Check battery state
Same as a 12-volt cell, charge the battery fully first, then let sit a few hours.
Get a hydrometer from the nearest auto store, and measure the specific gravity of each cell (directions and measurements will be in the package). Each cell should read a value (for instance 1.20). If all are in the good range, then something else is going on. If one is low (for instance 1.0, while the rest are 1.2), try to run the battery down pretty low, then fully recharge it again, then retest. If same problem, that low cell is dying.
Not much you can really do about it though, once a cell starts failing the battery is pretty much done for. Although it'll be hidden some, because you have 24 cells averaging out to 48V, so a cell that should be "2.0" nominal, reading only 1.0V for instance, isn't going to make much difference.
However the rest of the cells are going to begin having problems quickly as they reverse charge through the dead cell, etc. It'll also affect other batteries, as they begin to reverse charge through the dying battery, or fail to completely charge (or overcharge) as a result of the charging circuit trying to get back to 48V. (If you only have 46V of nominal cell capacity (due to one dead cell), the charger is going to want to keep charging until it reaches 48V (actually higher, the fully-charged cutoff is above nominal, not going into that here). So basically it's going to overcook the rest, trying to get to that peak value that it wants to reach.
12/4/2013 10:59:24 PM •
Intermatic...
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Answered
on Dec 04, 2013
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