Newish car battery employed to power pony field electric fence. Likely to have been left connected well beyond the fully discharged state and possibly exposed to overnight frost.
Won't take a charge! Yes, I know, throw it away. However, horse person has gone off with my sound spare. Is *over* discharging an issue>? or...?
regards
Car batteries are designed to deliver lots of cranking amps. They are generally destroyed by a deep discharge, or the very least have their capacity severely reduced.
Use a leisure battery which is more rugged and can cope with deep discharge, or should I say are less damaged by a deep discharge. I'm pretty certain you can get devices which switches off a load once battery volts get below 11V.
There is a thought that leisure batteries can be part recovered by charging at 15V or so to reverse sulphation, but I don't have any experience of this or if applies to car batteries. My experience of car batteries is that unless they stay fully charged, they are relatively fickle beasts.
Provided you don't overheat it and keep it topped up, an extended charge at a few amps might recover it, although I wouldn't be that hopeful.
It is *really* worth using leisure (deep discharge)rather than car batteries for electric fencers. It just isn't worth the trouble trying to manage with ex-car batteries, in my experience.
In this case charge them double. Swine.
Using what charger? A lot of "intelligent" chargers are anything but and if presented with a totally dead battery refuse to charge it (many APC UPS exhibit this useful behaviour). The cure is to put any old simple charger on the battery for 30 min's then reconnect the expensive posh one which will work.
Car batteries aren't suitable. Use a deep discharge battery, as sold for golf buggies, caravans, etc. ('Leisure' batteries).
Bill
I were thinking like. Can't you use pony to work a thing like a big hamster wheel with a dynermow or an altercator to keep battery charged up like?
Turnip Tom
if it is not sealed ... I recovered one battery by washing out then filling with battery acid (not distilled water) .. and left it on long slow trickle charge ...
Any boat store will sell these - they cut your battery to make sure you have enough power to start engine
they aren't suitable either.
Still die on deep discharge, they just go a BIT deeper that's all, and its not that much.
Friend of mine had a canal boat,..tried em all. All failed.
and then the ponys get out..
buy a trickle charger and a waterproof pot...
I'm speaking from considerable personal experience, not merely an anecdote from a friend.
Bill
so you have run several deep discharge batteries totally flat, and they have all survived?
Talking of which ... can anyone recommend a good battery charger? My one went to the great scrapyard in the sky.
Or a mains energizer! Actually these seem to *tick* on medium wave radio reception.
Escaping ponies only an issue with a stranger as the regulars avoid the tape whether it is energised or not. Hence the probably flat for weeks battery:-(
regards
It is a loan! If this is going to happen again, I want to retrieve mine before damage is done.
Horse people always seem to have contacts who supply free sound batteries. In this case, a car recovery operation who have just ceased business.
regards
In message , Peter Parry writes
I doubt there is much intelligence about this charger. Probably supplied by Draper for agricultural use.
It has settings for 12 or 24V and normal or boost. Output fused at 15 Amps.
On normal, the battery quickly rises to 13.6V which decays rapidly once the charger is disconnected.
I have not tried extended charging on boost.
regards
Not sealed but where did you acquire battery acid?
regards
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Hmm.. I suppose I could try the 24V setting on trickle charge, supervised!
regards
>
For the future they could get a solar trickle charger.
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