grendel

I can remember driving to work, removing the alternator, popping it down the road to the local auto electrical shop for refurbishment, then getting it back at just before 5pm, refitting it to the car and driving home, generally I think the brushes come on the regulator.

there are other ways that youtubers can make money other than the adverts (one channel I used to watch had 30 minutes of adverts in their 1 hour film- overkill in my experience) the first way is through patreon, where you can get the videos early and get certain benefits from a small monthly donation, get a few thousand people paying £2 a month, or £2 a video, and it soo adds up to an income, there are only 3 channels I pay to help them survive- One is travels with Geordie- a guy in Canada who works on 3 wooden boats, I know he isnt making a lot from youtube on his videos, so am happy to pay in the equivalent of a beer to allow him to buy timber to keep fixing his boat. Another is a youtuber with a niche channel that I enjoy, she is only making a few dollars a month and only has a few patreons, just enough to help pay the bills while living a frugal life. the third channel I pay into is once again not a big channel, but he is a local to me tinkerer, and also makes videos i am interested in and I also make some of the projects he shows, once again he is not making a great income and the few pounds i spend is I know going to a good cause. another way is you can make donations to a channel via the chat feature during a live streaming session. there is also something called Ko-fi- where you can donate the cost of a cup of coffee t the youtuber if you think their content was worth watching. I have also seen channels run go fund me campaigns- recently Brupeg ran one after managing to blow up all their solar charge controllers- raising enough to get their electrical system totally replaced with a victron system, including victron batteries and inverters and getting the system designed and installed by a victron approved electrical engineer. - for the right channels run by quite normal people some of these channels really do generate a lot of support (and they dont sensationalise their content.) my sponsorship of youtubers comes to the cost of a few cups of coffee, and i am very selective just who I will sponsor, only sponsoring channels where I know the few pennies I do donate make a difference.

I follow one channel, a youngish lad, he has a monetised channel and over 1 million subscribers. for his channel he clears and mows one property a week for free, lately he has been clearing abandoned properties to clear the footpaths and make the house acceptable for the neighbours. surely if he can build a popular channel, just by mowing rather unkempt lawns, others must also be able to do it without resorting to the misfortunes of others - I think he does get sponsored by some of the garden equipment companies, but he achieves it all without demeaning others. (he also works ver hard clearing the properties for his money.

yes or facebook posts of boats stuck under bridges where the helmsman and crew are ridiculed, these are as bad, for the person involved its bad enough that it even happened, to then have it spread across social media must be awful, I can see a first time hirer never wanting to hire again after something like that.

Recently we have noticed a trend in Youtube videos of the Broads by so called influencers, and the ubiquitous boat crash type of video. Are these types of post causing damage to the broads boating industry? are they putting off prospective hirers before they even come here? a thread to discuss all aspects of social media and its impact on the Broads we love. its to mitigate against some of the potential damage that we have the rule of no boat names or closeups of incidents (the name and shame clause) in our Terms of Service. so how do you feel about this?

and neither did the moderators, be assured that if it had been the other type of post the topic would have been locked or removed early on, we noted that you didnt name the boat or crew or post pictures that might have identified them, thank you.

I tend to visit Horning post office every time i moor up at horning- sadly though I visit the post office I only go there for the Arthur Ransome books sold there.

Jayne 2 is probably the lowest boat in Marthams fleet I think when they rebuilt her they shortened her by a few inches to future proof her getting through the bridge, I dont know the exact figure but probably around 5'6", and worse case they can trailer the boats round to a slip the right side of the bridge (or ask herbert woods to borrow the crane for a few minutes)

what a weekend, its been a tad busy, Friday, just after I took my sunset photo I spotted a post from one of my Uncles regarding the passing of one of my other Uncles (my dads youngest Brother) after getting cancer as a result of exposure to nuclear testing at christmas island back in 1961, and getting treatment back then, he was clear of it until 6 years ago when it came back, ending up last Friday with his passing at the good age of 82, after I got home late from astronomy, i then had an early start to go shopping, then back home and straight out again for my monthly volunteer session at the local repair cafe, after fixing an empire state building, replacing a fuse, replacing batteries and replacing a plug as well as testing some things and fixing someones electric bike charger, it was home again to do some housework, then out again for our monthly astronomy talk (an excellent talk about taking telescopes to Morroco and showing local kids the wonders of the skies, under probably the least polluted skies you will find anywhere). then home again, sunday was a bike ride and more tidying, so it was sunday evening before I found the text message from my ex asking when my uncle had died - this had been sent friday just after lunch- about 6 hours or so before I had found out about his passing, I am only glad that I hadnt found that message earlier. or I would have been most upset with her. so ended a busy weekend, and its already busy with work this week, apparently every job is urgent- except for the ones that are very urgent, yet only one has given a date when it is required by so that will be the first urgent one done after the one am currently doing

stunning sunset at astronomy meet up tonight, shame it was just too cloudy to do any stargazing

I quite agree with you MM, the problem is those that are too belligerent to get along with folk, the ones that will break the rules (ie not pay tolls insurance, overstaying on moorings etc)- then claim it is being done as a protest in the misunderstood impression that this makes breaking the rules an ok thing to do and avoids the need to follow the rules. these types are not confined to the broads, or even to any other waterway, they are generally everywhere, living in vans- squats etc. these are the people who get all others living the same lifestyle a bad name. There are others who also cant afford to stay within the rules, yet talk to the authorities and come to an arrangement to avoid paying tolls (or an arrangement to pay what can be afforded) and live in harmony with the authorities and their neighbours, whose circumstances can be extremely dire, yet they try and exist within the rules. these are the ones that the belligerent one are harming by giving the impression that all such people are the same in their belligerence. I live next door to one of the local homeless half way houses, where the local homeless can get a step up to a decent lifestyle- where they get an address- this gives them the ability to apply for jobs and all the services to which they are entitled. yes there are the few that will just drink any income they make, but generally you can talk to them, and they are generally decent people who have fallen on hard times, well worth the time to sit and talk to as some have interesting backgrounds, and on the whole all they ask is the chance to reintegrate back into society.

the bridge height can rise or fall by a foot easily, while you are crossing Breydon, I once passed Burgh castle showing 8 foot on the gauge, and by the time I got there , it was under 7 foot and still rising- and that was only about 1 hour after slack. (it doesnt usually worry me as I only need 6 foot)

Look up project Troll - this gives certain bridge heights, Gt Yarmouth being one of them https://www.bridgeheight.com/

this is Breydon when shut to hire boats- not so great going the other way- into wind and tide

yet we have to remember that there are also quite respectable live aboards and thus not tar everyone who follows the live aboard lifestyle with the same brush, once again it is the few that give a bad reputation to the many.

they need only about 5'10" at potter, but they did have a couple of boats stuck the wrong side of the bridge for a while. I have been taken through potter at 5'10" and still had about an inch clearance

they might also send a crew down to bring it across at night on the next low tide.

it has happened so they must have a procedure, my guess is they would send someone down to pick up the holidaymakers, and arrange a substitute boat for the following crew while they got the boat back to base. similar to what they do if a boat gets damaged.

wind direction plays a part too, I once crossed when it was closed to hire boats, I had the wind and waves coming from behind me and though it was rough it wasnt too bad, I passed Spirit of breydon, she was headed the other way and the spray was going clear over the top of the boat, I was glad I was headed the direction I was, even though the boat was crabbing sideways a lot from the wind, sometimes you can see why they shut it to hire craft, private craft have the ability to choose.

the outboard cleat, the one further away from the quay heading ie the one you would use for a spring line- gives you a better angle on the post, so the middle cleat gives you a halfway house solution, the rope is just there to limit your sliding along the quay. in your circumstances I would just bring the end of the line after it goes round the post to the side window, it doesnt need to be fastened, you can just hold it. having tried getting out forward only on a few occasions (usually if I am at the end of the quay heading that allows that), i dont find it that effective, you cant get the back round easily to get away from the side, so generally I will get the back swung out and reverse out once the back is a good way off the bank. often you can just flick the rope off the post with a quick move like snapping a whip. if there is nothing in front you often dont need the front rope. by going into forward with the rudder steering the bow into the bank, the stern will naturally pull off the quay, even in a strong wind. then its just reverse out into the middle of the river and you have all the space you need. you have the advantage of the open cockpit at the front for me its a lot more faff as the front of the boat is higher than my deck.

Kate, I usually loop a line around a post and back to the boat from the front outboard cleat round and back to the cockpit, then i turn toward the quay heading and engage forward on tickover, with the shape of water rail I can turn in quite a lot the rope just stops me sliding too much down the quay heading, once the back is far enough out I generally flick the rope off the post and reverse away from the mooring, the rope neednt be too tight, oh yes as i get aboard I give the back a good shove too, sometimes thats all thats needed. i have never yet had the stern impossible to swing out to reverse out.

sorry, all the information should be there, but it was the only way I could copy the posts to a new thread without removing them from the original post

Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 13:15 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 12:52, dom said: Wet lead acid batteries generally lose their capacity due to sulphation, which sets in rapidly as soon as batteries drop much below around 12.4v. Above 12.4v, the charge keeps sulphur in suspension in the acid fluid. Once the charge drops, the sulphuric acid splits into water and sulphur, and the sulphur molecules adhere to the lead battery plates. The sulphur progressively masks the plates off, insulating them and stopping them conducting electricity in the intended manner. As the amount of masking increases, the battery charge capacity drops. Meantime's description above is a classic example of sulphation happening in practice. The battery still functions, but the Ah rating is dramatically lower than it should be. There is a widely held belief that sulphated batteries are scrap, and it's often proliferated by narrowboat liveaboards, but it is possible to reverse in some cases - as long as you catch it early on, the batteries are non-sealed (rather than VRLA) and have removable cell caps. I've had a reasonable success rate using a combination of charging and Granville "Bat-Aid" tablets. Adding 2 tablets per cell increases the acidity level in the cell, helping to break down the sulphation deposits. If you then use a battery charger with an aggressive desulphation cycle, if you're lucky, it'll remove the remaining sulphation by effectively vibrating it off the the plates at high frequency (a bit like how ultrasonic cleaners work). I used to sell a lot of CTEK chargers. I don't particularly like the way they run their business, but their products are technically very sophisticated and very high quality. The recondition cycle on their chargers desulphates at higher than normal voltage - up to 15.8v, which seems to be one of the keys to success recovering badly sulphated batteries. There probably are other chargers on the market which do similar, but I'm not aware of any offhand. For all of the above reasons, I'd always stick with good quality, open cap wet lead acid cells for marine use (unless you can stretch to lithium, or sodium ion becomes more mainstream). Disconnect every load when not in use, no matter how small (but obviously make provision for bilge pumps). If at all possible, keep batteries stored for long periods on a pulse charge, not a float charge, which will overcharge after prolonged periods. The latter is another area where I know CTEK are suitable, but not sure if others have caught up yet. Alternatively, solar can be used, but make sure it's on an MPPT, not a PWM charge controller - and long periods on float can still potentially be detrimental to battery life. Expand I'd agree about sulphation but in practice with the two batteries I've had problems with the issue has been only one of the six cells going faulty and often well within the warranty period. One was only 10 months old. These were batteries that developed a fault, as opposed to getting old and tired. A good three or four stage battery charger will desulphate a battery as part of its charge cycle. They will usually charge up to 14.8V for FLA and up to 14.4V for sealed or AGM batteries. This is more than a standard alternator will push out. Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! dom Members 468 Posted Thursday at 14:11 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 13:15, Meantime said: I'd agree about sulphation but in practice with the two batteries I've had problems with the issue has been only one of the six cells going faulty and often well within the warranty period. One was only 10 months old. These were batteries that developed a fault, as opposed to getting old and tired. I think that's the sort of issue which has led to some hire yards favouring Rolls batteries. The price is very premium, but the extra cost is easily offset against the cost of an engineer going out to an avoidable breakdown, or an aggravated customer. Also means you know you're getting a true deep cycle battery, and not just a standard FLA someone's stuck a dodgy label on. On 04/04/2024 at 13:15, Meantime said: A good three or four stage battery charger will desulphate a battery as part of its charge cycle. They will usually charge up to 14.8V for FLA and up to 14.4V for sealed or AGM batteries. This is more than a standard alternator will push out. The norm tends to be 14.7v for AGM, 14.4v for FLA/VRLA/gel. That's fine for routine use, but not for "repairing" maintenance related degradation where sulphation has been allowed to set in over winter or similar. Long term stored FLAs also suffer from stratification, where the acid splits into two distinct layers - one higher concentration acid, one water (which freezes more readily introducing other issues like case fracture and leaks). In some cases, it's helpful to have a charger which operates at higher voltage, to effectively boil the fluid. It can be beneficial to do this, as it "stirs" the acid content, removing stratification and the movement also helps to drive sulphur off the plates. I've always had best success recovering FLAs using tabs and a 15.8v charge. I used to manage a company which was one of the biggest UK retailers of CTEK's products - we actually had battles with them, as we ran a dedicated website and they accused us of passing off. As a result, I don't have a great opinion of them (IMO, they were trying to stop discounting) but their products were technically way ahead of anything else on the market. Most of the range were 8 stage units - although, annoyingly, not the marine ones back then. They do also do a really nice solar controller and DC/DC charger in one but, again, a bit fatally flawed only having a max input of 23v, so you have to parallel panels, which isn't always best in marine applications. Quote annv Full Members 1.4k Posted Thursday at 14:22 · IP (edited) Hi Many battery's problems are caused by not connecting them in parallel correctly.see diagram.Also checking the electrolyte level many battery's have the flush fillers hidden under the label across the top. John Edited Thursday at 14:26 by annv Graham47 1 Quote grendel Tech Team 15.6k Location: Canterbury Posted Thursday at 15:31 · IP A point to note for anyone considering changing over to lithium, or a mix of lead acid and lithium, lithium cant be charged directly from the alternator, it has to be passed via a DC/ DC converter, or it is likely to fry the alternator, lithium will quite happily devour as much charge as it can demand, this means the alternator is running at max output and more is still being demanded, thus burning out the alternator fairly quickly. there are videos out there that explain this in great detail, but I just wanted to make you aware. Graham47 and BroadAmbition 2 Quote Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 15:44 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 15:31, grendel said: A point to note for anyone considering changing over to lithium, or a mix of lead acid and lithium, lithium cant be charged directly from the alternator, it has to be passed via a DC/ DC converter, or it is likely to fry the alternator, lithium will quite happily devour as much charge as it can demand, this means the alternator is running at max output and more is still being demanded, thus burning out the alternator fairly quickly. there are videos out there that explain this in great detail, but I just wanted to make you aware. Sterling Power do a battery to battery charger that overcomes this problem. Effectively you connect a normal lead acid battery to the alternator and then the battery to battery charger between the lead acid battery and the Lithium batteries to isolate and limit current flow. They also do a battery chemistry module that can be connected to the output of your existing charger and then connected to the Lithium battery to supply the correct charge characteristics for Lithium batteries. Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! floydraser Full Members 2.5k Posted Thursday at 15:59 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 09:19, Meantime said: By Multicell, I mean the make Multicell, they have an office in Norwich and others around the country. In fairness to Multicell I have been using them for years for cars, caravans and the boat, with no problems at all. They were started in 1989 where I live and you can find the history on their website: https://www.multicell.co.uk/ They have expanded over the years and only recently opened a massive new depot. They've never been taken over and it still remains in the family.

BroadAmbition Events and Promo Team 8.8k Location: Gods Country Author Posted Wednesday at 23:29 · IP Last weekend whilst Bro and crew was out and about on t rivers, that issue of the battery power bank not lasting above five hours reared its ugly head once more. This time on Sunday night. Both Friday and Saturday nights they were hooked up to shore power so the six leisure batteries were fully charged. Then about three n half hours running before stopping for overnight at Womack Water. After five hours or so the display was showing only 10:5 volts in the system. This of course caused many systems to shut down. Firing up the Beta floated the system and all was good, but having to fire up the engine is no solution, especially if there are neighbouring craft and after 2000 So Monday in t wetshed after crews departed left me, Bro and Purdey dog in attendance. We checked and checked and tested and metered every which way we could think of. Both alternators are producing healthy voltage. The Sterling split charger is accepting load, all check lights are performing, we opened it up and gave it a gentle hoover out - All looks good. It is distributing voltage correctly. Both battery banks are receiving charging voltage correctly both from onboard alternators / solar panels and shore power. We know from last month that the batteries are good from the tests carried out. We also know there is no amperage drain, loose connections, there is no excessive amps drain when under load either. So what is the issue? It just has to be one or more of the batteries being tired. Yes they all pass a short sharp heavy load 'Drop' test but it seems a steady demand over a period of hours can't be accommodated as it should be. We had the same issue five years ago, we replaced the entire bank and all was cured and to the good. Now we could of course pratt about for hours trying to discover which battery (Or batteries) is at fault and just replace the one, sods law will then dictate that another one fails in short order. We have never since 2007 just replaced the odd battery in the leisure banks and have always fitted a complete complement Therefore we have decided to order six new uns. Best price so far we have found is £480:00 for six 130Amp Hrs items. Yes I know that we will be throwing out five potential good batteries that still have some life left in them, but what price peace of mind? Another way of looking at it is £480:00 over five years = £96:00 per year or per year per battery = £16 - doesn't sound a lot at that Once the new items are with me I will charge them here at home on a trickle charge, take them down and replace the present items onboard on a Saturday morning. Then its testing time, so a proper run will be called for, Ranworth or Thurne dyke, stop for an hour or so, then run back to Griffs Corner on t Ant arriving as early as I can. Here everything 12 and 240v that I can turn on, will be turned on for the duration through to around midnight, if its too warm for the Planar running flat out then all t windows will be opened. Sunday forenoon a run back to t wetshed then home. Of course being at Griffs Corner will give me the opportunity to do a spot of bank maintenance and push on with some further clearance wx permitting, so charging of the brush cutter batteries will be happening too Bro can't make it due to intending to waste a good walk in a Gentleman Only Ladies Forbidden competition, MrsG can't make it and if JT and Robin are not onboard then it'll be a solo crewing weekend for me (With Purdey) so I don't need it windy and more than 7ft7" airdraft at Ludham bridge please Griff MargeandParge, bucket, CeePee1952 and 2 others 5 Quote Typical, Just Typical !! Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 08:23 · IP Griff, This has happened twice to me, both times with Multicell batteries, I won't buy them now. It is also relatively easy to find the faulty battery. When charging a good battery from 10.5V, lets say using a 20amp charger, it will draw the full 20 amps and the voltage will gradually rise over time as the battery accepts a charge. Once the voltage is somewhere above 12.6V the charge current will start to drop until the voltage reaches either 14.4V or 14.8V depending what you have your charger set for. At this point the charger switches from bulk charge to equilisation charge for a set number of hours and then eventually into float or power pack mode. Your good battery will take hours to complete the bulk phase of charging. The faulty battery will take the full 20 amps for about 5 or 10 mins and the voltage will rise a lot quicker until it gets above 12.6V and the current starts to back off. It will then enter the equilisation mode very quickly and at this point is not really accepting a charge. It is this behaviour that messes with the charging of the other batteries when connected in parallel to the faulty battery. The alternator which generally doesn't put out as high a charge as your advanced battery charger will very quickly reach its maximum charge voltage and effectively stop charging the batteries. Your shore based charger once it reaches the equilisation phase is at this point not charging the faulty battery, but is putting something back into your other good batteries, which is why once you have left shore power your batteries will generally last longer than once they have been depleted and recharged on an alternator. Once the bad battery has started to discharge a little it will at this point be constantly held up by the remaining good batteries, thus providing the drain you haven't been able to find. A good battery should never be discharged down to 10.5V, but the faulty battery will happily keep draining your good batteries until they all read 10.5V. So for faultfinding. When the batteries have just gone down to 10.5V, disconnect them all and leave them for 5 mins. The good ones will probably recover slightly to something around 11V. The faulty one won't. The one reading the lowest is more than likely your faulty battery. If the batteries have just been charged on shore power, disconnect them all and measure the voltage. The faulty one will probably have a higher float voltage and typically be something above 13V. The others will all be the same and normally lower than the faulty one. Finally from flat, charge them all individually. If they are still accepting a bulk charge after 15 mins they are probably good. The faulty one will be in equilisation charge within about 5 to 10 mins. I would start with the one identified as the likely faulty one from the above measurements. I had a real battle with Multicell in exchanging faulty batteries. I'd take it there fully charged, they would do a quick drop test and pronounce it ok. It was only when I persuaded them to do a longer capacity test that they agreed they were faulty. Each 12.6V battery is made up of 6 x 2.1V cells. It's as if the faulty battery has 5 cells working normally and one that can only hold 3 or 4 amps. Hence the battery works ok until that one cell is discharged and then the battery quickly drops to 10.5V. When charging the faulty cell quickly stops accepting a charge, the voltage rises and stops the rest of the cells from charging fully. Bikertov, Vaughan, Karizma and 1 other 4 Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! BroadAmbition Events and Promo Team 8.8k Location: Gods Country Author Posted Thursday at 08:41 · IP Tks and understood. What do you buy instead of multicellular batteries? Griff Quote Typical, Just Typical !! Vaughan Full Members 7.5k Posted Thursday at 09:07 · IP (edited) On 03/04/2024 at 23:29, BroadAmbition said: Another way of looking at it is £480:00 over five years = £96:00 per year or per year per battery = £16 - doesn't sound a lot at that I agree with Meantime and would add that a "dead" cell in a battery is partially shorting owing to sediment that has fallen off the plates, and will therefore drain all the other cells and batteries in the same bank. I think your problem is simply "Anno Domini". BA is a boat which does a lot of cruising, all year round and 5 years battery life sounds quite reasonable. They wouldn't last that long in a hire boat! You can't equate this with a car battery as, by its very nature, a car battery is always fully charged (or should be). With domestic (slow discharge) batteries you are using them almost to capacity when moored at night and then charging up again when cruising next day. This is known as a CYCLE. Most domestic batteries will last about 600 cycles and after that they are finished. The number of cycles should be marked on them. Think about the number of nights that have been spent on BA over the last 5 years, as each one of them is a cycle of the batteries - unless you are hooked up to shore power. Edited Thursday at 09:09 by Vaughan word added You, annv, Bikertov and 1 other 4 × Quote Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 09:19 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 08:41, BroadAmbition said: Tks and understood. What do you buy instead of multicellular batteries? Griff By Multicell, I mean the make Multicell, they have an office in Norwich and others around the country. I used to buy Bosch leisure batteries from CostCo. I've had one of those last 15 years, but the later ones don't seem to be as good. More recently I've bought HLB700s from Halfords, but they seem to have doubled in price in recent years. The last pair I bought were Hankook XV110 which seem to get good reviews. I paid £159.51 for a pair from Battery Megastore on eBay. That included free delivery. I decided against Bosch or the Halfords batteries this time around as I really wanted to go for Lithium Ion, but think that prices still have some way to come down on them before adopting them and changing chargers etc. eBay link Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! MauriceMynah Full Members 8.7k Location: The Broads. Posted Thursday at 09:21 · IP If you do decide to change the whole bank, what do you plan to do with the old ones. I know a chap who would welcome them with open arms. Quote I think therefore I am. René Descartes. I sink therefore I was. Maurice Mynah. When your back is to the wall, don't give up, just turn and run. Vaughan Full Members 7.5k Posted Thursday at 09:30 · IP We used to swear by Elecsol batteries, which were very expensive, but were good for 1400 cycles, so they were worth the money. Unfortunately I don't think they are available any more. We then had good success with Optima batteries, which are sealed and maintenance free. They come in three colours ; red, blue and yellow, where yellow is the slow discharge version. They also have the advantage that they do not need installing in a sealed and ventilated battery box. Happy and Graham47 2 Quote Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 09:43 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 09:30, Vaughan said: We used to swear by Elecsol batteries, which were very expensive, but were good for 1400 cycles, so they were worth the money. Unfortunately I don't think they are available any more. We then had good success with Optima batteries, which are sealed and maintenance free. They come in three colours ; red, blue and yellow, where yellow is the slow discharge version. They also have the advantage that they do not need installing in a sealed and ventilated battery box. Elecsol were very good and used a new technology at the time, involving carbon fibre in the plates. The guy behind the technology passed away and I cannot remember if it was his business partner, or brother who carried on the business, but at that point he decided it was far cheaper to buy cheap batteries from the far East and trade off their previous good name until he run the business into the ground. When they were at their best, they were excellent and were universally praised by the caravan fraternity for their longevity. They were not cheap, but lasted well. Unfortunately when they moved to cheaper rebadged far East batteries the premium price tag remained. The remaining partner thought it would be viable to keep exchanging batteries under warranty, but destroyed the good name the batteries previously had, until trade dried up. Graham47 and Vaughan 2 Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! Meantime Full Members 4k Posted Thursday at 09:53 · IP Elecsol were two brothers Dennis and Stephen Gallimore. Dennis was an engineer and the brains behind the technology. He sadly died in 2005. A year or two after is when Stephen started to buy cheap standard batteries and rebadge them as Elecsol. The business then declined until about 2013 when it was dissolved. I'm never quite sure what happened to their patents because I've not seen batteries with carbon fibres in the plates since. Quote Make today so great! Tomorrow will be jealous! BroadAmbition Events and Promo Team 8.8k Location: Gods Country Author Posted Thursday at 11:01 · IP MauriceMynah - we intend to ring the local scrap merchant, even if it’s only £5 per item, that’s £30 towards the replacement costs Griff MauriceMynah 1 Quote Typical, Just Typical !! dom Members 468 Posted Thursday at 12:52 · IP On 04/04/2024 at 08:23, Meantime said: The faulty battery will take the full 20 amps for about 5 or 10 mins and the voltage will rise a lot quicker until it gets above 12.6V and the current starts to back off. It will then enter the equilisation mode very quickly and at this point is not really accepting a charge. Wet lead acid batteries generally lose their capacity due to sulphation, which sets in rapidly as soon as batteries drop much below around 12.4v. Above 12.4v, the charge keeps sulphur in suspension in the acid fluid. Once the charge drops, the sulphuric acid splits into water and sulphur, and the sulphur molecules adhere to the lead battery plates. The sulphur progressively masks the plates off, insulating them and stopping them conducting electricity in the intended manner. As the amount of masking increases, the battery charge capacity drops. Meantime's description above is a classic example of sulphation happening in practice. The battery still functions, but the Ah rating is dramatically lower than it should be. There is a widely held belief that sulphated batteries are scrap, and it's often proliferated by narrowboat liveaboards, but it is possible to reverse in some cases - as long as you catch it early on, the batteries are non-sealed (rather than VRLA) and have removable cell caps. I've had a reasonable success rate using a combination of charging and Granville "Bat-Aid" tablets. Adding 2 tablets per cell increases the acidity level in the cell, helping to break down the sulphation deposits. If you then use a battery charger with an aggressive desulphation cycle, if you're lucky, it'll remove the remaining sulphation by effectively vibrating it off the the plates at high frequency (a bit like how ultrasonic cleaners work). I used to sell a lot of CTEK chargers. I don't particularly like the way they run their business, but their products are technically very sophisticated and very high quality. The recondition cycle on their chargers desulphates at higher than normal voltage - up to 15.8v, which seems to be one of the keys to success recovering badly sulphated batteries. There probably are other chargers on the market which do similar, but I'm not aware of any offhand. For all of the above reasons, I'd always stick with good quality, open cap wet lead acid cells for marine use (unless you can stretch to lithium, or sodium ion becomes more mainstream). Disconnect every load when not in use, no matter how small (but obviously make provision for bilge pumps). If at all possible, keep batteries stored for long periods on a pulse charge, not a float charge, which will overcharge after prolonged periods. The latter is another area where I know CTEK are suitable, but not sure if others have caught up yet. Alternatively, solar can be used, but make sure it's on an MPPT, not a PWM charge controller - and long periods on float can still potentially be detrimental to battery life.