Check the battery terminals for corrosion and or battery deformation.
What is a gel cell deep cycle battery.
If the incorrect battery charger is used on a gel cell battery poor performance and premature failure is certain.
This article will focus on the differences between the main lead acid battery types used in the solar industry.
They are deep cycle batteries which means that they can discharge more and still be recharged like new.
A gelling agent is added to the electrolyte to reduce movement inside the battery case.
Disconnect the charger after the battery has been fully charged.
A deep cycle battery is a battery designed to be regularly deeply discharged using most of its capacity.
You ve got flooded lead acid and sealed lead acid batteries and the latter group can be broken down into agm absorbent glass mat and gel batteries.
Since gel batteries never spill they are sometimes referred to as non spillable batteries dry cell batteries or maintenance free gel batteries.
For example discharging a gel battery at 30 gives you about 2 600 cycles compared with only 1 200 cycles with agm batteries.
And contrasted with starter or cranking automotive batteries designed to deliver only a small part of their capacity in a short high current burst for cranking the engine.
Gel cell batteries aren t that way.
Every battery type has a different purpose and use case so let s go over the pros and cons of each.
A gel battery design is typically a modification of the standard lead acid automotive or marine battery.
Of course a higher cycle life doesn t come for free.
The battery is well suited to different uses ranging from boats scooter and even wheelchairs.
Many people looking to switch from wet cell to gel batteries see this as the biggest drawback.
For those who are interested to go for deep cycle rv batteries the most commonly used types and designs under this category are divided into three the conventional flooded cell battery the gel battery and the absorbed glass mat agm battery.
The term is traditionally mainly used for lead acid batteries in the same form factor as automotive batteries.
Battery chargers with gel profile will have information either on the unit or in the manual about gel compatibility.
Many gel batteries also use one way valves in place of open vents which help the normal internal gasses to recombine back into water in the battery.
The universal ub121000 45978 agm battery is a high end deep cycle battery with crank ratings of up 13 8v.
In fact if you discharge a gel battery to 90 it will give 700 cycles which is more cycles than an agm battery discharged at only 50.
A deformed battery or corrosion on the terminals is subject to failure.
While the benefits of a gel battery are pretty hefty so is the price tag.
The cons the price.
The battery also has a power of 100ah which is very impressive and ensures that the battery lasts for a long period.
Gel cell batteries are deep cycle batteries that contain an electrolyte which is suspended in a gel solution between lead plates.