Battery info needed
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:51 pm
I admit that I've learned more about batteries from watching Troy's video's than I have learned in the last 60 years. But, I still need some info.
I have a 4DLT battery that I replaced on my tractor. This is one big, heavy battery! It has been sitting in an place where it was not getting rain and such on it, but it was still exposed to sub freezing temps and high summer temps for nearly a year. I checked the electrolyte levels and they were fine, but the voltage was down to about 2 volts. I put a bulk automotive charger on it for about 8 hours an it showed 12 volts (12 plus a few tenths - don't remember exactly) just after removing the charger. Next morning, about 12 hours later, it was reading around 7 volts. So, I reconnected the charger and repeated for a few days. The voltage was always 12 volts just after removing the charger but dropped to between 6 and 9 volts overnight.
Now the questions-
Is what I am reading after removing the charger just the surface charge?
Is this battery just possibly severly sulfated?
Would hooking my 45 watt solar panels with a PWM charge controller help this battery or would it be better to hook up a bettery desulfator?
I have ordered a small desulfator from ebay (haven't gotten it yet), would this small desulfator do the job?
Would it cause any problems hooking the desulfator up when charging with the PWM controller?
Or would it be better to just take the battery and sell it as scrap??
Thanks for any help you can give!!
I have a 4DLT battery that I replaced on my tractor. This is one big, heavy battery! It has been sitting in an place where it was not getting rain and such on it, but it was still exposed to sub freezing temps and high summer temps for nearly a year. I checked the electrolyte levels and they were fine, but the voltage was down to about 2 volts. I put a bulk automotive charger on it for about 8 hours an it showed 12 volts (12 plus a few tenths - don't remember exactly) just after removing the charger. Next morning, about 12 hours later, it was reading around 7 volts. So, I reconnected the charger and repeated for a few days. The voltage was always 12 volts just after removing the charger but dropped to between 6 and 9 volts overnight.
Now the questions-
Is what I am reading after removing the charger just the surface charge?
Is this battery just possibly severly sulfated?
Would hooking my 45 watt solar panels with a PWM charge controller help this battery or would it be better to hook up a bettery desulfator?
I have ordered a small desulfator from ebay (haven't gotten it yet), would this small desulfator do the job?
Would it cause any problems hooking the desulfator up when charging with the PWM controller?
Or would it be better to just take the battery and sell it as scrap??
Thanks for any help you can give!!