"Tim R" wrote in message
...
On Monday, July 7, 2014 10:37:42 PM UTC-4, josephkk wrote:



Lead acid batteries are kind of strange. They share a property with

NiCads in that they can be (re)conditioned. This consists of taking them

up to full charge then running them down to about 75% and bringing then

back to full again. Do this 3 or 4 cycles and it will improve capacity

and longevity.

I'm not sure that's correct. I recently saw a reference that basically
says the deeper you discharge a lead acid the less life you get. I'll try
and find that again.

Apparently this especially the case with SLA batteries, I've seen the figure
quoted of 11V that you should cut off the load to prevent permanent loss of
capacity - You can of course buy a leisure battery which is designed for
deep discharge, as long as you don't go too deep too often (and charge it
back up again before sulphation sets in).

AFAIK - Ni-Cd cells like to be fully discharged every once in a while - but
not in a battery of series cells.

All cells are not created equal, and any that run flat first will be reverse
charged by the others - which really does hit capacity!