A couple months ago a cell went bad in the forklift battery we use in our off-grid solar system. The battery company sent us a new cell under warranty now I get to replace the cell.
I can feel the slaps on the back of my head from my sixth grade shop teacher, for going down the roads you went on in this video. Thanks for the memory lane.
Lesson learnt for me - batteries should have terminals where cables can be fixed using nut/bolt or clamps. It is easy for long term maintenance. Thanks for sharing your work.
Yes, that would certainly be easier. But it's a lot easier to get batteries made up of welded cells rather then flag terminals. Now that I've done it, I'm not worried about having to do it again :)
Nice to see projects going on. Can't wait to get down there and start my journey. See y'all soon be safe take care and keep the videos coming. Giving me alot of info on my journey
I have been think about using a forklift battery like you for a while now. If you did it over again would you still use the forklift battery? And you you think the cell failure was just random chance or from battery misuse?
We have had good luck with it and would definitely do it again. The cell failure was likely due to a manufacturer defect and they replaced it without any questions. They sell these batteries for forklifts and for stationary use like a solar system so we are not misusing the battery. As far as performance, we run electric heat and AC, fridges, freezers, tv's, computers and other stuff all night and never have problems with running out of power.
The new cell was charged most of they way when we received it. Also, in this setup, they are all in series so even if it was a little higher or lower than the others it would only effect the aggregate output and being that it is lead acid they will mostly self equalize within one or two standard charge cycles. Also, we have an equalization cycle every 30 days which happens to be the day after doing this :)
