One more battery question

[Katdaddy]

What is the best way that you have found to discharge your camper batteries when the camper is sitting at home to cycle the batteries?

[Katdaddy]

BFL13 wrote:
Some batteries do like a deep cycle once in a while.

I usually turn on all the lights and fans which gets me about a 25 amp draw and leave it till the batts are at 50%. (Trimetric.) Then recharge.

This is pretty much the way I've been doing it. I just thought I would check and see if anyone had a better idea.

Thanks for your help.

[twodownzero]

I just turn the lights on outside and leave them on for a few hours. Although I do not deliberately cycle my batteries, either.

[time2roll]

Solar does well for me. I do not cycle my batteries unnecessarily.

[RJsfishin]

Katdaddy wrote:
What is the best way that you have found to discharge your camper batteries when the camper is sitting at home to cycle the batteries?

You discharge batteries while camping, not while in storage, unless you like buying new batteries that many cycles sooner.
If you got advice here to discharge in storage, nothing new,....there is bad advice given here all the time.

[Veebyes]

Why? In storage, no loads, a wet cell will self discharge at about 10% per month. A vehicle in storage, battery bank connected, will discharge faster because of the parasite draws as small as the clock always on. Those little things add up.

If you feel that you must discharge get yourself something useful to do the job. Buy a battery load tester. All it is is a heating coil that puts a big load on the battery. Now you also have something to easily check the health of your battery bank yourself.

[wa8yxm]

I gather you are confusing Lead Acid with NI-Cad which under extroadranary conditions can exibit "Memory" effect.. In real life (Human use) even that does not happen.. It can in space (Satellite use) but takes hunreds of orbits to happen.

Full discharge of Lead acid batteried is NOT recommended.. IN fact
MARINE/deep cycle should be kept 75% full or fuller
DEEP CYCLE (GC-2 or GC-12) 50% or higher at all times and re-carge promptly when "Down".

However if you must kill your batteries.

Most AUTO stores have a 12 volt "Drop light" or "Trouble light" and that's what I'd suggest.

[2112]

I use the Capacity/10 (C/10) rule for both charging and controlled discharging. Meaning if your battery has 100Ah capacity, discharge and charge at 10A. If they are 225Ah, do it at 22.5A. I'll run them down to 12.3V resting voltage. Once it's fully charged, measure the SG and equalize charge as needed.

My batteries are 100Ah so I discharge with a msw inverter and a 100W lamp and charge with either an HP or MegaWatt power supply. The HP has constant current mode so I prefer it

[BFL13]

Some batteries do like a deep cycle once in a while.

I usually turn on all the lights and fans which gets me about a 25 amp draw and leave it till the batts are at 50%. (Trimetric.) Then recharge.

Another way is to go on inverter whole house, and run some 120v things. Not too many of those stay on long enough though (like a kettle that shuts off when the water boils).

[Katdaddy]

full_mosey wrote:
How did you come to believe that 'cycling a battery' is a good idea?

HTH;
John

I let a new set of batteries sit on float for a period of time and lost some capacity. When I asked here I was told to cycle the batteries for better performance. So far it has worked.

[full_mosey]

How did you come to believe that 'cycling a battery' is a good idea?

HTH;
John

[Home_Skillet]

Buy a charger that does that for you.