My delta q charger is boiling my batteries (9-8v lead acid). This has been happening since I got it a few years ago and am now finally looking to address it. The charger is set to profile 13, should it be changed to profile 32? I don’t ever drain the batteries below 50%, will the charger time out before the batteries are charged? Does anyone know what kind acid I can use to replace the acid that has boiled over and how to determine how much to put back?
This has been happening for two years and you are only addressing it now? Yikes!
A little boiling is normal. If you have alot of boiling on just a few cells this may mean you have a few cells going bad. Time to get the meter and probe things out. Let the pack cool down off charge and check the V of each battery. Write it down. Take it for a hard run and check them again. Did any of them drop more than the others? Try to boost the low ones individually with a car charger (difficult to do with 8V batteries) to bring them up to the others.
For general reference, you should ONLY be adding distilled water to your LA cells.
Depending on how the car is used, you should be checking at least once a month until you get a handle on the condition of your pack. Hopefully the water level has not dropped below the plates.
Consider installing a battery watering system to make topping water an easy job.
I keep an eye on them, I’m not sure how bad exactly they are boiling over but I can usually see spots on the pavement where the acidic water has dripped, and after it rains and water makes it’s way down to the battery tray, it’s even more noticeable. They all seem to do it and all stay evenly charged and are healthy. I only use distilled water. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a watering system compatible with my batteries.
It sure sounds like it is running them a bit high and hot. Have you run through the installed profiles to see what you have? It shouldn’t be gassing enough to be dripping acid.
Have you checked to see it you are actually still on 13? Does the charger eventually ramp down and go to green light? Take some readings when that happens.
I haven’t tried 32 and don’t have numbers to see what it does. I suppose you could run it and see if it does anything different and switch back if it is worse.