Basic battery maintenance
The following will ensure that a battery’s lifespan is as long as possible:
- Charging batteries at the right time
- Maintaining appropriate water levels
- Regular battery maintenance or servicing by professionals
Many industries depend heavily on batteries to keep their machinery operating correctly and keeping them up and running is essential.
Battery maintenance: Charging times
For proper battery maintenance, it is essential to keep your batteries charged and ready to use, but you also need to ensure that you are charging them only when necessary and before they discharge too much. If you charge them too frequently you could shorten the life of the battery a great deal. This is also true of letting the battery’s charge get too low before you recharge it.
With deep cycle batteries, the best time to recharge is when they reach 80% discharge. When charging a battery, be sure that it is completely charged again before you remove it from the charger. You should never remove a battery from the charge before the charge is complete. Be sure to let the battery cool before you remove it as it will be hot when the charge is complete.
Keeping a charge log of the batteries that you are using is a very useful maintenance tip. When you can identify a pattern as to how often a battery is ready to be recharged then you can avoid allowing it to get too low in charge. Planning ahead will ensure you neither charge too frequently nor let the battery discharge too much.
Battery maintenance: Water levels
Regulating the amount of water is crucial to battery maintenance as well. If the level is left too low the active material in the plates dries out and is no longer active. The active material is not recoverable after it has dried out, which means that the percentage amount that is dried out is the amount of battery capacity that is lost.
A general rule of thumb for topping a battery is what you see through the lid you top to; when you look through the lid you do not see the plates but the tops of the separators and this is what you top to. The separators are above the plates and the active material and therefore keep the active material flooded and active. With over topping corrosion occurs, as the overflowing is not just the water but the water and sulphuric acid mix, therefore this is a Health & Safety issue.
With less acid in the battery case, less power from the battery is available. The acid is the catalyst that makes the battery work, being absorbed when power is drained and released from the plates when charged. The reduced amount of acid means less to be absorbed and therefore less power.
Battery maintenance: Regular servicing
You should have an expert look over all of your batteries at least three or four times per year. They are trained to look for problems that may exist with the batteries, which may not be easily detected by you or any other member of your staff. If a battery has a problem that goes undetected it can cause the life span on the battery to become much shorter. Having maintenance performed on the batteries is essential to keeping the batteries up and running effectively.
Following these guidelines will help you get the most out of your batteries. In addition to extending their lifespan, you will ensure that problems are dealt with before they damage either the battery or the machinery. Proper battery maintenance is essential if you want to save your business from unnecessary repair and replacement costs.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like more advice regarding battery maintenance.