sulphate and become useless. Fitting a full calcium battery to a car with the old alternator set point of 13.8 volts would cause it to become pretty sulphated and not a lot of good in pretty short order. From your latest readings yours is pretty much ok but i would use the highest rate of charge on your black and decker occasionally whilst bench charging it to burn off any sulphation. Just make sure it does not overheat.

No I said the little Voltage meter reads 11.6 V BUT it is connected into a feed that is only live with the ignition switched on, So what I saw was the Voltage with the heater plugs on, didn't think about that until your post yesterday.
Today with the ignition off I measured 12.5 v at the battery terminals with the Fluke meter, after standing since Sunday, Voltage with the engine running is usually <> 14.5 higher after start then falling slowly as the battery gets re charged and Voltage regulator backs off a bit.
I Just use the charger now and again as this is not my main drive so I want it topped up, the old battery was at least 4 years old and getting past it.

I found an interesting page from Exide here: http://www.exide.com/Media/files/Do...ery Charging & Storage Guidelines 5_9_13.pdf