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| Battery
Storage, Care & Maintenance |
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| The Storage or shelf life of a VRLA
battery is usually between 12 and 18 months at 20
degree starting From a charged condition. |
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Warning ¨C Never store in a discharged
or partially discharged state.
Always store in a dry, clean, cool environment in
a fully packaged condition.
If storage of 12 months or longer is required supplementary
charging will be required. |
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Design
Life
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Float
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Each
battery type will be have a prescribed float
design life. Please be aware of this life
expectancy and replace the battery as End-of-life
approaches. Keep a reference or lable the
battery to show its date of installation
to facilitate replacement at the correct
time. Factors other than time may affect
the life of the battery and this will be
indicated by a reduction in capacity. The
battery should be required duty. This may
be well in advance of its design life if,
for example, the ambient temperature is
considerably above 20 degree ie 30 degree
or more.
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Cyclic
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Each
battery suited to cyclic use will reach
End-of-life after a prescribed number of
cycles. This number is dependant upon the
depth of discharge of each cycle. The deeper
the discharge, the less number of cycles
to End-of-life. Depth of discharge is expressed
as the percentage of the battery capacity
required per duty cycle.
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| Battery
Care |
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| Each CCB VRLA battery is supplied
I a charged condition having passed stringent quality
checks.To ensure optimum battery performance and
life, it helps to take care of your battery by observing
the following: |
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| Sulphation/Undercharge |
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Warning
¨C Never leave a VRLA Battery in a discharged state.
If a battery has an open-circuit voltage lower than
its rated value, then sulphation may well be the
cause. |
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When a battery is left a discharged
state or for prolonged periods of storage, lead
sulphate crystals begin to form acting as a barrier
to recharge and will prevent normal battery operation.
Depending on the degree of sulphation, battery may
be recovered from this condition by constant current
charging at a higher voltage with the current limited
to one tenth of the battery capacity for a maximum
of 12 hours. |
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| Note:
The applied voltage will exceed the normal recommendation
and so the battery must be monitored (not left unattended)
and removed from charge if excess heat is dissipated.
The voltage required to ¡ãforce¡± this maximum current
into the battery will reduce as the battery recovers
until normal charging can take place. |
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| In
extreme circumstances a battery may never fully
recover from sulphation and must therefore be replaced. |
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| Overcharge |
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| As
mentioned in Section 4 optimum charging relies mainly
on voltage, current and temperature factors which
are interrelated and all of which can cause overcharge.
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| Excessive
charge voltages will force a high overcharge current
into the battery, which will dissipate as heat,
and may cause gas emission through the safety valve.
Within a short period of time this will corrode
the positive plate material and accelerate the battery
towards end-of-life. |
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Under these conditions the heat produced inside
the battery can lead to thermal runaway due to the
increased electrochemical reaction within the battery.
The battery may swell before failing and will be
irrecoverable from this state. This situation is
potentially dangerous. |
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| Temperature |
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Warning
- Heat Kills Batteries.
The recommended normal operating temperature is
20¡æ. |
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| HIGH
TEMPERATURE will reduce battery service life often
quite dramatically (see figure 2 and 3).In extreme
cases this can cause Thermal Runaway, resulting
in high oxygen/hydrogen gas production and battery
swelling. Batteries are irrecoverable from this
condition and should be replaced. |
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