B
Bedraggled
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
A 95 A/hr marine battery purchased at Costco[KIRKLAND brand]
three years ago dies mysteriously.
Water level has never been low.
Has been kept charged...every couple of months, gets
topped off with fresh electrons..
It has never had to endure more than (maybe) a 20%
depth of discharge cycle. Has been used (twice?) to jump
start neighbors cars...but mostly is just loafs in the
"emergency power" locker, to run a few watts of lights
when the grid power goes away.
I try to use it this week...voltage check indicates 10.5V..oops..
needs a charging!
Charge for several hours, voltage not coming up.
Further investigation shows that one of the cells seems
to be shorted to the Negative terminal.
?wtf? This pig has never had to work hard in its three year life.
The charger is not capable of pushing more than 6 amps...and that
should be quite safe for a 95 Amp/hr battery. The loads it has seen
have been absurdly light compared to it's assumed capability..(30-50 watts
max for an hour or so...nothing more).
and NOW it self destructed?..how?..Are Costco/KIRKLAND batteries really
this fragile?..or maybe I am hanging out with Mr Murphy too often...
[the sequency of events that would cause a sleeping battery to short one of
its terminals to "ground"/neg terminal is a mystery...
*sigh
it's voodoo...that's what it is...voodoo.
three years ago dies mysteriously.
Water level has never been low.
Has been kept charged...every couple of months, gets
topped off with fresh electrons..
It has never had to endure more than (maybe) a 20%
depth of discharge cycle. Has been used (twice?) to jump
start neighbors cars...but mostly is just loafs in the
"emergency power" locker, to run a few watts of lights
when the grid power goes away.
I try to use it this week...voltage check indicates 10.5V..oops..
needs a charging!
Charge for several hours, voltage not coming up.
Further investigation shows that one of the cells seems
to be shorted to the Negative terminal.
?wtf? This pig has never had to work hard in its three year life.
The charger is not capable of pushing more than 6 amps...and that
should be quite safe for a 95 Amp/hr battery. The loads it has seen
have been absurdly light compared to it's assumed capability..(30-50 watts
max for an hour or so...nothing more).
and NOW it self destructed?..how?..Are Costco/KIRKLAND batteries really
this fragile?..or maybe I am hanging out with Mr Murphy too often...
[the sequency of events that would cause a sleeping battery to short one of
its terminals to "ground"/neg terminal is a mystery...
*sigh
it's voodoo...that's what it is...voodoo.