house battery maintenance

[Oonrahnjay]

I check each one individually, one at a time, hooked up.  Another thing I do is charge them thru the inverter for about three days at the start of each month, then I kill everything and let them sit.  Things happen, and one of them is the remote danger of a shop fire, so I do it this way.

BCO

    Thanks, seems like good advice and good thinking.  I wasn't sure if having them hooked together would throw off readings, even if no power was being pulled through them.

[sledhead]

Thanks all ! Glad to hear there is still years of life in the old batteries if I keep on top of the maintenance .                                             thanks  dave

[luvrbus]

 The batteries life span is measured in cycles( discharge and charging) not age it depends on how they are used and they will last longer if kept charged fully,being 6 years old I doubt you have years left no matter what type maintenance is preformed,

You need to load test the voltage testing does not give you the condition of the batteries as far as the amp hr reserve only the voltage      

good luck

[plyonsMC9]

What about a recommended battery charger.  I put what I thought was a good unit in to keep the house batteries charged, but it faults every couple of days and has to be restarted.  Not a good situation. 

Thanks! Phil

[Gary LaBombard]

I debated quite a while before posting on this issue of caring for your bus batteries which is very, very expensive if you have even two of them or a bank of them as most of you do.  I am now in the process of self training using a training CD with my purchase of special battery chemicals I received from (www.chinadepot.com) as I purchased a medium sized starter kit for refurbishing batteries back to life and with maintaining regular maintenance be able keep these batteries for many more years.  I hope this information I offer you will be valuable to you as well for one or more reasons.

Going to this website you will gather much good information to help you all and you can purchase just enough chemicals to rejuvenate just your batteries if you are not interested in going further with this idea as I am.  I personally am investing and learning this process to start a small business on the side for extra bus cash to continue my expensive bus conversion. There are so many advantages to doing this as there are millions of batteries that are thrown away and can be rejuvenated back to life if they test to have 12 volts to begin with.  Think GREEN, keep batteries that are possibly brought back to many years of life from landfills or junk yards and keep the real GREEN $$$$ in your wallet toward newer tires. LOL.

Rather than discuss how this stuff works now, I am giving you this information and website above for you to research on your own and realize there is potential here to either learn to care for your battery banks and become nearly care free for this cost to occur to replace for many years.  But, there is responsibility that you have to have to maintain your battery fluid level of distilled water as well on a regular basis.  If that is not done then no chemicals in the world will keep your batteries with a fuller life than expected by manufacturer.  If you add these chemicals to your batteries only once a year you will gain many years of productive life and save you much $$$$!

This website also has a kit for you to purchase so you can receive information and training on how to service and maintain sealed batteries.  Now everyone probably thinks, which the manufacturers wants us to believe, that a sealed battery does not evaporate from use in these type batteries.  ( That is BS!!!)  But instead of trying to convince you this is not so, go to this website above, watch the information videos and make your own judgment call.  Those sealed batteries can all be saved if they test salvageable in the first place.  Explanations on how to open up these batteries for maintenance is all explained at the web site and informational training video you will receive from the Battery Chem inventor and vendor.

Perhaps you will want to do as I and make extra money on the side, lord knows there are enough batteries being junked for all of us to indulge in this money making business that you will be the boss of!!  One important thing before you get real excited about saving your batteries, this chemical or any chemical made (Cannot) bring a completely dead battery back to life.  After testing if your battery is a candidate for rejuvenation then you can get excited that you saved your batteries in time.
 
If you do consider purchasing any of this (Battery Chem) either for yourself personally or do as I am and try to do a small battery rejuvenation business on the side, please let the Battery Chem vendor know that I recommended this to you as this will be one way for me to (suck up ) to my vendor you might say.  It will help him sell more of his product and help me buy his product, simple as that I am sure.
 
If you are really interested in this (Battery Chem) product to buy or sell, there is a contact email process on this website you can use to send a email and request to have either the inventor (Walter Barrett or his son John) call you and one of them will personally by the way.  This website above will answer nearly every question you may have, if not write down your concerns and questions after viewing several times if you are interested and call Walt or John personally and they will gladly answer all your concerns and questions.  I am offering this information as information from one busnut friend to another and hope is appreciated for just that.
Good Luck,
Gary LaBombard

[luvrbus]

Phil,at Lowes they sell a Stanley charger  (6amps) for 29 bucks the best charger to keep batteries topped off with I ran across puts the tenders to shame

good luck