NorthStar Battery Question

[Karkov]

Parasitic draw?  

 

I am more curious what voltage the charger brings the battery to when you first hook it up before it starts to decrease.  That's a good charger though.  Yes, if you hook up D3100 and pretend it float rests normal at around 13.0 then yes the Northstar will continually drag it down to 12.6 and long term may shorten it's life.  =(

 

I dont know what else to tell you.  Maybe research if Northstars rest that low?  So some more testing?  

[audiofanaticz]

Voltage is about normal, typically 2.1 volts per cell and with 6 cells thats 12.6 volts. A fully charged cell is about 2.2 volts so 13.2 volts when you take it off the charger but once the battery rests it will drop.

Only thing you can do is take it out of the vehicle, make sure it has a full charge and then take it to an autoparts store to get it load tested for free, if it instantly drops voltage to around 9-10 volts its bad, if it holds the 12volts range for a bit its fine.

Also, there is more than just an alarm led blinking in a car when the vehicle is off, the alarm uses power when its armed, and then you have other things like the radio memory that uses a little bit of juice.

As Karkov said, you may a parasitic draw.
Maybe you have something like a glove box light or trunk light that is on for some reason and draining your battery.
You can test this rather easily if you have a digital multi-meter, you should be under 100ish milliamps of draw when the vehicle is off. There are a lot of videos on youtube to show you how to test this.

[Mitchaford]

Ill just toss this in there. 

It is summer time and heat is a bitch with electrical. 

Right now my system max voltage out after everything set for a bit is 13.6

Thats a full volt lower than what I normally see during normal months. 

 

[audiofanaticz]

^^^ The lower voltages seen when the car is running due to heat shouldnt really impact a batteries resting state when the vehicle is not and has not been ran for 2 days.
Extreme heat can hurt batteries and not the cold like people think (unless its lithium and then you need to let the cells warm up in some cases), but again unless the battery is sitting an inch away from the exhaust manifold or the battery is not meant for under hood use it should be fine under normal conditions.
However unless you are literally cooking the battery by sending a high voltage and or amperage into it when being charged (either by a battery charger or an externally regulated alternator, or an alternator going bad) it shouldn't really be an issue in this case.

[jayhwd]

i emailed the seller and told him my group 31 northstars are resting at 13v and his reply was

 

"Again, not a good idea to mix chemistries & capacities and I look forward to the conversation. Glad you have a good charger
Have a great weekend." 

 

seems like he doesnt know what hes talking about as theyre all AGM so how would i be mixing chemistrys lol

[jayhwd]

got an email back from northstar heres what they said

 

Jay,

 

I would suggest equalization.  The 12.6 battery could be discharged way down and then fully charged.  This could be repeated a couple of times, but that would be the most effective way to ensure it does not effect the other batteries in the parallel circuit.  Let me know if you need anything else.