>Chuck Grant wrote:
>>
>> Gell cells, such as disk drive backup batteries, are maintence free.
>> Do not leak, can be turned (and used) upside down. Gell cells do not
>> use the same kind of charger as a regular lead acid battery, and trying
>> to use such a charger will ruin the gell cell. Use a gell cell charger
>> and the battery should last for about four years. I have seen, and
>> heard stories, of lots of people destroying gell cells by misuse, but
>> this doesn't surprise me.
>
>Could you clarify some of the ways to treat and mistreat gel-cells. In
>particular, what's the difference between charging rates and times
>between gel-cells and standard lead acid? I've never seen or heard of a
>special charger for the gel-cells.
One way to mistreat gel-cells is to 'cycle' them as if they were Ni-Cds. Gel-cells are lead-acid and do not suffer from the memory problems of Ni-Cds. You should endevor to keep them fully charged all the time. When you use them during a night of observing, you should charge them back up as soon as you can. Don't let them sit around partially discharged, and DO NOT run them all the way down before recharging. Even the deep-cycle batteries suffer when deeply discharged, but they can tolerate it better than 'regular' batteries.
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