Sealey Road Start battery

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by robertpstubbs, Jun 10, 2018.

  1. robertpstubbs

    robertpstubbs Screwfix Select

    I have a Sealey Road Start RS102.v3 (over 5 years old) which doesn't charge up. I haven't even tried taking it apart yet. Is there a way of bringing it back to life without a new battery? Can I get a new battery?
     
  2. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    Last edited: Jun 10, 2018
  3. fillyboy

    fillyboy Screwfix Select

  4. Sparkielev

    Sparkielev Screwfix Select

  5. fillyboy

    fillyboy Screwfix Select

    A car dealer showed me one a few months back when we were replacing Mrs fillys car, small enough to fit in a glovebox or a ladies handbag, reckons it will jump up to eight cars on a charge, unused will hold a charge for a year.
    Technology eh?
     
    facilities and KIAB like this.
  6. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I have a Ring battery pack which has a 20 Ah battery fitted, it seems to charge from the supplied one amp charger unit even when completely discharged, however the control circuit for charging is clearly built into the pack, not the charger.

    I also have a 20 Ah battery that was fitted to a wheel chair, to charge this I use a cheap Lidi charger, however there is a problem, the charger has safety systems built in, if under voltage it will not work, also if over voltage it will not work. So to use it I have to cheat, I have to connect it to another battery so neither under or over voltage, I don't know if the Sealey pack has this or not, so possible it will not charge if over discharged.

    With the Ring version a anti-reverse connection relay stops one connecting it if battery completely depleted, however you can still connect using the cig lighter socket, again don't know what is the case with the Sealey version.

    I found some 7 Ah batteries which had been allowed to completely discharge, again had to cheat to be able to charge, however I was surprised to find how they recovered. It was not gradual as expected, but they sat there for nearly two weeks doing nothing, then over 2 hours started to accept charge, then fully recharged over next 6 hours, finishing off over the next 2 hours.

    I can only say this because the charger was supplied through an energy meter which logged the power used.

    So at this point I have a 20 Ah battery off a wheel chair on charge hoping it will recover, up to now just 4 days, since last battery was nearly 14 days before it charged, really you will not know if not OK for 14 days.

    But the problem is we don't even know if it is charging, for me easy, my energy meter shows if current is used, but for you need to see if battery is actually being charged, I would guess some small cig lighter item is best way to find if being charged, I have a poundworld cig lighter extension lead with two cig lighter out plus USB with a little LED lamp, if this was plugged into your unit being off charge and the little LED lamp was off, and when the charger is plugged in the LED goes on, then this shows it is actually charging.

    Two months ago I would have said you have no hope, but now I realise you need to try charging for at least 2 weeks before you will know.
     
  7. facilities

    facilities Guest

    I’d be a bit worried if my dragon carried a jump starter in her handbag ;)
     
  8. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    Yes not keen on the idea of a flaming handbag, the new type batteries burst into flames a little too often for my liking.

    It does seem my old 20 Ah VRLA is however doing some thing, each time I disconnect the battery in parallel it holds voltage a little longer, it still may end up in the skip site, however the 7 Ah batteries were to me an eye opener, it was only because I was so busy I left them on charge so long, and only because connected to an energy monitor did I know how they charged.

    However it says the charger can be left connected, so why not leave it 14 days to see what happens.
     
  9. robertpstubbs

    robertpstubbs Screwfix Select

    The Sealey comes with a cig lighter to cig lighter cable but I never tried using it. I would probably have ended up using the RS to start the car because I had run down the car battery charging the RS.

    I used to have BlackBerry car charger which I plugged into the RS during long conversations. I walked along with the BB in one hand and the RS in the other.

    Probably need a similar arrangement for my iPhone.
     
  10. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    Ring was the same, however never found the cable when I got it from late father-in-law, as to carrying it to power a phone, tad on heavy side, I have small battery packs to do that with.

    I know I can buy a replacement battery local, the disability shop sells them, assume must fit wheel chairs or scooters. Around £50, I note many now sold with 13 Ah battery not 20 Ah tried to find cheap replacement closest was Halfords 17 Ah at £48 and replacement battery found at £32 so yes it does seem most of the money is the battery.

    As to how new the battery is in these units to start with is another question, it could have been sitting in the shop for 6 months. For me it is the compressor, I use it to blow up caravan tires before we travel, never used it to jump start with, the light is a bit on weedy side better off with the LED emergency touch from Lidi, the 300W inverter is larger than the ones which plug into a cig lighter, 16A x 12V is 192 so most cig lighter versions at 150W but not sure what I would use it for anyway.

    I have considered methods of charging a battery from the car, and I suppose you could plug in an inverter and use that to power a battery charger. However the charger for the battery pack is just one amp, hardly worth the effort.
     
  11. robertpstubbs

    robertpstubbs Screwfix Select

    When I started by saying it "doesn't charge" I meant all lights come on as soon as it is connected to the 1A wall charger. Even if left connected for a long time, nothing happens, presumably because it thinks it is already fully charged.

    Now I am trying it with the double cig plug cable. The lights don't come on, but when I press the Test button the amber charging light and 2 red ones come on.

    Manual (attached) indicates this charging method bypasses protection/control.
     

    Attached Files:

  12. robertpstubbs

    robertpstubbs Screwfix Select

    The original reason for getting the RS102 was that it was a bit more powerful than some of the others (1600A peak and 600A CC) so could start larger vehicles.

    The 5'1" wife I had then could push-start a car on a road, but push-starting a 3.5 V8 Land Rover in mud is harder.

    And I don't even I think you can push-start a tracked JCB?

    Therefore if I restore or replace the battery I'd like it to be at least as powerful as original.
     
  13. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I can test my Ring power pack, but can't clearly test how yours works, with the Ring the one amp charger is voltage controlled, and when I first put the unit on charge the energy monitor plug showed it was pulsing on/off until the battery recovered, then it stayed at one amp, until fully charged, at which point it started pulsing again.

    But question is even if charging will the battery recover? If the reason for battery not working is it has simply be left to sulphate then it may recover, I had 4 batteries all allowed to sulphate, 3 have recovered, the 4th is still on charge and has been for 5 days, it shows no signs of recovery, however neither did the other 3 at 5 days.

    My problem is the Lidi battery charger I use, will just report error, and the old battery charger has no automated current control so once it does start accepting a charge it would then over charge. So I have used a good battery in parallel to get the Lidi battery charger to work, however the voltage has not hit 14.6 which is too high for the good battery, so I have to cross my fingers and hope it recovers soon.

    If I needed the last battery then I would just buy a new one, however for me it would be nice to have it working, but I don't need it, so willing to play. In your case it seems you do need the battery, so may be time to bite the bullet and buy a new battery.

    As to tow starting a tracked vehicle with the old clutch and brake maybe you can, but most today are hydraulic drive, so can't tow start. However likely it takes less to start a V8 than a straight 4 cylinder, how did we do it in the old days? Fit a cartridge in the cylinder, put it just past top dead centre, and hit it with a hammer!
     
  14. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    To day just hours under a week on charge my energy monitor recorded a pulse, my charger once initial charge sequence has completed at 12.8 volt it will return to an 0.8 amp charge rate, then at 14.4 volt it will drop to a 0.1 amp charge rate.

    So for 6 days the charge rate has been 0.1A and voltage has been around 14.3 volt each time I look it has been same voltage, started charging 2 pm last Friday, today 5:21 am got first pulse, then another at 10:21 am, so at long last the battery has started taking a charge.

    This battery is older than the others, I got it with a wheel chair in 2014 without a charger, and battery completely discharged, I used the old Lidi charger without a voltage display to charge it, it did not fully recover, but would drive the wheel chair a mile, however the charger failed, rectifier went on 230 volt side, so battery again left to discharge. By time I had bought the new Lidi charger the battery would not charge, so intended to buy new, until mother died, then not required.

    When my father-in-law died (Been a bad year) I tried recharging two 7 Ah batteries from his chair lift, this was a surprise, instead as expected them slowly getting better and better, the energy meter showed they took no charge for days, then over 8 hours went from fully discharged to fully charged, so my thoughts were would the same happen with this very old 20 Ah battery.

    I would have in the past given up days ago and taken battery to skip site, however I have a use for the battery if it will come up. The caravan is stored not connected to power, so every time I remove the battery to recharge, but then all memory lost in radio, so having a second battery so one can be removed for charging, while other is still powering caravan would be an advantage.
     
  15. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    Warning I have made an error, with any lead acid battery cells can become shorted, should this happen where two batteries are in parallel then the good battery can feed the battery with a shorted cell, so in my case if the 20 Ah battery has a shorted cell, as the other cells start to accept a charge they can take all the energy stored in the 75 Ah battery, result would be something like this [​IMG] so I now have just a 7 Ah in parallel so the energy transfer will be limited. Not saying this will happen, but it could, so some method to limit current is required, could be 1A fuse.
     

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