| Q: What are the physical dimensions of this battery? | L331 W174 H214 TH240MM (TH means height over all, including terminals). 33 kg, 8mm thick solid lead terminals with 10 mm holes. Supplied with M8 stainless nuts 'n bolts plus washers and zinc coated star washers. |
| Q: How far can I run these 100Ah batteries do:wn to? | This depends on what cycle life you want out of your brand new battery. MCA AGM deep cycle NPC series offer approximately 250 cycles @ 100% DOD (depth of discharge), 500 cycles @ 50% DOD and 1250 cycles @ 30% DOD. The sweet spot is probably around 80% DOD. View the graph here (sroll down to the end of document). Example: say you've got a load connected to your battery which draws 5 amps. Since 80% of 100Ah equals 80Ah, your load can draw current for 80Ah/5A equals 16 hours. You can easily double this time by wiring two of these 100Ah batteries in parallel. Note that this simple calculation is only true for loads, smaller than 6 amps (or 12 in case of two batteries in parallel). For heavier load currents, use the method below. |
| Q: Can I monitor the battery voltage to get an idea about the DOD? | Yes,
you can (and should). Do a load budget first: Say, you have a light, a fan, a fridge and a TV, all drawing current at the same time. You're drawing like, 2A plus 3A plus 3A (fridge time averaged) plus 5A equals 13A of combined load current. Now pull up the discharge table and locate the row for '10.5V' and 'A'. In the 'A' row, locate the closest values to 13A which are 16.0 and 11.3. 13A is about half way between these two values, meaning you can draw this current for a maximum of 6.5 hrs (half way between the corresponding time values from the top row). But remember this would bring your battery to 100% of DOD, and we only want it to go down to 80%, so subtract 20% from 6.5 hrs and the result is 5.2 hours. To find out what sort of terminal voltage this corresponds to, look up the discharge graphs and locate the 5 hr vertical grid line. Imagine what the shape of the discharge curve for 13A would look like and where it would intersect with the vertical 5 hr grid line. You'll find a result close to 11.4V, which is your '80% DOD cut off' voltage for a 13A load, which has been run continuously for 5.2 hours. The resulting 'run time' down to 80% DOD, can easily be doubled by wiring two 100Ah batteries in parallel. Remember, your absolute lowest limit for the cutoff terminal voltage is 10.5V. |
| Q: Do you have any larger Ah capacity in
stock? |
Not
at this stage, but you can easily double up - just read on. |
| Q: Can I wire two or more 12V100Ah batteries in parallel? | Yes.
By doing so, you effectively end up having one large 12V battery. You
can leave them permanently wired up this way, for discharging
as
well as for charging. The 12V charger only 'sees' one big battery. More on this under 'what sort of charger do you recommend'. |
| Q: Why would I want two or more 12V100Ah batteries? | Compared
to only one large capacity battery, you gain greater fitting
flexibility since the bulky volume of one big 200Ah battery is now
split in half. There is the important fact of twice the charge acceptance rate, meaning you can put twice as much energy (Ah) back into the battery, in any given amount of time. E.g. if you use your car alternator for charging, the full 60A charge current made available can be absorbed by two 100Ah batteries. If you only had one battery with a maximum 30A charge current acceptance, your engine needs to be run longer, and there'll need to be some form of inrush current limitation, especially if the alternator output rises for the first few minutes (modern ECU controlled units). No need to worry, if you connect two or more NPC100 in parallel. The battery's output current capabilities increases by the number of batteries wired in parallel. I recommend one battery per kW of starter motor power (typical for cars and small trucks). For larger engine cranking (bulldozer, heavy construction machinery, big ship's diesels), add one battery in parallell for each additional kW of starter motor power. Save shipping money AND your back, by keeping the weight down (separate batteries only weigh 33 kg each). If there was only one 200Ah battery weighing in at 66 kg plus weight of packaging (skid or crate mount mandatory), couriers most definitely would charge extra for lifting gear. |
| Q: Can I use your AGM batteries for cranking, what's their CCA rating? | Yes, you can! Watch our AGM deep cycle in action in our youtube movie (~9MByte) Car and 4WD starter motors have an internal resistance of between 30 and 40 milliOhms, meaning only while spinning up (for a fraction of a second) they consume their maximum inrush current of between 300 and 400 amps. Note that even if the starter motor was mechanically blocked so that it can't spin up, the current will never ever exceed this value (Ohm's Law). Once they're spinning at their rated RPM during cranking, they generate a voltage (back EMF) wich effectively reduces the current through them, typically to 50% of the inrush, say around 150 to 250 amps which is your typical cranking current. Our NPC100-12 AGM deep cycle batteries, when fully charged, are certainly capable of supplying the 400A peak and 250A cranking currents, at above zero temperature conditions, for several minutes. What's more, our batteries feature solid 8 mm lead bar terminals which allow for secure nut 'n bolt clamping, stainless are supplied with our batteries. These terminals have only half the contact resistance of some other designs (threaded screw in terminal post). Thus, they are better suited to high current applications due to less voltage drop at the battery terminals. In a nut shell, due to the deep cycle desing, our batteries are not rated in CCA, but can be used for cranking in above zero tmperature conditions. One word of caution: any battery will have a reduced service life of 50% per 10 degrees of temperature increase. Therefore, it's advisable to mount the battery in an as cool spot as possible (away from the hot radiator airflow at least). Another recommendation is not to substitute your starter battery with an AGM battery because the alternator charging is not precise enough, which potentially can lead to shortened battery life. |
| Q: Can I use your AGM batteries in a 24V system? | Yes you can. Note our recommendations on 24V battery charging. |
| Q: What sort of charger do you
recommend? |
Any
'intelligent' three stage charger with a setting for AGM battery, as
long as the charger is rated greater than one tenth of the rated
battery capacity, and the charger is rated smaller than one quarter of
the rated battery capacity. E.g. if you have two 12V100Ah wired in parallel, your AGM charger would have to be capable of delivering a minimum of 20 A, and must not exceed 50 A. Please note that Asian sourced AGM batteries require a 14.7V bulk charge setting for rapid and efficient recharging. This is in contrast to US sourced AGMs which require a 14.4V bulk charge setting. Our top of the range quality precision charger (made by Taiwan based WAECO DOMETIC OEM charger supplier) allow to manually set the different charging voltages. Not even ctek offer this kind of precision voltage adjustability. Check the following recommended features when comparing battery chargers:
Using an ordinary 24V battery charger (even if designed for AGM batteries) is NOT the best thing to do. Find out why, by sending us your questions. |
| Q: Can I have my own questions answered/published here? | Yes, by all means just ask away by using the email form below. For the fastest response just use one of the phone numbers below. |
| This is an important bit, I'd like you to read first. | AGM
VRLA batteries can be operated in any position. They last at least 2 to 3
times longer than ordinary 'sealed maintenance free batteries'. You cannot operate an ordinary 'sealed maintenance free battery' in any position, because the reality is, they are not 'sealed' at all. They have hidden vents through which the liquid electrolyte would spill! And the plates inside would be taken out of submersion which damages the battery very quickly if you'd draw any amount of current in this position. These batteries cannot be shipped by courier or posted because they're classified "dangerous goods" for a very good reason. Sellers calling these batteries 'sealed' are grossly misleading their customers. In contrast, the more costly to manufacture and long lasting VRLA AGM battery has the following benefits:
Flooded designs suffer from an effect called 'active material shedding'. This material is held in place by electrochemical forces as long as there is a sufficiently high charge remaining in the battery. Once this battery is discharged more than to a shallow DOD, the plates start to shed their active material which just sinks to the bottom of the container where it cannot be recovered through any means of recharging. In AGM designs this can't happen due to the tightly packed layers of glass matting between the plates. Beware of 'maintenance free deep cycle batteries' which are not specified VRLA AGM or gel. These are ordinary flooded lead calcium batteries which are worse than their non sealed cousins because their electrolyte level cannot be topped up with water. The only purpose to produce such a battery is, to maximise profits by reducing the manufacturing costs (no threaded openings with seals and caps on each cell). And at the same time dodgy sellers use the notion 'sealed' to imply the advantages of a true VRLA battery which is a lot more expensive to produce and has the above mentioned benefits. 'Maintenance free' is a total misnomer as such batteries should be called 'non servicable'. Non VRLA 'sealed maintenance free deep cycle' batteries are the worst of them all since these batteries do not have any means of recombining hydrogen and oxygen which are produced during the charging process - no matter how well controlled the charging takes place. They lose electrolyte, through their vents. And this loss of electrolyte cannot be compensated by topping off, because the manufacturer has been cutting corners purely for the sake of increasing profits. A very short battery life time is the result. And the seller who adds the 'deep cycle' bit to the ordinary 'maintenance free', tries to screw you a second time around because any flooded battery rated in CCA or MCA is designed for cranking, and as such is exactly the opposite of a deep cycle design. You can't just add a 'deep cycle' component - this is utter nonsense designed to make a quick profit from unsuspecting buyers. |
| Use the feedback form below to send us your questions: | |
| mobile
0422405013 phone 07 31219648 www.batteryvalue.com.au © 2010 Battery Value Pty Ltd |