Solar batteries can be a great way to expand your solar power system and get more use out of it. Of course, a battery bank does represent a pretty significant investment, so it’s important that you properly maintain it. If you over-discharge a battery, it’s possible to damage it to the point that it will no longer hold a charge. You should try to avoid this situation, but mistakes do happen, and luckily. The Victron Blue Smart IP65 Charger can help. Keep reading to learn why this little device is a smart investment for anyone with solar batteries.
Lead-acid batteries are prone to a chemical process known as sulfation if they’re left discharged or insufficiently charged for several days or weeks at a time. During the discharging process, lead-acid batteries form sulfur crystals on their battery plates, which then dissipate as the battery recharges. However, if left discharged, the crystals will harden and won’t dissipate when the battery finally receives a charge again. This dramatically decreases the battery’s capacity and can even shorten its lifespan.
If you catch the sulfation in time, however, it can sometimes be partially reversed by charging the battery with a very low current up to a higher voltage. The Victron Blue Smart IP65 Charger can provide that low, steady charge you need to recondition your lead-acid batteries.
When a battery fully discharges, many reverse polarity protected chargers won’t recognize the battery’s connection any longer—and, therefore, they won’t recharge the battery. If your solar battery has been discharged to zero volts (or close to it), the Blue Smart IP65 Charger can help. It will attempt to recharge the battery using a low current until it reaches sufficient voltage across the battery terminals. At that point, your other chargers should kick in to resume normal charging.
When compared to other battery chargers, this one is significantly more efficient than the competition. Whether you use it consistently or only when attempting to recover or recondition a discharged battery, the Blue Smart IP65 Charger will do its job with up to 95% efficiency. They generate 4 times less heat than the industry standard, and once the battery has been fully charged, power consumption drops to half a watt—which can be between 5 and 10 times better than the industry standard.
While you might hope that you would never need to recondition or recover your solar batteries, these instances do occur, and it’s a good idea to have this charger from Victron Blue Power on hand for those situations. The best part is, it’s a relatively small investment for your battery bank, costing less than $200.