Equalizing AGM Battery Bank - Sailing boat Maintenance - Life on Sprout

In this video Jesse will discuss the hows and whys of Battery Equalization or as Life Line call it a "conditioning charge". On Sprout we have 4 6 Volt Life Line AGM Batteries that equal 800 AH.
As a young Aussie couple sailing the world we love adventure, sailing, travel, beaches, surfing, free diving and fishing.
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[@kimphilley621]

I only just saw this. I installed(with much help) 6 months ago. I proudly purchased a Victron MPPT 100/30 for each of my 400 watt Hitachi Panels as well as already having Victron non smart 75/10 for each of my Rad Power Flexable panels. This is all connected to 6 new lifeline AGM's which I believe are in Paralell. I have a Victron Multiplus 2KVA 230 volt Inverter. So as you say its been 6 months and I figure I am due for Equalization. I am looking at how to do that in my Inverter book. I won't deny I am a little afraid as to screwing this up. Wanted to say I found your video very informative and got a huge belly lauge when your partner asked if you might stop scratching up whatever it was you were fiddling with at the end. I am very impressed with your partnership and hope you all are still out here. Best wishes from an old fart sailor having cruised from the States to now Indo after enjoying Aus for nigh on to four years(Covid) Tasmania to Thursday Is. and now in Ambon Indo...Cheers

[@drwindsurf]

Great video. I really love the combination of destination sailing/surfing and DYI. You have hit perfect balance that reflects the reality of sailing life :) Thank you. ...also loved the rant.

[@pod1705]

great video, gonna have to watch it again, too much went over my head.

[@reggiesamuel2539]

Hey mate Thank you for the informative video. I have a small victron mppt controller for my solar battery set-up. Now I understand why the battery never reaches 100% charge. BTW how are you charging your battery bank at 15+ volts? Do you have some other device that is pumping that many volts and amps?

[@james5460]

Interesting discourse on batteries. The same principles apply to batteries in your car, of course. I've learned to use a trickle charger, and that keeps my car batteries at 100%, I suppose your solar serves basically the same purpose at the very least. Good luck with your sail to Australia.

[@john3Lee]

Interesting stuff... Thanks for posting.

[@alanduffy7993]

very interesting, thanks for sharing......the rant was also informative :)

[@PointOfViewFilmsSYD]

Awesome video. Lots of info. Copious notes taken. Thanks

[@TheEggMan2000]

Thanks for the video, guys. I have a question for Jesse about the victrion battery monitor vs the Smartgauge battery monitor. I do coastal cruising: overnight sails, some plans for weekend sails, no long distance passages. I do have an autopilot, chartplotter, 1 electric winch, bow thruster, VHF radio, sound system, radar, electronic instruments, cabin lighting, fans, fridge, freshwater pumps, bilge pumps, nav lights, etc. We charge with shore power and the alternator. No solar, etc. I did 16 hrs with no engine and constant autopilot use, and the batteries held up. I actually dont know how many amp hrs I have in my bank (embarrassing, but I have only had the boat 4 mos and I am figuring things out). I have 4 lead acid house batteries. Currently, I have no monitors for the electrical system. No voltage gauge. Nothing. So, ideally, I would like to have an idea of state of charge during discharge. I should be able to fire up the engine from the starter battery if things go out. But, it would be nice to plan ahead. Also, you mention cycling below 50% is hard on the batteries. I guess I keep hearing that battery monitors are inaccurate. You include some reasons for this in this video. Forums seem to tout the Smartgauge as being good despite all the issues with determining state of charge. It is $300 vs $150 for the victrion battery monitor. Any advice?

[@AdventuresofSprout]

If you want to keep things simple a DC Voltage meter would be cheap and effective. Terminal voltage is directly related to SOC. Its not as accurate as a well set-up monitor but if you make yourself a little chart that says >12.7=95%, 12.4=75%, 12.2=50 %, 12.0=25% and you keep in mind that high current loads will temporarily drop the terminal voltage, that would be a good simple system. As for the difference between the battery monitor and the smart gauge, they are totally different, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. The BMV is a coulomb counter so it counts the Amps going into and out of you bank. The smart gauge measures the terminal voltage of your bank and through some white mans magic figures the exact SOC out. I have no personal experience with the Smart gauge but i have heard and read good things. Here is some more info. www.pbase.com/mainecruising/battery_monitor www.pbase.com/mainecruising/smart_gauge Cheers Jesse

[@danielgarvey9556]

Thanks for reply I will some pictures of my Hinterholler s in about month all the best Daniel

[@diverbob8]

One concept that you got backwards is that dead batteries will have higher internal resistance (resulting in greater voltage drop when current is drawn from them - Ohms Law). This is particularily important when you have battery strings in parallel. As one string gets slightly more discharged compared to another, the higher internal resistance of the lower charged string will insure that it gets LESS charge. Thus, the WORST batteries get the LEAST charge. Now it gets worse in that when you stop charging as at night with solar, then the better charged string(s), being connected to the string(s) with a lessor charge, they will partially expend themselves trying to charge the lessor string. This is the underlying reason that each battery string MUST be periodically equalized to full charge. Failing to do this insures premature failure of the entire bank, one part because they never got a full charge and the other because they always lost part of their full charge. Note also that matching new batteries with old ones is a formula for disaster unless they are very carefully arranged with and equal share of new and old batteries in each parallel string. This is not a good idea, but I have done it in the old electric cars. (Google CitiCar). I would also suggest that you obtain (if you have not already) a multimeter with clamp on amp reading capability of DC CURRENT (There are plenty - Google Fluke 365). That way, you can easily compare the percentage of charging current going to each individual string in your battery bank. Thus you can judge when the equilization of the individual strings is desirable (when one string is getting significantly less than it's equil share of the total charge current). Example, if you have 4 batteries of 6 volts each, in a series / parallel scheme, then two strings of 12 Volts are in parallel. The charging current in a series circuit is everywhere the same, but when you create a parallel stiuation, the charge current is only equally divided when the internal resistance of each string is identical. The longer the batteries are in use, the easier it is for some slight change in condition to lead to significant differences in internal resistance. Examples, some batteries may be hotter than others due to better ventilation or due to battery cable lengths, one bank may see higher charge due to lower wire resistance or corrosion of a terminal may cause a higher contact resistance in one string over another. It is possible that slightly different wire resistance is present due to different wire sizes or ages (degree of corrosion). The use of the clamp on meter is a vary effective way to see if your parallel bank is healthy or in self destruct mode. I apologize if you have a grasp of this important concept, but since it did not come up in a discussion about equilization, I'm guessing that it was worth covering. Fair winds!

[@AdventuresofSprout]

Hi Robert, Thanks so much for getting involved, Some fantastic information there. I love that this form of communication and entertainment (youtube) can be so beneficial for everyone involved. Its like a big knowledge sharing center, the more that people add to the original video with comments and additional links helps others out in the future. so thanks heaps for covering what i have missed. I do have a clamp on meter and your point about monitoring the charge current of each parallel string is a very good one, I'll be sure to do that in future. Thanks so much, Jesse

[@diverbob8]

Bravo Jesse....Now some day when you are REALLY BORED, unhook all the batteries and record the exact voltage of each one. Then if you have 4 batteries, match 1-4, 2-3, etc to get the closes parallel string total voltage! I my old electric car, there were 8 golf cart deep discharge batteries to deal with. Fair Winds!

[@itsmePassport]

X2 speed. Made this watch able.

[@anonymous_protagonist]

Thank you for this!! I wonder if it would it be practical to hack the regulator with an external temperature sensor; hopefully routing a discrete internal thermsistor to a place on the boat where it would make more sense. [I see what I did there. hehe.]

[@AdventuresofSprout]

yer great idea mate, i might have to have a closer look at the regulator and see what i can do.

[@anonymous_protagonist]

Thanks! Feel free to give me a shout in the unlikely event you get stumped along the way.

[@AdventuresofSprout]

Cheers, will do. I'm always open to advice.

[@petertomas3665]

Moral of the story is ....Read The User's Manual. Then all your questions will be answered about how Victron's absorption time works while being at "Fixed" or "Adaptive" mode which works in cooperation with the timing charts Victron provides you or you can find it easily everywhere in internet. Also the Mppt Charger/Controller does have an internal temperature measuring which again the manual says that the main purpose of that temperature reading is to protect the charger from overheating and secondary to read the temperature from the enviroment so to adapt the charging method. If you dont need to be extremely precise even this internal reading will do the job because Mppt does that reading when its activated by the solar panels at the first light of sun. At this first light the charging current is always too low to raise the Mppt's temperature so to have a wrong reading. For that reason the Mppt and the batteries need to be in the same room and near to each other so the Mppt can read in what actual inviroment temperature the matteries are. In case the batteries are in a diferent room than the Mppt is or there are very big temperature diferencies during the day then there is an external temperature device Victron has that you attach on your batteries and you have precise reading. Also the Temperature Coefficient method needs to be activated only when the charging takes place in an inviroment that has more that 30 degrees celsius or below 10 degrees celsious according again to Victron's manual. So Victron except the extreme high quality of machines they make they also make some of the best softwares for their machines because the software is the 50% of a successfull operation and that is why they make it so detailed so everyone can set it to their needs.

[@danielgarvey9556]

Jesse, hello from Canada...I am a sailor own a 1969 20ft sloop "Cygnus" Hinterholler never for sale and purchased a 1967 28ft keel Hinterholler #45; roomer upgrade from the the Shark; which I plan to fully restore 100%. OK I need some help or advice regarding conditioning/equalizing charge for my Lifeline amg 150Ah battery used on a RV. Purchased Nov. 29th. 2011 admittedly this battery has been abused my fault 100% that being said I am hell bent in attempting to restore it to the best of my abilities. The process as I understand is charge the battery fully then condition equalize charge at 15.5 volts for 8 hours; suspect I may have to do this process more than once giving it at least 36hr rest between charges. I am having a hard time finding a charger that can do this 15.5 volts everything is automatic. I talked to service where I bought the battery and they said to not use 15.5volts and to disregard the owners manual and lifeline videos. I purchased NOCO Genius G7200 7.2amp 12volt charger. 12V cold/AGM 14.8V 7.2A - 12V Lithium 14.6V 7.2A - 12V AGM+ 15.6V 7.2A - 12V Repair 16.5V 1.5A note repair mode for lead-acid batteries only 16.5V too high for AGM. I suspect I bought the wrong charger before I return it I plan to charge 14.8V regular AMG rest 36hrs then charge at AGM+ 15.6V and monitor with multi meter. Willing to spend 250 - 300 for the right charger which will charge and equalize charge AMG and charge Lithium. Much thanks hate to be a bother. Daniel [e-mail]

[@AdventuresofSprout]

HI Daniel, I would buy yourself a benchtop variable output Power supply, then you can change the voltage and limit the current as you please. I would listen to the Lifeline owners manual... its a great document and i'm sure they're not making it up. also the 15.5 v is subject to temp. if its cold in canada at the time you are equalising you could need 16 v.

[@DarNico471]

Jesse you seem to have a way above average electrical knowledge as does your partner holding the camera !! Very interesting but difficult to follow for me mere human ! Have fun on your passage , we’ll follow your adventure and cross our fingers hoping your batteries will cope 😉. Nick

[@AdventuresofSprout]

Hi Nick, Thanks mate, I am an Electrician by trade so that helps a little but they don't teach you much about batteries in tech school so its all a learning curve for me. FYI we had a great passage and are back in Australia now. :)

[@Nordic-Song]

Suggestion... Maybe Clare could do this talk in her crazy Australian voice that she made famous on the Delos video. Just trying to be helpful... Actually enjoyed the video. Appreciate when you share things you have learned crusing. Thanks.

[@AdventuresofSprout]

haha do you mean my normal voice or my 'Aussie Bogan' alter ego Shazza?

[@Nordic-Song]

The alter ego.

[@AdventuresofSprout]

Well Shazza has been kept away for awhile so i'm sure she is keen to be let free... lol

[@ib1405]

Hi Jesse, is it possible to equalize GEL type battery?

[@realflow100]

NO Not recommended. GEL is very sensitive to overcharge All you can do is keep it on maximum safe charging voltage for as long as you can stand for. which is VERY SLOW for equalizing. Not worth doing it more than once a year or less. should not need to be done almost ever with GEL batteries.

[@kevinfinnigan7168]

OK friggin Einstein, do you want to dumb it down for us dudes that live in Dumbphuk junction, Love the vid just didn't get it. I suppose i'm the same when it comes to Turbochargers. Cheers

[@AdventuresofSprout]

hahaha, yer sorry you couldn't follow i can hardly understand myself half the time

[@AdventuresofSprout]

Was there a particular part? I could try explaining again or expanding on.

[@rongray4118]

@@AdventuresofSprout you gave it a go for discussing the subject. I am inclined to have a separate monitoring methodology with a multimeter and clamp meter at rest and under load. We are playing the same game with a DC Solar Trailer we just purchased used. I need to rebuild (2) 48v/510AH IFLA battery banks in order to get the highest AH levels possible with old IFLA cells. We'll see how it works out.

[@Nordic-Song]

Meant to spell "cruising".

[@gidge34]

Mind cramp....