Wednesday, Mar 19, 2014 at 06:01
G'day Spydor and Robyn,
Thanks for your reply.
No, I'm not impressed at all with only 22 months out of these Ritars, and yes I have been worried about the charging system as well.
However I had a long conversation with an Alco supplier on the NSW south coast and he was not unfamiliar with the problem we have, and is of the opinion that the issue is with the batteries themselves. Unfortunately he didn't have any of the Alco's Discovers in stock (and it would have been over a week to get them in) or I would have just replaced the Ritars with them.
He gave me a long and detailed explanation of what he believes the problem is with the Ritars, but essentially what happens is that the batteries are not really stuffed but suffer what is similar to a memory issue, so that a 100AH battery (in time) is reduced to say 40AH, and it is caused by them sitting and not being used for long periods of time (our van was used for 4 months in the last 12, and has just sat there for the last 8 months). The van was in the open with full solar and I regularly connect to 240V, as advised.
He also said that the batteries could be recovered by connecting a small load (a light say) to each battery and totally discharging it, and then recharging it, several times. If I was at home I would try this, but it is not a viable option while travelling.
No doubt other battery "experts" around the place will disagree with this theory, but it makes sense to me. Spydor, in your case, the "regular use" may be a reason why your Ritars have performed well, or maybe it is due to differences in one batch to the next.
Regards,
Col
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