Battery (again)

[wenson]

Hi. I know I have asked about a battery in previous posts and had some good advice. Not as yet purchased a battery & charger due to windows being cleaned by guy who cleaned my gutters & fascias. Anyway you recommended for my needs a 12v 12Ah battery with suitable charger would be fine. Sitting with nothing else to do I thought perhaps I should get a 12v 17Ah battery as on a good day I will clean my windows and granddaughters since but what if she wanted me to do her gutter ,fascias &soffits at the same time would the 12 Ah be enough. From what I have seen not a great deal of difference in price. Anyway I have been buying my car batteries from my local store who only sell batteries & chargers for at least the past 25 years so should have a lot of knowledge unless they have retired.

I emailed them and said I was interested in their yuasa NP 12v 12Ah battery. I told them it would be powering a wfp pump rated at 8 watts but only drawing around 3.5-4 watts per hour due to pump controller and be using it for max of 2 hours so should be ok for my use.I was to be honest gobsmacked by their answer. They told me "it is above their level of knowledge" and to contact yuasa as they would confirm if the 12ah would be enough to last 2 hours!!! They also sell Numax 12v 2amp battery chargers but are for mototcycles so would this be ok. Do motorcycle battery charger plug directly into m/cycle or the main and anyone with knowledge be able to say what would be the difference between a motorcycle charger and a normal 12v2 amp charger for agm. I have had a Clarks battery charger for machine mart for about 20 years and still going strong. I see they sell a 12v 2amp smart charger so may look into that one instead.

I also read on many posts that you use mobility or golf cart batteries and to be fair I doubt if many mobility scooters or golf carts would use 12ah.I also looked on web and at least at least 2 trolley manufactures use SLK mobility batteries. So in my usual fashion I emailed SLK to say I what I want their battery for. Again not the answer I was expecting as they said their batteries are designed for mobility use only and not recommended for anything else, could that be to do with warranty?? Sorry for ramble but as you know the more you look into things the more confused you get.Dozons & dozens of 12v 12-17ah batteries to choose from and same as chargers but as the saying goes buy cheap buy twice. Thanks for any input.

 

[spruce]

As window cleaners, we know that we have to take the risk of early battery failure on our own account. The battery suppliers refer to us as battery abusers. They have stated on their warrant conditions that batteries used in our industry aren't warranty guaranteed due to the demands we place on them.

They also won't give us advice, as they might say something that could incriminate them. This is my early days experience.

My opinion is simply to buy a Gardener backpack with a couple of 20/25 litre plastic containers and use that. It comes with the right battery charger and it works well. As you won't be using it that often, I would suggest you regularly put the backpack on charge even when not using it.

We have had our backpack for many years now, and it gets used regularly. It also has a dial where we can adjust the flow rate by reducing the pump's speed. It isn't the most sophisticated bit of equipment, but it's never let us down.

These batteries are lead acid, and all lead acid batteries need to be kept fully charged. Spare batteries and chargers are available as a stock item.

Please don't take offence, but imho you are over thinking this.

 

[Bell Pallisey]

Watch out that your local store doesnt ban you now. Any funny business that could be you buying a battery to make a home made bomb will now put them on alert

 

[wenson]

As window cleaners, we know that we have to take the risk of early battery failure on our own account. The battery suppliers refer to us as battery abusers. They have stated on their warrant conditions that batteries used in our industry aren't warranty guaranteed due to the demands we place on them.

They also won't give us advice, as they might say something that could incriminate them. This is my early days experience.

My opinion is simply to buy a Gardener backpack with a couple of 20/25 litre plastic containers and use that. It comes with the right battery charger and it works well. As you won't be using it that often, I would suggest you regularly put the backpack on charge even when not using it.

We have had our backpack for many years now, and it gets used regularly. It also has a dial where we can adjust the flow rate by reducing the pump's speed. It isn't the most sophisticated bit of equipment, but it's never let us down.

These batteries are lead acid, and all lead acid batteries need to be kept fully charged. Spare batteries and chargers are available as a stock item.

Please don't take offence, but imho you are over thinking this.

Spruce. Thanks for the reply. You are correct I tend to overthink everything I want to buy and get totally confused,always. I have a box like image which I purchased years ago but controller is inside the box which I thinkis better as less chance to knock it. When I carry my box out of the garage with a car battery it was too heavy.Sure if you are in your 20-40`s no problem but I am well advanced in years so looking for a lighter battery. Backpack would be idea if I was buying from fresh but my box does the job.

 

[ched999uk]

Sorry if this is knowledge you already have.
A 12Ah (Ah = Amp hour) battery means it has the potential to give out 12 Amps for 1 hour, 6 Amps for 2 hrs, 2 Amps for 6 hrs etc... First issue is you should only 'take' 50% of a lead acid batteries capacity - any more will damage it.
So a 12Ah lead acid should only have 6Ah taken.
Basically the more Ah the longer your pump will run before flattening the battery. It's just the more Ah the heavier it is. It might be worth using a car battery and a trolley to move the kit about.

A Surflo 100psi 5.3l/min pump pulls a max of 8Amps. With a controller that current will be lower but by how much I couldn't say. At a guess if you work on 50% duty cycle (50% time on 50% off) then a 12Ah battery should last 1.5 hrs.
In reality, even as an inexperienced window cleaner, you should get 2 houses done in 1.5hrs.

 

[spruce]

Spruce. Thanks for the reply. You are correct I tend to overthink everything I want to buy and get totally confused,always. I have a box like image which I purchased years ago but controller is inside the box which I thinkis better as less chance to knock it. When I carry my box out of the garage with a car battery it was too heavy.Sure if you are in your 20-40`s no problem but I am well advanced in years so looking for a lighter battery. Backpack would be idea if I was buying from fresh but my box does the job.

Why not buy the backpack and sell the other on Ebay. You might even get more on Ebay if you sold the components separately.

Sure your box does the trick! But circumstances change. Age is one of them. I know.

 

[Deleted member 7446]

Hi. I know I have asked about a battery in previous posts and had some good advice. Not as yet purchased a battery & charger due to windows being cleaned by guy who cleaned my gutters & fascias. Anyway you recommended for my needs a 12v 12Ah battery with suitable charger would be fine. Sitting with nothing else to do I thought perhaps I should get a 12v 17Ah battery as on a good day I will clean my windows and granddaughters since but what if she wanted me to do her gutter ,fascias &soffits at the same time would the 12 Ah be enough. From what I have seen not a great deal of difference in price. Anyway I have been buying my car batteries from my local store who only sell batteries & chargers for at least the past 25 years so should have a lot of knowledge unless they have retired.

I emailed them and said I was interested in their yuasa NP 12v 12Ah battery. I told them it would be powering a wfp pump rated at 8 watts but only drawing around 3.5-4 watts per hour due to pump controller and be using it for max of 2 hours so should be ok for my use.I was to be honest gobsmacked by their answer. They told me "it is above their level of knowledge" and to contact yuasa as they would confirm if the 12ah would be enough to last 2 hours!!! They also sell Numax 12v 2amp battery chargers but are for mototcycles so would this be ok. Do motorcycle battery charger plug directly into m/cycle or the main and anyone with knowledge be able to say what would be the difference between a motorcycle charger and a normal 12v2 amp charger for agm. I have had a Clarks battery charger for machine mart for about 20 years and still going strong. I see they sell a 12v 2amp smart charger so may look into that one instead.

I also read on many posts that you use mobility or golf cart batteries and to be fair I doubt if many mobility scooters or golf carts would use 12ah.I also looked on web and at least at least 2 trolley manufactures use SLK mobility batteries. So in my usual fashion I emailed SLK to say I what I want their battery for. Again not the answer I was expecting as they said their batteries are designed for mobility use only and not recommended for anything else, could that be to do with warranty?? Sorry for ramble but as you know the more you look into things the more confused you get.Dozons & dozens of 12v 12-17ah batteries to choose from and same as chargers but as the saying goes buy cheap buy twice. Thanks for any input.

12v 12Ah is what I use in my trolley builds and what Facelift use in their big boy backpacks
I wouldn't buy any of the unknown brands or even the influx of so called duracell brands

Yuasa is the best brand.

Why don't you buy a backpack?