Good morning everyone. The reason you don't fill to full before you EQ is you want to prevent water loss due to pressure. During the EQ process, there is lots of gassing and pressure, part of the reason you should loosen the 1/4 bayonet caps on the tops of the battery If the water level is filled to the top level that you should normally fill to you could potentially push electrolyte out of the battery and over time this loss of electrolyte will also dilute your electrolyte and this will cause a mess but will also cause the losses of sulfur, and you will eventually lose capacity. Unfortutniloy this is very common because many people overfill their batteries.
You can tell this by using a voltmeter. Place the negative lead on the negative of the battery, and the positive lead on the top plastic of the battery, if you get voltage, someone has overfilled and spilled acid. You need to keep this in mind as you will no longer get max SG out of the battery if the client has been overfilling for a long time. Many are still EQ'ing too much, Equalizing is bad for a healthy battery bank, There are really only two reasons to EQ, 1. When SG's are more than .025 to .030 points indifference. 2. When the Customers Array can only produce less than 5% of the total max current of the battery bank. What causes the sg indifference is chronic undercharging, if the client got the battery bank to a full charge 2-3 times a week you should never have to Eq a battery bank! Also, you should run the system thru a full Bulk/Absorb cycle before you trigger the EQ. So you goto a site to do some maintenance... you check sg's and there is indifference between cells. With this, you know you *may* have to EQ. Below are not all the steps you would take for this process... See here: http://support.rollsbattery.com/a/solutions/articles/430 for more detail. 1. Check SG's 2. Check and retorque connections. Loosen the connection and retorque, DO NOT "TUG TEST" if already welded you won't detect a loose connection. 3. Check Charging settings, if your SG's are low or have large differences it's a good chance this is a symptom of chronic undercharging and you may need to make corrections or adjustments to settings. Often you have to be more aggressive in the winter and less aggressive in the summer. 4. Fill water to about an inch lower than the bottom of the fill tube, you don't want to fully top off the battery. This is typically 1/2 to a full inch below where you would normally fill them to. 5. Start a Full Bulk/Absorb cycle using the Generator/Grid 6. At the completion of the Absorb Cycle, Recheck SG's if you still have an SG indifference, then loosen the fill caps on all the batteries, you don't need to remove them unless they are hydrocaps. 7. Start EQ. 8 Monitor SG's every 30-60 mins, after target cells stop rising for more than 60 mins the EQ isn't doing much good so you want to terminate the EQ at that time. EQ time is generally 1/2 to 2/3rd of the calculated absorb timers. 9 If imbalance was corrected, then move on but you should consider raising Absorb timers or lowering End amps settings as again the need for EQ is due to chronic undercharging, Have the discussion with the customer that the battery bank is starting to show signs of sulfation and they need to make certain the SG's get to recommended levels at least once if not two or three times a week to prevent sulfation. If the Imbalance was not corrected then the customer is having charging problems, this time of year this is common because many don't like to hear the sound or expense of that generator. If this is the case have the customer run the generator every morning for 2-4 hours before the sun hits the panels. When the sun hits the panels let the panels finish the absorb charge. Have the customer spot check the lower cells every week. If the cells do not recover after 1-2 weeks the try another EQ. Unless the battery bank is in really bad shape do not EQ back to back, This is just going to cook the battery bank and kill them. As for a filling device, stay away from those auto shut off (blue) bottles, they are designed for golf cart batteries and often overfill. You can go out and by a filling station from Philadelphia scientific, but they are costly between $600 and $2,000. https://www.phlsci.com/product-lines/battery-watering-gun/ Me I'm cheap... I got one of these, and it has to be new... https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-1-Gal-Pump-Sprayer-1501HDXA/307766754?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D28O-G-D28O-28_1_CHEMICALS-MULTI-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-BASE_SHP&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D28O-G-D28O-28_1_CHEMICALS-MULTI-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-BASE_SHP-71700000041086586-58700005116788847-92700044875627027&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgomBBhDXARIsAFNyUqNOz0X4CH1NhJjSMQOVWjzp7FK3cXZ3ryeRT1eK2QyxM29mHgeyMFQaAjOxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds You cut off the spray nozzle and mark the normal fill line with white electrical tape and the EQ fill level with the Red Electrical tape. This way you line the tape up with the top lip and when the water hits the nozzle you stop the flow of water. I wear a headlamp when I'm servicing banks so I can see into the battery while filling. Hope I addressed it all, feel free to reach out if you have any questions! <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> <http://www.rollsbattery.com> Steve Higgins ⋅ Technical Services Manager t +1.902.597.4020 m +1.206.790.5840 f +1.902.597.8447 e [email protected] <#SignatureSanitizer_SafeHtmlFilter_> <http://www.facebook.com/RollsBattery> <http://www.facebook.com/RollsBattery> <http://www.twitter.com/RollsBattery> <https://www.youtube.com/user/RollsBattery> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/rolls-battery-engineering> <http://www.instagram.com/RollsBattery> <http://www.instagram.com/RollsBattery> <http://www.instagram.com/RollsBattery> ------------------------------ CONFIDENTIALITY: The information transmitted herein is intended only for the addressee and may contain confidential, proprietary and/or privileged material. Any unauthorized review, distribution or other use of or the taking of any action in reliance upon this information is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please contact the sender and delete or destroy this message and all copies. ------------------------------ On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 7:35 AM Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar < [email protected]> wrote: > That does not sound best to me. I get the point but there are much better > ways. Not good for you to be close around a bank in EQ. If you are checking > water level every month the level should not be really low. You do this in > case you miss a cell a month back! You should be counting as the water goes > in to see if you have put about the same amount in. I have never noticed > any advantage to mixing the cells after watering. They will get mixed the > next day. If this concerned you, you could run a 30 minute absorb after > watering. > > I like to EQ before watering so my customer does not over fill and start > the corrosion process. Just open all of the cells and look before they EQ. > > I also like to mark 2 of the lower SG cells and 2 of the good ones. This > makes it easier for my clients to check the bank. Once every summer or 2 > they need to look at all of the cells. Summer is best because it is the > time when you can do long corrective EQ's if you find trouble. > > > Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar > "we go where powerlines don't" > http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/ > e-mail [email protected] > text 209 813 0060 > > On Tue, 9 Feb 2021 05:36:39 -0800, Mark Frye <[email protected]> > wrote: > > My Rolls manual says: > > > > "It is recommended to water the battery cells half way through the > > equalization. This is to > > assure the water is completely mixed into the electrolyte." > > > > _______________________________________________ > > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > > > List Address: [email protected] > > > > Change listserver email address & settings: > > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try > the > > other: > > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > > > List rules & etiquette: > > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > > > Check out or update participant bios: > > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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