Sealed Lead Acid Battery charging

I have a query regarding sealed lead acid battery.

· I am using 7.2 Ah 12 V sealed acid battery in our machine. Now if the charger is charging the battery and after some hours if the battery voltage measured by charger is more than 12.7 V and the battery charging current is less than 100 mA.
· So under this condition is it right to say the capacity of the battery now is more than 7.2 Ah or we need to really measure the battery capacity with some measuring instrument to really know that battery capacity has reached more than 7.2 Ah.
· This though has come in my mind cause I think that If the plates are damaged, sulfated, or partially gone from long use, the battery may give the appearance of being fully charged by showing more than 12.7 V and consuming less than 100 mA charging current in the battery charger display and still the capacity of the battery is very low.
Regards,

Vishal

 

If you really need to know the actual battery capacity then you will need to apply a load and discharge it at the 10 hour rate. The value of the load current integrated over time will give you the battery Ah capacity.

 

I think he meant to discharge the battery at C/10 rate to measure it's capacity.

I agree. Lead acid batteries can have reduced capacity and still "charge up" to the correct final voltage.

 

i believe there's an internal resistance in the battery that gets bigger over time (from whatever reasons). (Observe the laptop battery..) So the total current capacity decreases over time even though voltage reads 12.7 or 13 or whatever it is u charge it up to..

 

The value of the load current integrated over time will give you the battery Ah capacity.

 

I would be a little concerned if your charger is measuring the voltage at 12.7V. A fully charged lead/acid 12V battery has a charged terminal voltage of between 13.2V and 14.4V. I have charged a battery with a constant voltage source of 13.8V and obtained a good lifetime cycle. But the only real way of checking the capacity is the C/10 discharge method. So, connect a constant current load at 720mA and see if it lasts for 10 hours.

 

Since your fully charged voltage seems low I would suspect a bad cell. What is the battery voltage under a small load?