Hawker Headlines

Spring 2022 Edition

Quick Tips!

Ever wonder where dead batteries end up?
In a landfill? In a ditch? Not so fast! According to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
…at a 99% rate,
lead-acid batteries are the most recycled product in the USA!
Far higher than aluminum cans (55%) or paper (70%).

Answer to question from last issue:

Do I need a special charger for AGM batteries…like the Hawker^® brand?

Not necessarily. Here’s some background: Electrolyte in a lead-acid battery is comprised of water and sulfuric acid. During charging, electrolysis occurs which creates gasses (hydrogen and oxygen). Since AGM batteries are “recombination” batteries, the vast majority of those gasses are recombined back into water. As such, under normal conditions AGM batteries negligibly off-gas hydrogen or oxygen. However, flooded-cell batteries are not recombination batteries…they are designed to freely off-gas. Indeed, it’s the off-gassing of hydrogen and oxygen that requires the user to monitor the electrolyte…and before the tips of the lead plates are exposed, the user must add distilled water (H2O). Here’s the answer: Since higher charging voltages cause increased gassing (perhaps at a higher rate than can be recombined), when charging AGM batteries that are at or above 40^o F (4^o C), the charger’s output voltage should not exceed more than 15-volts DC (VDC) when charging a single 12-volt battery, nor more that 30VDC when charging batteries in either a 24-volt series or 24-volt series-parallel configuration. Otherwise, the AGM battery is more likely to off-gas and potentially dry out. So, how do you know if your charger is safe for use with AGM batteries? Simple, check the owner’s manual, contact the manufacturer, or test the output voltage with a DC voltmeter or multimeter. If the charger has low, medium, and high settings…be sure to check each setting, since higher charge settings may have higher voltage outputs. For any setting where the output voltage exceeds the limits above, do not use that setting when charging AGM batteries. And…now you know!

Did you know?

that an Amp-hour (Ah, or ampere-hour) is equal to providing 1 amp of current for 1 hour. For example, a 500mAh battery can provide a constant 500 milliamps of current for 1 hour. Check this out...a fully charged Hawker^® ARMASAFE™ Plus battery is able to provide 80.7 Ah (at the C1 rate)…meaning a constant 80.7 amps of current for 1 hour. Moreover, at a C20 rate, the same Hawker^® ARMASAFE™ Plus can provide a constant 6 amps for 20 hours…that’s 120Ah!

Training:

Free Battery Maintenance & Recovery Training…it’s yours for the taking (psst…all you have to do is contact us.) Curious who’s been trained lately or where we’re headed next? It’s not a secret…find out here: https://hawkerbattery.com/events/