Bulldog batteries anyone?

[kgsc]

Well that was too easy http://debrickbatteries.com/

[JGDUSC]

Cool info guys. I didn't have time to mess with today so glad somebody did. Thanks for the link KG. I was on their site last night as I was intrigued to say the least. Might be worth it for such a large increase in amp hours. Best i have found Trojans T105s is 105 including core and taxes.

Maybe they will come down a little in order to get some feedback on such an awesome source of information such as this place. But hard to argue with proven track records. Not sure if they even have an 8volt set and since my beach cart doesn't get the use and maintenance as my cart here would be scared to try it there.

Guessing our stock chargers will work?

[gornoman]

Interesting info from their website:


Opportunity Charging

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Opportunity charging is the act of charging a battery during break time, lunch time, or any opportunity that presents
itself during the work day.

Detrimental Effects
•Opportunity charging adds abnormal heat during the discharge cycle and one more cycle to the battery,
reducing its life without producing any appreciable increase in run time.
•Each time a battery is charged, whether for one minute or eight hours, constitutes a cycle. The battery
has a built in death, by design, of 1500 cycles. This effectively decreases the battery life to less than
two years.
•Opportunity charging not only increases the cycles on the battery life, but the heat added while charging
causes additional damage to the plates further accelerating the battery death, reducing the expected
cycles from 1500 to as low as 1100 or less.

Proper charging with one cycle per 24 hour period is all that is necessary. If the work can't get done with a normal
cycle you will have to consider purchasing a larger battery for the job or purchasing additional batteries for change out.

[JGDUSC]

That certainly contradicts most of what I have read here. I thought opportunity charfing was a good thing? Mine is on a trickle charger all the time!

[JGDUSC]

After the big one does its duty

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by gornoman

Interesting info from their website:


Opportunity Charging

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Opportunity charging is the act of charging a battery during break time, lunch time, or any opportunity that presents
itself during the work day.

Detrimental Effects
•Opportunity charging adds abnormal heat during the discharge cycle and one more cycle to the battery,
reducing its life without producing any appreciable increase in run time.
•Each time a battery is charged, whether for one minute or eight hours, constitutes a cycle. The battery
has a built in death, by design, of 1500 cycles. This effectively decreases the battery life to less than
two years.
•Opportunity charging not only increases the cycles on the battery life, but the heat added while charging
causes additional damage to the plates further accelerating the battery death, reducing the expected
cycles from 1500 to as low as 1100 or less.

Proper charging with one cycle per 24 hour period is all that is necessary. If the work can't get done with a normal
cycle you will have to consider purchasing a larger battery for the job or purchasing additional batteries for change out.

Appears to be a slight conflict between battery manufacturers.

The entire charging instruction document from US Battery is the attached .pdf file. The picture below is just the first two paragraphs.

[gornoman]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

Appears to be a slight conflict between battery manufacturers.

I looked over their entire website. They have been making batteries since 1977, they present no actual data to support there claims, and no one here has ever heard of them.

Coincidence? Perhaps.........

[JGDUSC]

I know they have been showing commercials here for about two years that I remember. Bit cheesy commercials but caught my ear when they said golf cart batteries and I had ever heard anyone mention on here either. Wasn't specifically for this new one though

[FuturoMan]

Isn't the US Battery recommendations sort of contradicting themselves??

U.S. Battery recommend the use of "opportunity charging".....at every opportunity....
with:
Finally, the charging process should result in a fully charged battery......

Isn't this a contradiction if the opportunity charging doesn't result in a full charge???

From Bulldog:
Each time a battery is charged, whether for one minute or eight hours, constitutes a cycle.
(Is this true?)
The battery has a built in death, by design, of 1500 cycles. This effectively decreases the battery life to less than
two years.

How many charge cycle for Trojans?

If I use my cart for even less then 5 min when I stop it's back on the charger.

If I use my cart for chores and I take a brake it's back on the charger.

[JohnnieB]

The opportunity charging statement from US Battery simply says if you don't have the time available to fully charge their batteries during the cart's daily use, you should charge them for the amount of time that is available rather than further discharging them.

In other words, if the cart's routine daily use took the batteries down to 50%, put it on charge for half an hour or so while having lunch and the batteries would only be down to 60% Soc at the end of the day, and would have to be replaced quite as soon.

This conflicts with what Bulldog Battery recommends. Personally, I lean towards the US Battery philosophy.

------
The second statement from US Battery does not conflict with their statement about opportunity charging. When read in its entirety, it is the fourth of four objectives pertaining to battery charging and describes the conditions that should be achieved through charging, when there is the time available to "fully" charge the battery.

-----------
From Bulldog:
Each time a battery is charged, whether for one minute or eight hours, constitutes a cycle.
(Is this true?)

Yes, but the battery's lifespan is tied into the number of cycles available and number of cycle available varies proportionally with the average State of Charge maintained.

The battery has a built in death, by design, of 1500 cycles. This effectively decreases the battery life to less than
two years.

Bulldog batteries may design their batteries to only have 1500 cycle, but other manufacturers use a sliding scale that increases drastically when higher average SoC is maintained

----------------

If your average State of charge is kept to 70% Trojan says you'll get 2,044 cycles with their batteries and US Battery says you'll 2,050 with theirs.
At an 50% SoC average they say 1,287 and 1,150 respectfully.

-------------

If I'm pretty sure I'll be using my cart within an hour or so, I don't plug it in, but it depends on how log the trip I just completed was. Two or three miles, I'll just let is sit next to the steps where it is more convenient. Ten miles or more, it goes on the charger and I walk another fifty feet.