Battery life.

[steve5B]

  How long will a set of batteries usually last?   I put in a new set 3 years ago, went out yesterday and for the first time had to  put the charger on them. Total road miles on them is less then 1000 miles.  Al tho, try at least twice a week I start it up.


Steve 5B.    Thanks in advance!

[Dallas]

Steve,

It depends...

How often do you service your batteries? Do you use distilled water in them or just tap water. How long do you let the engine run when you start it? Are you getting full current to the batteries?

If you are using tap water, or not charging the batteries completely or not servicing them.... they will die early.

[steve5B]

   Hey Dallas,


   I haven't touched them since they were in stalled, As for idealing, say 10 Min's, on fast ideal.

   Is there a regular service on them?  I don't use it enough to even check.  Better start!

  Thanks for responding.

   Steve 5B.......

[Len Silva]

Idling for ten minutes won't replace the power used to start the engine, especially in cooler weather.  Also, idling like that without a good hard run (50 miles or more) every once in a while is probably the worst thing you can do to your engine.  Probably better off to drive it every 6 months than to idle once a week.

FWIW,

Len

[rv_safetyman]

Steve, it would help to know what kind of battery.  If it is some variety of a sealed battery, there is not much you can do, except to keep them charged.

If they are a wet battery type with caps, you can keep them topped off with distilled water (won't have to do that very often if you do not use them much).  You can also equalize them if they do develop a bit of a problem.  This will require a special charger, or a really good inverter with that option.  As I recall, there is at least one thread on equalizing batteries, but basically it is a controlled "overcharge" that helps remover sulfate from the plates.  It can only be done on wet cell batteries that have caps (generates a lot of hydrogen that must be vented).

The big factor is to not let them go below 50% state of charge (some folks will argue that is should be more like 60%).  There are a couple of threads on "state of charge" and lots of good info via google.

There have been lots of threads that end up strongly recommending that you not start your engine and then only let it idle (even high idle).  I think this is particularly true with two strokes.  Diesel engines rarely get up to operating temperatures unless they are loaded.  If you don't get them up to temperature, you have lots of ways of being cruel to the engine (mostly fuel passing by the rings and other less that good things)

Bottom line, I would buy a good charger that has a two or three stage capability and put it on periodically.  If you go with a cheaper charger, don't leave it on the batteries all of the time - use only when needed and only for a few hours.  There are lots of threads on charging batteries.

If you take care of your batteries, they should last for 5 years or more.

Jim

[Chaz]

Hey Steve,
  Good to see ya post! Jerry Lieber has helped me out immensely with my electrical system. Jim and Lens advice are both on the money too.
  Jerry actually reconditioned a couple batteries with a battery desulfator. You might look at doing that also since you don't take it out too often. It does take awhile to desulfate them, but you can save them. I'm not totally sure how to go about it - battery trickle charger and a desulfator and time, I think - but you should give it a try. Jerry built his own desulfator, but they can be bought fairly reasonably off the web or ebay. Give it a search and check it out.
  I'm buying an equalizer for my house batteries today. They are pricey little boogers, but I think they are a good idea.

   Hope alls good up north!!!
       Chaz

[Jerry Liebler]

Steve,
    I'll assume you are talking about the deep cycle house battery bank.  Life expectancy depends on many things.  Under ideal use conditions different ways of building deep cycle batteries will result in life expectancies of from about  200 to 5000 charge cycles.  To achieve the ideal life of a bank it must be properly maintained and the depth of discharge limited to about 50% of capacity.  The most important maintenance is keeping them fully charged when idle.  Lead acid batteries loose capacity because of the build up of large hard crystals of lead sulphate.  This process only occurs in a partially charged condition, that is why it is vital that they be kept charged.  The large sulphate crystals can be broken down an the capacity recovered only by 'overvoltage' charging, that is the purpose of an equalising charge and the pulsers Chaz mentioned.   BTW I do not believe any of the commercial pulsers actually work.  To learn more about pulsers http://p198.ezboard.com/fleadacidbatterydesulfationfrm1
Also Chaz is causing a bit of confusion by mentioned the battery equaliser, which allows the removal of 12 volt power from a 24 volt bank, in a thread where equalising is used to describe overvoltage charging.
Regards
Jerry 4107 1120

[TomC]

If you are parking your bus in a location that does not have power, one of the things you can do is to get a couple of the small solar charging panels to keep the batteries up.  You don't need a regulator since all they do is to keep the batteries from loosing power.  I have one on the single size 31 battery for my Diesel gen set at my Mothers house for standby-and that battery is 7 years old.
With a Diesel, it is better not to run it unless you can put a load on it and run it for at least an hour to get it fully warmed up.  That same Diesel gen at my Mothers house once sat for 8 years in a storage bin, and just fired right up the first time when I reincarnated it.  Good Luck, TomC

[Stan]

Steve5B: your quote "I haven't touched them since they were in stalled". Anything you get over three years is a bonus. Depending on how much time and money you want to spend on 'care and feeding' of batteries you may get a little more or a lot more and sometimes less.

Not all batteries are created equal, not even two with the same lot number. You pay your money and take your chances and when they fail, you buy new ones.

[Chaz]

BTW I do not believe any of the commercial pulsers actually work.  To learn more about pulsers

Dang. I was under the impression they would. I will check out that site and see what they have there. I was still wanting to get one and try to keep my batteries "fresh", if you will.

Also Chaz is causing a bit of confusion by mentioned the battery equaliser, which allows the removal of 12 volt power from a 24 volt bank, in a thread where equalising is used to describe overvoltage charging.

Sorry, I hope that didn't confuse anyone. I'm not the greatest of literary figures. I was actually just talking about another topic.

   Later,
       Chaz

[Dallas]

That's OK Chaz! We forgive ya! 

If you are really nice to Jerry, maybe you could get him to build you one of those handy dandy doodads! I got one from him at Union City and tried it on a couple of different batteries. It seemed to work extremely well. It did take about a month to clean all the sulphate off of an old 8D, but after that the battery acted like it was new again!

(Shhhhh,... don't tell him I told ya!)

Dallas

[jjrbus]

I just replace my 2 group 31 start batteries. Now I am an addmited battery abuser. I never take care of my batteries, I dont watch them, I do not use Perrie water in them, I have never washed and waxed a battery nor talked to them in a loving manner.
They are mounted in the engine compartment where they are exposed to excess heat. They have sat for months without an external charger on them including one western NY winter. They are also crosstied to the house batteries.
The ones I replaced (WalMart brand which I no longer endorse) had a maufacture date of Nov 2000 which is around the time I installed them. Thats 7 years, go figure?
The closest I come to battery care is I use tinned battery ends and I use Permatex terminal spray when I install a battery.

[Chaz]

Thanx Dallas. I knew you would still love me!    LOLOLOLOL


(Oh, I won't tell him!!  lol                       Who am I kiddin............. I'd be lost without him!!  ) He just hooked me up with a guy (Chuck) with an equalizer for sale. I think it was a good deal (?) Time will tell. Jerry thinks they are the "ticket" so thats good enough for me. I don't have allot of spare $$$ for the bus, but I like to do things "right", when I do them, or wait till I can.
I am going to look into building one of those "doodads" as you call it. I figure what the heck. It seems worth a shot and doing a spare battery now before I should need it is the best time to do it.

   Good luck in your future bus endeavor!! Keep us posted.
      Chaz