Thread: New battery box

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Nathan, thanks for the info. A few of us on here have touted the advantages (mostly size, actual power in service, and service life) of the small, comparatively, AGM batteries. Albeit with the Brand.....uh....O, since I guess we'd have to call you Brand X version.

Experience has taught some of us that the AGMs perform much better than their CCA or CA would indicate, and I'm sure you're correct that those measuring standards are outdated, however they are still the standard. It seems to me that those of you with newer technology should be making presentations to SAE or whomever to introduce a new standard and a viable cross reference system so that potential buyers would have a reliable, non-biased method of evaluation. The big dog, as you probably know, in the car hobby market is the gell filled Brand O.....................which in my opinion and experience is junk, particularly if allowed to discharge say over winter. But they do make an effective door stop then. I know lots of guys will swear by them, but that's because they haven't experienced better.

It appears that we have hijacked this thread from accolades due to Lynn for his new battery box to discussions about what is inside that box

I'll add one more related to the gel cell units being doorstops. I saw a recent tech tip that pointed out that a gell cell, including AGM's, can drop to around four volts across the terminals, and older style chargers will not even recognize the presencde of a battery in the circuit, and will not switch on the charging amps. The tip was to "trick" the charger by placing a charged battery in parallel with the dead gel cell, + to +, - to -, which will be recognized by the charger. After an hour the good battery can be removed, and the charger will continue to service the gel cell. It does not always work (some are truly junk ) but sometimes you may win! The real fix is to leave a Battery Tender on it when idle.

No problem, Roger. A lot of good information got generated on this thread.

Originally Posted by rumrumm

No problem, Roger. A lot of good information got generated on this thread.

I was going to log back and and say just that. You guys are great for giving up so much information when asked.

So Roger what did you find out about charging the battery before use?

Lynn that is a really great job you did on the box and the house numbers are a great touch!

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

I was going to log back and and say just that. You guys are great for giving up so much information when asked.

So Roger what did you find out about charging the battery before use?

Lynn that is a really great job you did on the box and the house numbers are a great touch!

I got my battery in March and would not be using it for at least five to six months. The instructions gave several cautions about proper charging, and to ensure that I did not damage the battery with my older Schumacher automatic charger I talked to Nathan about the process. He said that my ten/two amp charger was not really big enough for a quick charge, but told me I could use it, but I needed to monitor the voltage during charging to see that it did not exceed 14.5V, which will shorten the life of the battery by cooking off the acid in the mat, overpressuring the battery, and losing acid through the overpressure vent. Most important was that I should not let the battery sit for more than a month or six weeks, as the voltage level would degrade over time. Rather than take a chance I bought a Battery Tender Plus, which is a slow charge that is AGM compatible - it hits the battery with an initial charge, transitions to a float charge, then goes into a monitor/maintain mode to keep the battery topped off. I let the charger get into the float mode, unhooked it for a few seconds, and then reconnected it to go through the initial charge mode several times, and then have just left it connected. We get occasional power blips, which puts it through the whole cycle, too.
Several companies (including XS Power) make high output AGM chargers for a quick charge process, like between races in the pits, but they are a little pricey in the $200 to $300 range. The key is voltage control, and never letting the charging voltage peak above 14.5. If I've stated anything wrong here perhaps Nathan will jump in and correct me, but I think I have it right.

Very interesting discussion and will be a subject which I'll return to when my Brand 'O' goes to gel cell heaven. Mine is over 3 years old, but has had a Battery Tender on it until recently - and it's not on now because I've been driving the car fairly regularly, keeping it charged. I have the 'O' battery because I didn't know any better (OMG - that sounds like some voters I know)

(OMG - that sounds like some voters I know)
Now that is funny.

+1 on the battery tender. I have two that I use and they work flawlessly. I even ran one over when I forgot it was still connected. Mangled the case, but it still works great!!

+2 on the Battery Tender. I connect mine over the winter when I'm not driving it and leave it hooked up until spring.

+3

I've learned that not only is a Tender useful over winter, but also over summer in a hot, desert clime. Down in the desert we've got a van for use there. We don't spend much time there in the hottest months of the year and learned that a combination of the heat and discharge from lack of use shortens battery life significantly. Now that I keep a Tender on that batt it lasts much longer.

Well I had a post on here but I guess it didn't get approved.

Originally Posted by Nathan@XS_Power

Well I had a post on here but I guess it didn't get approved.

I know about a week ago I got an email with your post and when I checked the thread it was gone. They may have considered it advertising.

Looks like Mr Smith & I were typing at the same time...
Nathan, if your post seemed to be "sales oriented" it may have been killed as the site does not support businesses using the forum for active promotion of their products. You might PM Bill (mrmustang) to see if there is a reason for your post not appearing. Or you might re-write keeping it purely technical?

Nathan - I was able to read your post and found it very informative. But - it did have some appearance of being advertising. I (we?) do understand that you can get caught up with your business. Bill(Mrmustang) and Brent (the site owner) are very careful with those kinds of posts. I suspect that if you take any business references out and repost, it will be left in place.

Thanks guys. Sorry I tried to keep as much business stuff out, but I guess a little too much was left in. I understand completely though, so no problem.

Now to remember what I posted....lol

The battery tenders are a great option for when your battery is not going to be used for extended periods of time. Actually anytime you let your battery drop below 12.6V you can cause damage to the cells. With the smaller batteries like most of the builds on here the battery tenders and ctek battery chargers are pretty good. Just want to make sure the voltage doesn't go above 14.4 volts or 2.4volts per cell.

With the larger batteries the tenders do not work as well, because of the low amperage charge they use. The 2 to 3 amp charge will work fine with the small batteries, but with larger batteries you really want around 15amps of charge. This will give you a good full charge on the battery cells, which will give you longer life of the battery.

As far as the lithium batteries go for these builds I am not sure they make a good fit unless you are trying to cut as much weight as possible. Lithium will run any where from $995 to $1,195 for a battery and cut around 22lbs of weight, but if you are not looking to lose the weight it really doesn't make sense to go with the lithium at this point.