What You Don’t Know About a Lead Acid Battery
Do you know the life process of a lead acid battery? A lead acid battery goes through three life phases, called formatting, peak and decline. In the formatting phase try to imagine sponge-like lead plates that are being exposed to a liquid. Exercising the plates allows absorbing more liquid, much like squeezing and releasing a sponge. This enables the electrolyte to better fill the usable areas, which increases the capacity. Formatting is most important for deep-cycle batteries and requires 20 to 50 full cycles to reach peak capacity. Field usage does this and there is no need to apply added cycles for the sake of priming, however, manufacturers say to go easy on the battery until broken in. Starter batteries are less critical and do not need priming; the full cranking power is present right from the beginning.
A deep-cycle battery delivers 100–200 cycles before it starts the gradual decline. Replacement should occur when the capacity drops to 70 or 80 percent. Applying a fully saturated 14- to 16-hour charge and operating at moderate temperatures assure the longest service times. If at all possible, avoid deep discharges and charge more often.
The primary reason for the relatively short cycle life of a lead acid battery is depletion of active material. According to the 2010 BCI Failure Modes Study,* plate/grid-related breakdown has increased from 30 percent five years ago to 39 percent today. The report does not give reasons for the increased wear-and-tear, other than to assume that higher demands of starter batteries in modern cars induce added stress. While the depletion of the active material is well understood and can be calculated, a lead acid battery suffers from other infirmities long before plate- and grid-deterioration sound the death knell. Let’s look at the most common problems that develop with use and time — from internal to external — and what battery users can do to minimize the effect.
If you know well about these problems, I believe you can take good care of your lead acid battery and prolong its life.
Source: www.leoch.com
Processing your request, Please wait....
