Thread: New Battery Test

Originally Posted by shack

And another query!

How long should the battery rest in between charge cycles?

Cheers
James

If you can cycle 12 hours on and 12 hours off, it works well and easy to remember.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

If you can cycle 12 hours on and 12 hours off, it works well and easy to remember.

Thanks, will do.

Well now. This is interesting. Firstly, the battery supplier's immediate response was to issue a return note and invite me to return/replace the battery. Excellent service. As I couldn't get there for a few days, I followed Tim's advice and cycle charged it using a CTEK MX7 which has an AGM mode. The results were not as expected:

HVT-70LD Testing Rated CCA 620
Overnight charging using Ctek MSX7 charger set to AGM
Date	10/05/2023	11/05/2023	12/05/2023	13/05/2023	14/05/2023	15/05/2023
Measured CCA	434	463	464	458	462	471
Volts	12.76	13.09	13.12	13.27	13.13	13.21
Int Res mOhm	5.16	4.83	4.82	4.86	4.84	4.75
Life %	55	63	63	61	63	64

That is, no improvement over the five days. I began to wonder if the Bond Battery Tester was not measuring the SSB batteries accurately.

Today I took the battery back to Hollyhock Batteries Plus in Carrum Downs and we load tested it and another few batteries and concluded that, for the SSB AGM batteries, the Bond Tester was reading around 65% where two other testers were happily reporting 100%. So, for the SSB batteries, I will look for the trend over time rather than rely on the absolute results. They offered me another battery, but as the other batteries tested the same I was happy to keep the original one.

As the whole idea to replace the HVT-50D with the larger 70LD was based on the 50D testing below 45% (after three years) and the Bond Tester recommending replacement. We tested the 50D on their tester and it came up with the same result. We then load tested it to confirm that it was, indeed, just on the replacement line. Anyway, I'm happy to upgrade to a slightly larger capacity.

But I'm wondering if the nature of the SSB AGM batteries is the cause of the issue I've been having when the Tvan (with 2 x Blue River 105A AGMs) is connected up to the Traxide US-160. Tim is sending me a replacement US-160, but I'm wondering if there is a compatibility issue with the three batteries. The issue I was having was that the D50 and the 2 x Tvan batteries were not always being charged by the alternator. The whole driving day would pass with only the solar charge (50w on the car roof, 120w on the Tvan) making it to the batteries - but occasionally it would all work as it should. The D4 starter battery was being charged up OK.

Lemme think about this. My brain is hurting.

Interesting timing….

My 2x SSB 50s finally gave up this month.
First one started swelling about 2 weeks ago and was promptly pulled from service.
Second one failed last week, won’t retain charge.

Looked at receipts - just under 7 years old…

Considering the have run 24/7 during that time I’m more than happy.