--- Roger Stockton <
[email protected]> wrote:
> As you are aware, your AGMs shouldn't emit any odour
> when driving or charging. When driving, do you
> notice the odour very soon into your trip, or does
> it only become apparent after you've driven a fair
> distance?
The odor would intensify from a baseline after perhaps
10 minutes of driving. Usually the dashboard fan is
run on a high setting to push air thru the cabin in an
effort to keep the odor at bay.
> The odour I would get if I drew the pack down
> far enough would dissipate quickly enough when
> the load was removed that it was not evident at all
> the following morning after charging
> overnight in a relatively sealed garage.
Was it more of a tangy or rotten egg smell? My batts
are the former and the odor is stronger under load,
dissipates when the load is removed, but remains at a
lower intensity even if the batteries sit idle for a
day or more after recharging.
> You have the chargers mounted where you can verify
> that each and every one has finished sucessfully
> before you drive away? Have you verified
> the outputs to confirm that each one is bringing its
> battery to the required voltage?
Yes to both of these, and a Paktrakr has been onboard
since May so the individual battery voltages are
viewable in real-time.
> It is hard to believe that a 3A charger could
> overcharge a 100Ah battery to the point of venting,
> expecially if you aren't leaving them running
> for extended periods.
I agree with this.
When I installed the Paktrakr in May, it revealed 3
batts with voltages that sagged more then the rest.
That was expected because range had dropped off
sharply after a couple of trips getting too far out
and going into turtle mode before reaching safety. So
i suspect these 3 batts had suffered cell reversals.
Those 3 batts were replaced with new ones. At the same
time, all the batteries were repositioned in the
battery boxes so that they were all easily accessible.
> however, if you weren't over-charging they shouldn't
be venting.
When I was installing one of the newer replacements, I
noticed it was stinky just handling it. That was prior
to any charge, discharge, or connection to the pack.
This makes me think that the so-called "sealing
valves" in these batteries are really nothing of the
sort. They are simply leaky.
With subsequent trips, other old batts have become the
weak ones. When they've tumbled below 9.5 volts after
too few miles on a trip, they've been replaced.
So as it stands now, 5 of the AGMs installed in
October remain in the EV.
And 6 new replacements have been installed since the
Paktrakr came online.
Plus, 1 Deka Dominator 8G31 gel was installed late
last week. Simply to see if it would be less stinky.
Of course its respective Soneil charger doesn't have
an ideal charge curve for it, but its all i have at
the moment.
So far it seems the gel might be less stinky (or not
stinky at all) then the AGMs. It is right behind the
driver's seat in its own Quickcable polypropylene
battery box. And that makes it easier to tell if it is
stinky and not confuse it with the smelly AGMs.
So that makes for a total of 12 batts. Six are
upright, six on their sides.
> Do you have any idea how many Ah you typically
> remove from the batteries between charges?
No, I could only estimate from how much is pulled from
the wall during charging. No ah or wh meter onboard
yet.
> I'm wondering if the problem here isn't that these
> little chargers just can't get your batteries
> refilled before you take the car back out,
> and so you've been chronically undercharging the
> batteries.
The Paktrakr is confirming that the chargers are
taking all 11 AGMs up to 14.5-14.7v before going into
float of 13.6v. Quite conveniently, once they are in
float, the Gel batt has arrived at about 13.9v in cc
stage. So at least its getting that much charge.
After shallow discharges, the Soneils are simply
plugged in. On deeper discharges, the onboard Russco
takes the batts up to 13.5v-13.8v and then shuts down.
Then the Soneils are plugged in to finish the charge.
Mark
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