Re: Optima Group 31 batteries

[Michael A Perry <mperry@efn.org>]

Just a quick note... I had 2 batteries that were doing this. These batteries
were only 3-6 months old. We did a check and found a dead cell in each battery.
On SG tests, they showed a drop of .5 over the other cells (bad). The batteries
showed full voltage under no load, though. Range was dropped 30%, too.

I think the gassing was from the battery trying to keep the weak cell operable.

"Joseph H. Strubhar" wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Thomas Shay <tshay@ix.netcom.com>
> To: <ev@listproc.sjsu.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 8:58 PM
> Subject: Optima Group 31 batteries
>
> >   There was a lot of discussion about these batteries in, I think, 1997
> and 1998
> >
> > on this discussion list.  But, there's been  nothing for a year or so
> unless I
> > blinked too long and missed it.  What happened?  Did Optima change their
> > mind about offering these batteries?
>
> Tom, they built quite a few of them, but sold almost all of them to the US
> Army
> Vehicle Development group. I got a few of them, John got a few, Mark M. got
> some, etc. But now Optima has decided to rebuild the assembly line for these
> batteries, and they are no longer available, or not at least for several
> years. John
> says he's almost sure that if he would go back to the factory, they'd have a
> bunch
> sitting in a back room somewhere!
>
> I'm not too sure what's going on with mine - I've installed them in my
> Datsun pickup,
> and am not getting the range I expected out of them. With the G24/27 YT's, I
> was
> getting about 13 miles max range - so far, I'm only getting about 15 with
> the 31's. One
> of them is gassing some right after I get done driving it, and continues to
> gas all during
> charging. I'm assuming that's why I'm not getting the range I expected. I
> talked to John
> about it, and he is as puzzled as I am.
>
> What I mean by gassing - if you cover the vents with water, they bubble. All
> the batteries
> are doing this very lightly during charge, but the one does it almost all
> the time; anyone
> got any ideas? The charger is a Russco 30 amp, but is only putting about 14
> amps into
> the batteries at the fastest rate.
>
> Joseph H. Strubhar
>
> E-Mail: joe@gremcoinc.com
>
> Web: http://www.gremcoinc.com