batteries

BATTERYS

in the battery there are led plates that have a flow of elctrons from positive to negitive on either one. the is filled with hydrocloric acid that creates a chemical reaction and produces power.

plates are stored one by one in order positive negitive. with a fine material inbetween each plate to alow the aid to get through but keep the plates from touching eachother and short circuiting the battery.

fully charged battery is 12.6 to 12.75 v

on the top is a negative post/terminal and positive post/terminal. 

how does a battery charge- 

plate 1(positive) pb + O2

plate 2 pb (negitive) 

as they charge it creates H2, so4, 

lead = pb

temperature and battery power.

-80 f = 100%

-32 f = 65%

-0 f = 30%

BATERY MAINTENANCE

first thing you do when checking a battery is a visual check (USE YOUR EYES). go through a rutein of checking the condition. is it covered cirosion, if so then clean it. check the terminals are not loose. is the case distorted. check for cracks or leaks in the case. 

secondly check the volts on the battery. connect the multimeter up to the battery. you should have a reading of at least 12.6v. make sure everything is turned of. if its not at least 12.6 volts try charging it. 

to test the battery you need it to be charged at least 50% = 12.4v. have this on slow charge. if you fast charge a battery it can over heat it and cause swelling.

if this does not work check for surface charge. the way to get rid of surface charge is turn on your lights and leave them on for 2mins.

clean your battery to keep it in the best condition. clean the case or els it can have a build up of dust and that becomes a conductor through the dirt and that draws some of the volts. lube the terminals to keep in good condition.

CHECKS

when checking your battery with the multimeter by OCV (OPEN CURRENT VOLTS) first thing is make sure you have a good contact on the terminals ( that can mean the difference of 6v).

SAFETY

things that can go wrong- battery acid, hydrogen gas, wait. always wear protective clothing and keep away sparks and flames away from them. 

- burning

- electricution

.ALWAYS CONNECT THE POSITIVE FIRST AND TAKE POSITIVE OF LAST.

                                                            -OUR TESTING-

                                        NUMBER ONE TEST = VISUAL FIRST

When we first started testing just the battery to check if it had the right amount of volts we ran into the problem that if you do no make a firm connection on the terminals then you will not get  reading or at least not an accurate one.

Then when we did an OCV test on the battery to check its voltage. we found that it had 12.49v. a battery can have further testing done on it as long as it is above 50% (12.4v) charged.

Our next test was to check the batteries electrolyte specific gravity. for this test we used a hydrometer to take sampiles of each cells fluid. all of the cells tested posotive as all green and in the 12.7 range. things to watch out for when looking at the cell fluid is to see if its murky or clear. if its murky the plates are disintergrating. our batteries specific gravity variation was 0.02. this was a pass for this test.

The next test was a high rate discharge test. using a load tester we load the battery with more amps to see if it can hold up to the pressure that the batter is sapposed to. the amount of amps that you load is half of the cca (cold cranking amps) displade on the battery cover. how load was at 275A. while putting the load on the battery the volts must stay above 9.5v. this load test is to be carried out for 15 seconds max. our resaults were 10v held with a load current held at 275A. this test was a pass.

Our last test was checking the parasitic draw. this is done to check if any components in the car e.g. lights or radio. have drained the battery while the car is off. Our first check is to see if the amp fuse ok. next is to record any radio stations in the cars memory. now check the amp draw. our was 63 amps.

Testing the battery on a car is one of the most important and most simple checks that must be done. alot of the common problems that customers come in for are battery related e.g. dead battery. flat battery. or even just poor mantinence like cleaning.