Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyS9
Dave we have debated this before, to restate
There are many reference by trustworthy sources explaining that the calcium change increases the charge tolerance, this does not increase the starting charging voltage. 12V batteries will start charging at any voltage above about 12.6V or so, its just very slow. If there is energy going into the battery it is charging. Even the dodgy wiki states that the problem is the battery not getting fully charged, not that it starts charging at a higher voltage. It will not get fully charged simply if it is not given enough time to charge. This is a common today in new car bought by pensioners who drive the car for 5mins to the shop.
The history seems to be a vehicle manufacturer (Ford) stating that you cannot fit other types of battery other than the one supplied by them (requiring a specific calcium chemistry). There are many online reference specifically dissagreeing with this and that it is classic anti-repair misinformation.
There are also a number of people experiencing charging problems with newer batteries, this guy tells you all you need to know';
"I'm just going to ignore the science, we don't need facts", he then goes to show his charging system is working at 13V-13.7V, which he thinks is normal (although he doesn't show the load state of the electrical system, possibly this is just at idle with no other loads).
He blames the battery because its calcium, and upgrades his charging system to 14.5V and for some reason his high load loses are now only 0.4V instead of around 1V. His system is now working at the voltage it was intended for some of the time, other times its higher than it should be (14.1-14.5). Possibly it was just his brush/regulator module that was the problem.
https://youtu.be/RQFttbZnIfw |
You are correct that we have debated it before Tony, however you are incorrect in almost everything else you state.
Firstly the nominally 12V battery fitted to most of our cars is 6 cells, each of 2.2V each = 13.2V. To even get those to charge, the voltage needs to be a minimum of 0.1V per cell above that, viz 13.8V but to get the battery to the gassing point which it needs to do to desulphate, it needs to be in the region of 14.4-14.0V consistently.
Using silver-calcium as a coating on the plates of lead-acid batteries instead of lead-antimony increases the gasing voltage by ~0.1V per cell so 15.1-14.7V to charge at the gassing point. Without reahing the gassing point, the battery will sulphate rapidly, rendering it fairly useless in very short order.
If i'm so wrong about this, why have so many manufacurers increased the charging voltages on their vehicles to cope with calcium technology batteries? They have been in use for ~25 years now and caught me out at first but i was 25 years younger then and found someone somewhat older that had already encountered them and was explained the facts to by them. These facts have not changed in a quarter of a century and neither have the laws of physics.
For other batteries that do not require any desulphation techniques during recharging, what you say is likely to be correct - however for automtive batteries and similar, it's not.
As for calling the wiki article dodgy, there are many of them, each giving similar information, are they all dodgy? As for the YT guy saying he's going to ignore the science, i'd call him a congenital halfwit but that would be over-generous by at least 7/16!