Michael Ross wrote:
Are there non-rape and pillage suppliers for the higher quality gels and
AGM?
Well, I'm cheap. I generally buy my batteries as far away from retail as
I can get. :-)
Sometimes it's a negotiated price for a quantity purchase. Battery
dealers have a *large* margin, and so can cut you a good discount if you
ask (pressure) them.
Sometimes I get "pulls" from a hospital or airport. They use AGMs in
various battery backup systems, and blindly replace them every few years
whether they need it or not. If they are no-name junk, they are *bad* in
3 years. If they are a premium brand, they are likely to still be good.
I also buy them surplus, or sometimes even on eBay. Be sure you can go
to personally inspect and test them first! People are only too happy to
sell junk batteries to strangers on the web!
I see higher cycle counts for gels declared in some places...is that true?
Or is there more to the story - like really hard to charge and discharge
gels so they actually produce that many charge cycles? (1000 I read.)
Gels are capable of long life; but only the very best premium brands
will in fact deliver it. Deka Dominators and Gates Cyclons are two that
I know will last. Deka is really East Penn Mfg. Co, and Gates is now
Enersys.
It is *easy* to murder a gel cell with excessive charging or
discharging! They do not like high currents or high voltages. Put a gel
cell on a standard lead-acid charger, and you are almost certain to ruin it.
--
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
-- Albert Einstein
--
Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm
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