First, ensure your budget. When you decide to buy an AGM VRLA battery, I think you know some different prices among different brands and features. By setting a budget before your shopping, it will be easier to practice fiscal discipline. Of course, it is Ok to spend slightly more than you have budgeted for your batteries, but stay as close to it as possible.
Next, do an informal demand analysis. You need to ask you some questions. “What do you want to use the battery for?” “Where you will use it often?” Make sure your purpose of buying this AGM VRLA battery, and then you will find which features the battery must have and some might not be in use. Let your investment to get the largest value.
Then shop around online or in the local shop. Of course, you can ensure the model and brand through searching for the officer website, and then buy the battery in the local shop. It will help you save a lot of time and energy to pick up it among many shops.
Finally take it for a text. If you have decided which one is your best choice, then you should take the AGM VRLA battery for a test before lastly deciding whether or not to buy it. This will allows you to experience whether it is the one which meet your demand. Some batteries look very beautiful, but if you have a drive on it, you will find it is not as good as its appearance. The test is very important. It will let you know whether it is suitable for your use. Of course, after testing, you also need to check all the specifications which the AGM VRLA battery should originally have.
The article is closed to the end. Buying anything also needs a demand analysis. I think you won’t purchase an idle item to display on your home, so it all depends on your choice whether it is worth to use or purchase. Just follow me to buy the right AGM VRLA battery. Know more information from Leoch International, which is an excellent manufacturer of lead acid battery. The company is a public company which has over 10 year’s history and it is very reliable and dependable. If you are interested in the company, you can search for more information in the internet. The office website is http://www.leoch.com.
Checking the sharp of motorcycle battery is ok, and detecting the case whether is bulging, spilling, split up, corrosive of terminal. If these are going on, your motorcycle battery is bad.
Second, checking the voltage of battery
1. In charging after 2 hours, check the voltage of a single cell of battery in three times at intervals of 20 minutes. If the single cell of battery voltage exceeds 15V or less than 13V, indicating that the motorcycle battery has some problems.
2. In discharging, use multimeter to measure the voltage of a single cell of battery in three times at intervals of 10 minutes. If the one of single cell of battery voltage fall off faster than others, and the voltage less than 10V, plus the minimum discharge time, this battery is problem battery.
3. Check the static voltage (float power) of the single cell of battery, when the voltage is zero, there are two possibilities: one is the battery completely open circuit, the circuit blocked cause the voltage to zero. Another is the battery place too long to the voltage as low as 1-2V, even zero.
Final to check whether the electrolyte is “water loss”, black.
In charging after 3-6 hours, touch the side of each cell of battery case, if the battery is very hot, this battery is necrotic. If only a little heat, and the temperature at 40 degree, while charging the charger light always red, indicating the battery is serious “water loss”. In addition, you can open the battery cover and check the “water loss” status.
Electrolyte status can judge whether the plate is good or bad. Open the above cover of motorcycle battery, and you can see six circular holes, check the color of the electrolyte of each hole, if black, indicating the plate lead powder had come off, and this motorcycle battery is bad.
Driven by diverse applications, two sealed lead acid battery types have emerged. They are the sealed lead acid (SLA), and the valve regulated lead acid (VRLA). Technically, both batteries are the same. Engineers may argue that the word 'sealed lead acid' is a misnomer because no lead acid battery can be totally sealed.
The charge voltage setting on VRLA is generally lower than SLA. Heat is a killer of VRLA. Many stationary batteries are kept in shelters with no air conditioning. Every 8°C (15°F) rise in temperature cuts the battery life in half. A VRLA battery, which would last for 10 years at 25°C (77°F), will only be good for 5 years if operated at 33°C (95°F). Once damaged by heat, no remedy exists to improve capacity.
The cell voltages of a VRLA battery must be harmonized as close as possible. Applying an equalizing charge every 6 months brings all cells to similar voltage levels. This is done by increasing the cell voltage to 2.50V/cell for about 2 hours. During the service, the battery must be kept cool and careful observation is needed. Limit cell venting. Most VRLA vent at 0.3 bar (5 psi). Not only does escaping hydrogen deplete the electrolyte, it is highly flammable.
Water permeation, or loss of electrolyte, is a concern with sealed lead acid batteries. Adding water may help to restore capacity but a long-term fix is uncertain. The battery becomes unreliable and requires high maintenance.
VRLA battery is generally used for stationary applications. Their capacities range from 30Ah to several thousand Ah and are found in larger UPS systems for power backup. Typical uses are mobile phone repeaters, cable distribution centers, Internet hubs and utilities, as well as power backup for banks, hospitals, airports and military installations.
Unlike the flooded lead acid battery, both the SLA and VRLA are designed with a low overvoltage potential to prohibit the battery from reaching its gas-generating potential during charge. Excess charging would cause gassing and water depletion. Consequently, the SLA and VRLA can never be charged to their full potential.
The lead acid cell can be demonstrated using sheet lead plates for the two electrodes. However such a construction produces only around one ampere for roughly postcard sized plates, and for only a few minutes.
Gaston Planté found a way to provide a much larger effective surface area. In Planté's design, the positive and negative plates of lead acid battery were formed of two spirals of lead foil, separated with a sheet of cloth and coiled up. The cells initially had low capacity, so a slow process of "forming" was required to corrode the lead foils, creating lead dioxide on the plates and roughing them to increase surface area. Initially this process used electricity from primary batteries; when generators became available after 1870, the cost of production of batteries greatly declined. Planté plates are still used in some stationary applications, where the plates are mechanically grooved to increase their surface area.
Faure pasted-plate construction is typical of automotive batteries. Each plate consists of a rectangular lead grid alloyed with antimony or calcium to improve the mechanical characteristics. The holes of the grid are filled with a paste of red lead and 33% dilute sulfuric acid. (Different manufacturers vary the mixture). The paste is pressed into the holes in the grid which are slightly tapered on both sides to better retain the paste. This porous paste allows the acid to react with the lead inside the plate, increasing the surface area many fold. At this stage the positive and negative plates are similar, however expanders and additives vary their internal chemistry to assist in operation. Once dry, the plates are stacked with suitable separators and inserted in the battery container. An odd number of plates is usually used, with one more positive plate than negative. Each alternate plate is connected.
The positive plates are the chocolate brown color of Lead(IV) Oxide, and the negative are the slate gray of 'spongy' lead at the time of manufacture. In this charged state the plates are called 'formed'.
One of the problems with the plates is that the plates increase in size as the active material absorbs sulfate from the acid during discharge, and decrease as they give up the sulfate during charging. This causes the plates to gradually shed the paste. It is important that there is room underneath the plates to catch this shed material. If it reaches the plates, the cell short-circuits.
The paste contains carbon black, blanc fixe (barium sulfate) and lignosulfonate. The blanc fixe acts as a seed crystal for the lead–to–lead sulfate reaction. The blanc fixe must be fully dispersed in the paste in order for it to be effective. The lignosulfonate prevents the negative plate from forming a solid mass during the discharge cycle, instead enabling the formation of long needle–like crystals. The long crystals have more surface area and are easily converted back to the original state on charging. Carbon black counteracts the effect of inhibiting formation caused by the lignosulfonates. Sulfonated naphthalene condensate dispersant is a more effective expander than lignosulfonate and speeds up formation. This dispersant improves dispersion of barium sulfate in the paste, reduces hydroset time, produces a more breakage-resistant plate, reduces fine lead particles and thereby improves handling and pasting characteristics. It extends battery life by increasing end–of–charge voltage. Sulfonated naphthalene requires about one-third to one-half the amount of lignosulfonate and is stable to higher temperatures.
About 60% of the weight of an automotive-type lead acid battery rated around 60 Ah (8.7 kg of a 14.5 kg battery) is lead or internal parts made of lead; the balance is electrolyte, separators, and the case.
If you want to know more, please visit http://www.leoch.com