Kinetik Charging Voltage

[alvitae]

I recently had my two kinetik 1800's checked and one was at 147 cca's and the other was 54 cca's,

The new ones should be here in two weeks and I was wondering about the care of them so this don't happen again. my alternator would read over 15 volts when charging, 15.7 usually when starting up first thing in the morning. Could that have been what burned them up? Perhaps because one of them was bulged pretty good.

Here is what kinetiks site said.

The proper charging range for Kinetik Power Cells is between 13.5 and 14.4 volts. Any quality battery charger will stay in this range. To “bulk” charge or quick charge your Power Cell for one to three hours use voltages between 14 and 14.4 volts. To saturate (fully charge) or maintain your Power Cell for extended periods of times up to months at a time, use a float voltage between 13.5 and 13.8 volts.

So maybe they are getting over charged?

I never let them die and if I wasn't driving the car for awhile I disconnected them and they were less than a year old.

[Neo_frog]

I recently had my two kinetik 1800's checked and one was at 147 cca's and the other was 54 cca's,

The new ones should be here in two weeks and I was wondering about the care of them so this don't happen again. my alternator would read over 15 volts when charging, 15.7 usually when starting up first thing in the morning. Could that have been what burned them up?

Here is what kinetiks site said. So maybe they are getting over charged?

I never let them die and if I wasn't driving the car for awhile I disconnected them and they were less than a year old.

It's normal for charging voltage to be high when you first start the car. Especially in the cold weather. However, your voltage does seem a little high. Are you regulating the voltage with something?

[alvitae]

No, Not regulating with anything but I am using the audiocontrol epic-160 volt gauge as a reference so it could be off a bit I know the decibel reader is, But it settles down to 14.6 after it charged the batteries up.

[soundzright]

for normal daily use I would stay between 14.4 and 14.9v

[loopkiller]

15.7V is WAY too high for daily use. You basically ruined the batteries. Sounds like it is time to buy some new ones.

[Neo_frog]

15.7V is WAY too high for daily use. You basically ruined the batteries. Sounds like it is time to buy some new ones.

He already has new ones on the way. 15.7 isn't bad on a very cold day after the car sits for a few days if it's not for extended periods of time. If the alt drops to 14.6 after warming up, it should be fine.

And running constantly at 15.7 isn't the worst thing you can do if you have a large bank.

alvitae, did your car's voltage act like this with the stock battery?

[alvitae]

Yes it always charged like that, It was a ford contour stock alternator. The new batteries are going in a crx, It doesn't seem to charge as high, 15.1 When it is under a load. According to the same meter.

[Boon]

I'm a little bit skeptical of the volt gauge if it's giving you readings like that in 2 different vehicles.

I've hit a very flat AGM battery with 17v before to give it a kick-start, as long as you're careful they seem to be able to take pretty high charge voltages without too much trouble.