Battery cycle times

[Branch Gordon]

John,

It currently takes me 5 charges of my primary battery to fully charge my charge battery with the SG. I was under the impression that this would improve as the charge battery was conditioned. Are you saying that if my batteries have been formed correctly, that I should get 1:1 charging right off the bat if I have everything built and tuned correctly?

You have seen photos of my build, and I have built if exactly like the book...also made all the improvements you guys have suggested.

No there is nothing empirical except this: a properly tuned SG will give you 1 to 1 charging plus mechanical. you cannot run an SG charged battery on another SG per JB. so you need a decen standard charger for your primary and a way of load testing your charge battery. if you need more than one charge cycle on your primary battery then you need to make some changes. also if you are buying new batteries, cycle them at least 10 times on a standard charger to finish forming the plates. you need current to get the paste on the plates fully formed, and they are not shipped from the factory fully formed, it is expected to start a car or lawn mower or any other device and then sit on the charging curcuit and finish forming. I have seen it take up to 20 cycles before a battery reaches its rated capacity.

Tom

[kennygee]

No there is nothing empirical except this: a properly tuned SG will give you 1 to 1 charging plus mechanical. you cannot run an SG charged battery on another SG per JB. so you need a decen standard charger for your primary and a way of load testing your charge battery. if you need more than one charge cycle on your primary battery then you need to make some changes. also if you are buying new batteries, cycle them at least 10 times on a standard charger to finish forming the plates. you need current to get the paste on the plates fully formed, and they are not shipped from the factory fully formed, it is expected to start a car or lawn mower or any other device and then sit on the charging curcuit and finish forming. I have seen it take up to 20 cycles before a battery reaches its rated capacity.

Tom

So, I cannot cycle my charge battery to the run battery and vice versa? and I need to invest in a battery charger to perpetuate my system?

[Tom C]

No there is nothing empirical except this: a properly tuned SG will give you 1 to 1 charging plus mechanical. you cannot run an SG charged battery on another SG per JB. so you need a decen standard charger for your primary and a way of load testing your charge battery. if you need more than one charge cycle on your primary battery then you need to make some changes. also if you are buying new batteries, cycle them at least 10 times on a standard charger to finish forming the plates. you need current to get the paste on the plates fully formed, and they are not shipped from the factory fully formed, it is expected to start a car or lawn mower or any other device and then sit on the charging curcuit and finish forming. I have seen it take up to 20 cycles before a battery reaches its rated capacity.

Tom

[kennygee]

Another question as I am gearing up to make my first bicycle wheel model and go purchase my batteries: Is there some empirical information that I can access that will tell me the average time the Run battery runs versus the average time the Charge battery charges? This would of course be for identical batteries once they are both "conditioned" by the SSG and are running steady state.