drmini in aust wrote:
I think they are more correctly called `gel cell' rather than `dry cell'.
They are not related to ye olde Eveready dry cell.
From Odyssey's website:
Q. Are these a gel cell? What’s the difference?
A. No, the ODYSSEY battery is NOT a gel cell. It is an absorbed electrolyte type battery, meaning that there is no free acid inside the battery; all of the acid is kept absorbed in the glass mat separators. These separators serve to keep the positive and negative plates apart.
The key difference between the gel cell and the absorbed glass mat (AGM) cell lies in the fact that in the AGM cell all of the electrolyte is in the separator, whereas in the gel cell the acid is within the cells in a gel form. In fact, if the ODYSSEY battery were to split open, there would be no acid spillage!
Mike_Byron wrote:
We use deep cycle batteries in our solar and wind turbine power setup at the other farm.
It was explained to me that there is a difference between deep cycle and short cycle batteries. A wet cell short cycle (normal car battery) is designed to give maximum power for a short period of time and quickly accept a top up recharge.
A deep cycle (both gel or wet cell) are designed to take much longer to charge but hold their charge longer. That is; release the charge more slowly. They dont do as well with heavy sudden loads such as a starter motor.
Mike
Also from Odyssey's website:
"In fact, with a powerful enough charger, it is possible to bring ODYSSEY batteries to better than 95% state of charge in under 20 minutes!"
