Xantrex Technology PROsine 2.0 user manual Equalization Procedure, To equalize your batteries

Operation

Important: If carried out too frequently or done improperly, equalization can damage your batteries. Never equalize a battery more than necessary. Always check electrolyte level before AND after equalization. Fill with distilled water only. Monitor electrolyte specific gravity (S.G.) throughout the equalization phase.

Follow the battery manufacturer’s recommendations for equalizing your batteries. 10 provides some background on different batteries. As a guide, a heavily used flooded battery may need to be equalized once a month and a battery in light service every two to four months.

The PROsine delivers a high quality charge so batteries do not need to be equalized as often as may be necessary when a lower quality charger is used.

Equalization Procedure

To equalize your batteries:

1.Turn off or disconnect all loads on the battery.

The voltage applied to the battery during equalization may damage some electronic equipment. As well, equalization won’t proceed correctly if loads are drawing current from the battery.

2.Check electrolyte level.

Fill with distilled water if the electrolyte level is low. Measure the specific gravity (S.G.) of each cell using a hydrometer. For fully charged lead-acid batteries, the reading should be approximately 1.265. (Consult your battery manufacturer.) Equalization is needed if one or more cells have a substantially lower specific gravity than the others.

3.To request the equalization charge, the charger must already be in operation. Set the CHARGER switch to ENABLE, and then select Equalize on the Configure PROsine—Basicmenu (see page 4–7).

Equalization will be carried out after an absorption charge (if the batteries are not fully charged) or right away if fully charged. When equalization has been requested, the CHARGING LED is on and the EQUALIZE LED is flashing. When the system is in equalization, CHARGING is on and EQUALIZE is on.

4.The PROsine will apply a constant low current to the batteries to perform an equalize charge. This current and the maximum voltage values can be configured, see Chapter 4, “Configuration”. The voltage of the batteries will rise as the current is forced into the batteries. When the voltage is rising very slowly (as configured in Chapter 4, “Configuration”) the PROsine will declare an end to the equalize phase. A maximum time in the equalize phase may also be configured. Some users may have trouble with the PROsine not completely equalizing the batteries before exiting this stage. In this case the "Threshold Change" can be configured to 0.0V and the "Threshold Timeout" can be set to a long time (even several hours).

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