Spare new starter battery, any ideas?

[roadtripper]

So those that have seen my posts know I'm pretty much in Camp LiFePo (even if I don't have fitted leisure electrics right now) however recently I needed to replace the starter battery on the aging warhorse that is our XC70.

Tanya Batteries did thier usual good thing but on arrival and unpacking the well packed battery it turns out the corner of the case has been dinged. Great service as a replacement battery (via a different courier) was on the way with a few hours of emailing them pictures of the damage.

So, the thing is, they didn't want the other one back so I now have a 5 year warranty massive 100Ah traditional starter battery which, on inspection, is damaged but not so that it will leak.



So any ideas? I want to use it but everything I can think of would be much better with at least an AGM.

No point putting it in the van, it's massive and wrong type. No point making a power box (too heavy really), maybe just keep it charged as an at home jump option. Possibly a solar panel on the shed and use the 12v to light the garden?

 

[Salty Spuds]

So those that have seen my posts know I'm pretty much in Camp LiFePo (even if I don't have fitted leisure electrics right now) however recently I needed to replace the starter battery on the aging warhorse that is our XC70.

Tanya Batteries did thier usual good thing but on arrival and unpacking the well packed battery it turns out the corner of the case has been dinged. Great service as a replacement battery (via a different courier) was on the way with a few hours of emailing them pictures of the damage.

So, the thing is, they didn't want the other one back so I now have a 5 year warranty massive 100Ah traditional starter battery which, on inspection, is damaged but not so that it will leak.

View attachment 224560View attachment 224561

So any ideas? I want to use it but everything I can think of would be much better with at least an AGM.

No point putting it in the van, it's massive and wrong type. No point making a power box (too heavy really), maybe just keep it charged as an at home jump option. Possibly a solar panel on the shed and use the 12v to light the garden?

I changed the starter battery on the van last year as it was getting tired, but not dead. Stuck it in the shed & did a couple of reconditioning cycles with the Ctek charger. I’ve used it several times now for jump starting mower/car etc. also used it as a 12V test supply on a couple of projects, handy thing to have tbh. I’d put a smart charger on it & leave it in the garage, you’ll be glad of it eventually.

 

[Dellmassive]

Defo solar shed.

Or any other solar project.

Fancy LED garden lighting?

Summer pool filter pump.?

Summer BBQ lights?

 

[Drive Wayne]

I would use it for 'free power' if you have a spare solar kit kicking around...

 

[roadtripper]

So one of the reasons I have a chunk of CTEK kit is I do tech services for a number of local charity events and for years have been nabbing the life expired SLA batteries out of the UPS at work, first the 7Ah ones and now the 20Ah. Sadly the supply has dried up now we are mostly remote working and servers in the cloud.



That's my event bank on maintenance - being older they don't like sitting. If I do disconnect the chargers for any reason then all the Andersons get disconnected too. The 7Ah batteries mostly died as I left them as packs and they went out of balance so one bad one drained and killed the 3 good ones.


On events the batteries and amps live in the stack of bright orange Really Useful boxes (with DANGER ELECTRICITY warning signs to stop fiddling) and power the active speakers next to them or the passive speakers they are sitting on.

Excuse the mess, the place is well overdue a sort out in spring.

I actually have the not totally dead original starter too (the Volvo has a slight parasitic drain and a leaking injector at 250k so needs a battery on top form to start when it's freezing) so I have 2 to play with, though given the difference in age I'm not sure I would bank them together.

What I don't have is any solar kit, at least not 12v stuff the house roof is covered with panels.

How robust are the portable panels? Because I now have a small Beaudens, a Bluetti and an Alpicool fridge with battery that can all take solar input. I had thought of putting a big panel on my railway garden shed roof, possibly to charge 12v and use that to run some lights and the railway, possibly to add a micro inverter to add to the roof array.

I don't think a portable panel would last on a shed roof though...

 

[Drive Wayne]

So one of the reasons I have a chunk of CTEK kit is I do tech services for a number of local charity events and for years have been nabbing the life expired SLA batteries out of the UPS at work, first the 7Ah ones and now the 20Ah. Sadly the supply has dried up now we are mostly remote working and servers in the cloud.

View attachment 224782

That's my event bank on maintenance - being older they don't like sitting. If I do disconnect the chargers for any reason then all the Andersons get disconnected too. The 7Ah batteries mostly died as I left them as packs and they went out of balance so one bad one drained and killed the 3 good ones.

View attachment 224783
On events the batteries and amps live in the stack of bright orange Really Useful boxes (with DANGER ELECTRICITY warning signs to stop fiddling) and power the active speakers next to them or the passive speakers they are sitting on.

Excuse the mess, the place is well overdue a sort out in spring.

I actually have the not totally dead original starter too (the Volvo has a slight parasitic drain and a leaking injector at 250k so needs a battery on top form to start when it's freezing) so I have 2 to play with, though given the difference in age I'm not sure I would bank them together.

What I don't have is any solar kit, at least not 12v stuff the house roof is covered with panels.

How robust are the portable panels? Because I now have a small Beaudens, a Bluetti and an Alpicool fridge with battery that can all take solar input. I had thought of putting a big panel on my railway garden shed roof, possibly to charge 12v and use that to run some lights and the railway, possibly to add a micro inverter to add to the roof array.

I don't think a portable panel would last on a shed roof though...

Fascinating! I'm sure it's not just me that would like to see photos of your railway garden! Sounds enchanting!

 

[roadtripper]

It, like the van, is in a constant state of nearly done, but I'll put something up in the non van threads at some point

One of these days I'll discover a cheap hobby...

 

[Drive Wayne]

It, like the van, is in a constant state of nearly done, but I'll put something up in the non van threads at some point

One of these days I'll discover a cheap hobby...

Looking forward to that! Keep spending!