Exide DC12V200s. Anyone had experience with them?

[Rainwulf]

Hello! New to the forums, kinda experienced with solar.

I am wondering if anyone has had experience with the DC12V200s? They look like an equivalent to a trojan battery of the same capacity.

I was able to pick up 8 of them for an absolute bargain, and they are on a 2.5kw panel array, with a 60 amp MPPT charge controller, running at a 24 volt bank.

I have read this http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showth...Your-Batteries and plan on testing/implementing that with my new bank.

So yea, i cant find a lot of information about these batteries online apart from the generic stuff.


Here are the pics of my install.




Thanks!

[Sunking]

You are not going to get many if any answers because they are 12 volt Gel batteries with a 6 month warranty. There have nothing in common with Trojan other than being called a battery. . You gotta bargain because no one wants them. Or you found a guy who has a contact with a Telephone or Data company right? Neither will you want them in a couple of months when you start looking for a place to dump them. Last thing you want in a solar system is 12 volt gel batteries.

[inetdog]

If you want to get any useful life out of them at all, find the maximum charging rate they will accept (should be documented somewhere, but in the absence of that I would guess C/20) and never, ever, exceed that rate.
This may mean that you cannot put back (in in one day of solar charging) all the power you have taken out.

[Sunking]

6 month warranty when new is all one needs to know.

[SunEagle]

Even if those were new batteries charging a 24volt bank with 2500 watt of panels will require a couple of 60 amp charge controllers.

One is not enough to handle the 100amps that solar array can generate.

[Rainwulf]

Sunking, i asked if anyone had experience with them, not incorrect information.

You must not have any knowledge of these batteries.

They are in fact thick plated deep cycle industrial flooded lead acid, with a 12 month warranty, bought straight from the warehouse. They are slightly older stock thats all, which is how i got them for 1/4 price.

http://www.marshallbatteries.com.au/battery-range/buggies-mobility/heavy-industrial-cycling/DC12V200

[Rainwulf]

If you want to get any useful life out of them at all, find the maximum charging rate they will accept (should be documented somewhere, but in the absence of that I would guess C/20) and never, ever, exceed that rate.
This may mean that you cannot put back (in in one day of solar charging) all the power you have taken out.

Your post is based on info from Sunking which is incorrect. They are actually flooded lead acid.

I currently use around 128 amp-hours a day from the pack, while i can actually recharge 600 amp hours easily in a day due to my location and the strong australian sun.

In fact they started charging this morning at 7.30am at 586 watts.

[Rainwulf]

Even if those were new batteries charging a 24volt bank with 2500 watt of panels will require a couple of 60 amp charge controllers.

One is not enough to handle the 100amps that solar array can generate.

I currently have a 1/5 use/charge current ratio so at the moment the 60 amp MPPT controller recharges the pack by around midday. I will however be using more power soon and will get another controller as they can be linked in a parallel charging arrangement.

[inetdog]

Your post is based on info from Sunking which is incorrect. They are actually flooded lead acid.

Oddly, the picture that I get on the Exide site for DC12V200 looks nothing like what is shown in your posted pictures.
The ones on the website have prominent vent/fill caps with covers and terminals at opposite ends of a rectangular battery.
The small diagram, OTOH, looks just like yours.

[Sunking]

Oddly, the picture that I get on the Exide site for DC12V200 looks nothing like what is shown in your posted pictures.

You noticed that too huh? Here is what they looked liked.


160_173883097.jpg

[Rainwulf]

Yea, even the Exide rep called that site a complete waste of time. Its terrible, hence the reason i asked about them in this thread. There are tonnes of them (heh) out in the world, and the exide rep sells a lot of them, but as for actual technical data, all i can find out is that its a lead-antimony flooded lead acid battery. Which is nothing useful at all really heh.

[inetdog]

You noticed that too huh? Here is what they looked liked.


[ATTACH=CONFIG]7806[/ATTACH]

I think (hope) it is just a badly maintained website that does not make any effort to put the right battery into the thumbnail pictures.

[Sunking]

I think (hope) it is just a badly maintained website that does not make any effort to put the right battery into the thumbnail pictures.

I have a user account at Exide. It is not made or sold in the USA anymore. Strictly Australian product made in Aussie land.

Rainwulf quit getting your shorts in a knot. I admire the fact you are trying to use technology to maintain your batteries. But with FLA batteries all that tech is really useless. Looks cool on You-Tube, but that is about al it does for you. There is only one instrument you need to tell you everything you need to know about your batteries and will signal the alarm when something is wrong. Voltage is only an indicator and only one small piece of information that is worthless without more information. A good Hydrometer is the only tool to tell you what is going on in real time.

Yep you gotta a Hydrometer in your picture, but it does not tell you anything other than Good-Bad-Ugly or Green-Yellow-Red. In engineering terms we call that an Idiot Lite. You need one with a built in thermometer and calibrated SG scale you can tell the difference between 1.277 from 1.275 or at least .03 resolution because that is the go-nogo test window of range to determine if you need to EQ or not. 1.277 down to 1.258 is a huge difference of 10% capacity or the difference between 100% SOC and 90% SOC. Green-Yellow-Red does not tell you that. We are not talking a lot of money as they are less than $10 and will dance circles around all your automation.

So don't get hung up on voltages, get hung up on Specific Gravity and Temperature. The voltage is just the end result custom tailored to your application and usage. But you have to find it, and it takes a Hydrometer.

[Rainwulf]

I have a user account at Exide. It is not made or sold in the USA anymore. Strictly Australian product made in Aussie land.

Rainwulf quit getting your short in a knot. I admire the fact you are trying to use technology to maintain your batteries. But with FLA batteries all that tech is really useless. There is only one instrument you need to tell you everything you need to know about your batteries and will signal the alarm when something is wrong. Voltage is only an indicator and only one small piece of information that is worthless without more information. A good Hydrometer is the only tool to tell you what is going on in real time.

Yep you gotta a Hydrometer in your picture, but it does not tell you anything other than Good-Bad-Ugly or Green-Yellow-Red. In engineering terms we call that an Idiot Lite. You need one with a built in thermometer and calibrated SG scale you can tell the difference between 1.277 from 1.275 or at least .03 resolution because that is the go-nogo test window of range to determine if you need to EQ or not. 1.277 down to 1.258 is a huge difference of 10% capacity or the difference between 100% SOC and 90% SOC. Green-Yellow-Red does not tell you that. We are not talking a lot of money as they are less than $10 and will dance circles around all your automation.

So don't get hung up on voltages, get hung up on Specific Gravity and Temperature. The voltage is just the end result custom tailored to your application and usage.

Short in a knot? is that another weird humour thing?

What i didnt show you in that shot is that on the back of the "idiot lights" are actual specific gravity measurements. I used the green/yellow/red as a super quick indicator but the SG on the back is what i record down in my logs.
They are graduated down to .01 increments.

I am purchasing another one now though, so i can have confirmation.

[lkruper]

Short in a knot? is that another weird humour thing?

What i didnt show you in that shot is that on the back of the "idiot lights" are actual specific gravity measurements. I used the green/yellow/red as a super quick indicator but the SG on the back is what i record down in my logs.
They are graduated down to .01 increments.

I am purchasing another one now though, so i can have confirmation.

Make sure your hydrometer has temperature correction, like this one -> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002KKTYU/...I28PV03B5XWK1U