In this blog, you’ll learn how to use a professional battery discharger. A lead-acid battery is the most expensive part of your equipment. Making sure it’s in good condition is not just important for keeping your equipment functioning properly - it can also save you lots of money because you aren’t replacing batteries prematurely.
A battery discharge test, or load bank test, is the only way to properly check if your batteries are performing at their best.
This easy-to-use device makes creating your own customised, detailed and professional battery reports a piece of cake.
Discharge the lead-acid battery
To select your values, turn the dial button on the front of the machine until the word ‘Setup’ is highlighted. Press the dial button to select. The screen will now display some options: discharge, date/time, backlight and exit.
Not sure what information to enter? All the details you need are on the label of your battery. If you are doing a C5 or 5-hour discharge, simply divide the battery capacity mentioned on the label by 5 to obtain the discharge current.
For a traction battery, we can discharge an average of 1.7 Volt per cell or in the case of a 48 Volt battery, to 40.8 Volts total. Select ‘Discharge’ to view the default values. Then select the value you wish to change. Spin the dial button to adjust the numbers, then press it to select. Once you have selected your values, select ‘Save & Run’ to begin the discharge.
While discharging, the screen will display the current voltage, amperage, cycle time and amp-hours discharged.
To pause the discharge, just press and hold the button for 5 seconds. When the cycle is complete, the machine will stop and ‘End’ will appear in the top right-hand corner of the display.
Reporting
You can now use a computer to review the log file on the flash drive using the Integrated Monitor program, which is available in the ‘Downloads’ section on our website. In only a few clicks, you’ll see detailed reports that show the amp-hours discharged and the battery percentage. These can be saved as PDF, Word or Excel files, and a special feature lets you easily add your company logo.
After opening the Integrated Monitor program, go to ‘Log’ then ‘MCS’. Next, find the file that was saved on the flash drive during the discharge process. The file name always includes the date and time that the process was started. After selecting the right file, you will see the discharge curve. This can be displayed in various ways, depending on what you need to achieve. Now it’s easy to analyse the voltage behavior of the battery during a discharge.
Do you need to print a report? Simply click on ‘report’ and fill in all the information that needs to be included - the Nominal Amps an hour value of the battery is the most important detail; it allows the percentage to appear correctly on the report.
Once all the data has been filled in, the finished report will appear and can be saved as a PDF, Word or Excel file.
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To get a report on the condition of each individual battery cell, you’ll need the optional BMS system. This gives you the advantage of being able to easily identify any cells that are performing weakly.
Additionally, the lead-acid battery discharger (MPD-1007E) can be synched with any of the Energic Plus battery regeneration models. This allows you to increase the discharge power to 200 Amps, resulting in shorter regeneration processes and saving you up to 10 hours of regeneration process time.
Our optional battery connection converter kit makes it easy to deal with a large number of different batteries. Use it for hassle-free connections between any type of traction battery and the discharge unit.
Are you ready to get the most out of your batteries? Order your Energic Plus battery discharger today. Or would you like to know more about its compatibility with the regenerator or BMS system? Contact our team for all the answers you need.
