Badini VS Equalize Charge

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SolarFreak
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:12 pm

Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by SolarFreak » Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:47 am

I think what the batteries need is a good 45 amp neutralize charge for a few hours a day for a few days until they boil off some of that sulfation. They just have not seen any real amps of charging so it is not enough to knock off any sulfation. That tiny Badini is not going to work. It just dont have the punch it needs to attack the huge plates on the giant golf cart batts. I am Speaking from experience. I bought the same battts you have and have them in my shed right now. The were showing low capacity so I gave them a direct charge from the solar panel for a few days for a few hours a day. They seem to have recovered. I used a 90 watt five amp panel on two 6 volt batteries at time. It boiled them some for a few hours a day. It would really boil them better if i could put about forty amps in them for a hour or so or better and really knock off some sulfation. you need to give them some large amps for a little bit to knock of some sulfation with some rapid boiling. I like these Smilies :roll:

techman
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Re: Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by techman » Fri Feb 27, 2015 12:08 pm

The thing about the Bedini motor though is that it is a gentle desulfator. It uses high voltage spikes of radiant energy with no current. This breaks up the sulfation on the plates. A larger radiant energy generator would do the job way faster for sure.

But this does work well for me. Yes it is going to take a couple months most likely but they are just sitting there right now anyway until the weather warms up and I get using the RV again.

KC8ERI
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:24 pm
Location: Benton Ridge, OH

Re: Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by KC8ERI » Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:26 pm

I agree that and equalization charge is what you need Troy. You can also tell this at times if you check the individual cells while the battery is at rest and you're getting a reading across cells that isn't all pretty close to each other (i.e. 2.19 volts per cell and some showing 2.02 volts when fully charged) Our forklift batteries at work they say need equalized once a week.

I should mention also that I'm one of our Maintenance Mechanics for a Lowes distribution center. Our forklift batteries get beat on pretty pretty hard. In fact they say not to short cycle the batteries. The battery company tells us to drain the battery down to 20%BSOC then charge them all the way back up. (granted, they want to sell us more batteries). Even cycling them down like that the battery will live for a couple thousand cycles. Which, if done every day once a day makes the battery last for 5 years or so. So in part I think you do need to use up your batteries some since they're actually made to be drained down.

The 12.5v thing bothers me. It seems like you don't get very much use out of a battery that way. Another thing I had an issue with in the past. Some of our 24v lifts are used to carry a cart around where they load cartons. Then print a label out and send it out. To power the printer we had a cheap 24v MSW inverter on the cart to provide power for the printer. We quickly ran into an issue where the printers wouldn't work. We found out what was happening was that when the forklift was showing the battery about 50% discharged the inverter was shutting down due to low battery voltage because it was not set up to work with a forklift battery. In all, I fully believe that you'll be just fine running the battery down past 12.5 volts. I would say if you're being conservative that running it down to 11.5 would be just fine. Forklift batteries are made to take the abuse.

techman
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Re: Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by techman » Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:09 pm

Yes forklift batteries are made to take the abuse. But for some reason I cant get this battery up past 12.2 volts at rest. Been trying all kinds of experiments out here (off camera due to everyone calling me an idiot all the time). No matter what, they are 12.2 volts at rest. This is not good.

I think there is something physically wrong with it.

KC8ERI
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:24 pm
Location: Benton Ridge, OH

Re: Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by KC8ERI » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:45 pm

I understand what you're saying. I know my batteries have sat at something like 11.9 all winter. It's been pretty cold here in Ohio as well. The other day once it warmed up and got sunny, I was starting to see 14.3 volts, yet my ammeter was still showing that the controller was drawing about 5 amps. I noticed that if I put a small load on the voltage would sag down pretty far. So I think you and I both are due for some good equalization time. More of a problem for you since that's 100% of your power source, and you've go much larger of a battery bank than I have.

techman
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Re: Badini VS Equalize Charge

Post by techman » Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:56 pm

I am now seeing between 12.3 and 12.4 volts in the morning so things are slowly getting better.

I think that the summer sun will greatly help this battery bank with some equalization charges.

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