As you may have noticed, several of our articles state to always fully recharge your batteries. In this article, we are going to explain why this process is critical to battery maintenance.
During normal discharging, soft lead sulfate crystals form on the lead plates inside a lead-acid battery. As the battery is recharged, these soft lead sulfate crystals are removed from the lead plates. If a battery is left in a discharged condition or simply being undercharged, the soft lead sulfate crystallizes into hard lead sulfate. Unfortunately, hard lead sulfate cannot be removed during recharging. Thus, the surface area of the lead plates becomes reduced.
The storage capacity of a battery is based on the available surface area of the lead plates. As that surface area reduces, so does the storage capacity. Eventually, the surface area can become so reduced, that a battery will no longer accept a charge, rendering it lifeless.
Failing to fully recharge a lead acid battery is estimated to cause approximately 85% of deep cycle lead-acid battery failures. When it comes to battery maintenance, this is a priority.
As always, take care of your off-grid array and it will serve you well for years.
