calcium battery

T

thesnowbaron

Guest
Hi all;
Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the shaking
encountered ?
Thanking you for any enlightenment
Frank
 
"thesnowbaron" <snowgame@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3fc6f150@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Hi all;
Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now
available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability
and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the
shaking
encountered ?
Thanking you for any enlightenment
Frank
Click to expand...
The "Calcium" battery is a lead-acid battery. They are not new. If you are
refering to the SLA types they are now selling for vehicles that have been
sold for marine and deep cycle applications for years, well, great marketing
hype if you ask me.
 
Frank

Calcium-lead alloy batteries have been around for many years now. They were
originally
designed as low maintenance batteries beacause the presence of calcium restricts
the charging voltage to between 2.2 to 2.3 volts. At these charging voltages
there is little decomposition of the water in the electrolyte
into oxygen and hydrogen and therefore the cells don't need topping up as often.
They also have lower rates of self discharge. The down side is that if they have
not been manufactured to tight specifications the lead-calcium alloys are not
mechanically robust (ie.they are more brittle) compared to the standard
lead-antimony alloys.

Regards

John
http://www.electrosense.com.au
Low-cost wireless water level sensors

thesnowbaron wrote:

Hi all;
Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the shaking
encountered ?
Thanking you for any enlightenment
Frank
Click to expand...
 
Dont know if this is right, but...

Last year, I was buying a new set of N120 batteries for our Cat 12 grader,
and was asking a battery expert the best option for our purpose. I was
getting a bit frustrated that we have only got 18 months out of the last set
of plastic N120 lead acid units. Mainly attributed to long periods of
inactivity.
One of our neighbours has installed one of those magna-pulse units that
supposedly prevents degredation of batteries that spend long periods
unused(sulphation??) on his grader. He reckons it is the best thing he has
ever bought.

The battery bloke reccommended the Calcium N120's for our grader, rather
than installing a magna-pulse setup on normal lead-acid batteries.
Reasoning was that if the batteries dont get used for long periods, the
magna-pulse unit will steadily draw current to operate, and steadily
discharge them. Of course, I could add a small solar panel to keep them
topped up, but I didnt want to add complexity to a pretty simple (and
reliable) machine.
He warned, however, that the calcium batteries were not reccommended for
operations where they will be heavily used all day every day. He advised
against fitting them to a delivery truck, for instance, where they are
starting a lot of times in a day. He said they dont cope with this very
well. I vaguely recall him saying something about them being slower to
accept charge, but couldnt be sure if this is correct.
Our grader spends months unused, and then may be used daily for a month or
so. However, in this time, it only gets started once or twice a day, so
batteries dont get really hard worked. 12 months down the track, and they
seem to be working fine. Mind you, the last lead-acid units were fine at 12
months as well.

I also have a calcium N70 in my 75 series cruiser. It has been in there
about 20 months, and no problems. It certainly cops a hiding as far as lots
of stops & starts, and has made it through 2 winters without incident.

I couldnt honestly say they are far better than lead-acid for my uses. They
are certainly dearer to buy, but lower maintenance is some offset to this
higher cost. I havent seen anything to discount them, but neither anything
to say they are hugely better than lead-acid.

I only expect about 2 years out of our batteries. Nearly everything on the
market will do this if it isnt being abused (over-charged or repeatedly
flattened).

I hope this assists,

Cheers,

Rod.........Out Back


"jOHN" <nil@Melbpc.nospam> wrote in message
news:3FC71ED6.B86E1852@Melbpc.nospam...
Frank

Calcium-lead alloy batteries have been around for many years now. They
were
originally
designed as low maintenance batteries beacause the presence of calcium
restricts
the charging voltage to between 2.2 to 2.3 volts. At these charging
voltages
there is little decomposition of the water in the electrolyte
into oxygen and hydrogen and therefore the cells don't need topping up as
often.
They also have lower rates of self discharge. The down side is that if
they have
not been manufactured to tight specifications the lead-calcium alloys are
not
mechanically robust (ie.they are more brittle) compared to the standard
lead-antimony alloys.

Regards

John
http://www.electrosense.com.au
Low-cost wireless water level sensors

thesnowbaron wrote:

Hi all;
Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now
available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability
and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the
shaking
encountered ?
Thanking you for any enlightenment
Frank
Click to expand...
 
Century Yuasa have info on calcium batteries at

http://www.cyb.com.au/automotive/batt_facts/undbatt_3.htm


Calcium-calcium batteries do not last if :

- run very flat. May need extensive charging, I even hear talk of "pulse
charging", to recover from lights left on flat.

- undercharged. Charging system must do 14.2 volts minimum, 13.8 is even
better.


There has been major grief with Calcium-Calcium batteries dropped into older
vehicles. Many $1000s in warranty claims when the batteries failed.

"Charge Acceptance" problems refer to fact that flattened battery doesn't
accept current, even if charger puts high voltage on battery terminals.

If you look at the Century Yuasa link above, you will see that the
advantages of Calcium-Calcium apply mostly to battery and vehicle
*manufacturers*, and less to end users. As long as you don't let your
antimony battery self discharge too deeply and keep water topped up, the
antimony battery lasts longer and is less critical.


Roger


"thesnowbaron" <snowgame@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3fc6f150@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Hi all;
Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now
available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability
and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the
shaking
encountered ?
Thanking you for any enlightenment
Frank
Click to expand...
 
thesnowbaron wrote:

Does anybody have knowledge of the calcium batteries that are now available for
vehicles? How do they compare to the old lead acid types in reliability and
length of service. Are they suitable for 4X4 and marine use due to the shaking
encountered ?
Click to expand...
Calcium/calcium lead-acid accumulators have been around for yonks.
I've been using them (for some applications) for over 20 years.

The major advantage is their low self discharge rate, ie they'll hold
their charge much longer than conventional types, which makes them
ideal for occasional use applications where maintenance charging is a
nuisance. They also have a very low water loss, which makes them a
good low maintenance battery. They're also very clean and generally
less prone to cause external corrosion problems.

The original Delco, made in USA, usually lasted 5 years or better,
compared to 2 to 3 for a typical conventional battery in a typical
vehicle. I suspect some of the more recent offerings made in oriental
gaols aren't the same quality as the old Delco. Delkor or Century
seem to be the best of the current bunch.

I wouldn't use them in situations where they run very hot (some cars
are bad in this respect), or where there's excessive vibration (some
trucks are bad for this). For the uses you're proposing there
shouldn't be any problem provided they're run reasonably cool.

The only ones I've ever had fail prematurely (less than 2 years)
weren't a top brand and were over 6 months old when supplied (they
were a set of four, used in a tractor, and weren't what I ordered from
the supplier). Since stocks probably don't turn over as quickly as
the others I'd suggest checking the date code before you buy.

--
John H

Hotmail is a spam trap, wbuauneirl@ovtcbaq.pbz will reach me if you apply ROT13.
 
Aren't there "silver-lead alloy grid" lead acid
batteries that give a much longer service life as the
grid lasts much longer than in a lead-antimony grid
battery?.

Mark Harriss
 
Oops, I meant
"Charging system must do 14.2 volts minimum, 14.8 is even better."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top