BATTERY SELECTION
Welding batteries are a significant investment and care
should be taken both in the selection and ongoing maintenance of batteries. All
batteries have a finite service life and maximum number of discharge/recharge
cycles. Exercising care with your batteries and following manufacturers
recommendations will allow you to get the most from your batteries.
While even smaller batteries (above 16 Amp hour ratings) will provide ample power for
welding with the GOWELD®, the welding
application is harder on smaller batteries. Not only will welding time be
limited, but service life may be adversely affected. Therefore, for most
applications we recommend Sealed, Non-spillable, Deep Cycle, Rechargeable lead
acid batteries with Amp hour ratings (Ah) ranging from about 26Ah to 55Ah.
Batteries are available with Ah rating as high as 200Ah, but the trade off of
weight versus power makes these a poor choice in all but very special welding
applications. Experience has shown that for nominal conditions of .035" solid
or flux-cored wire welding on 1/4" mild steel plate, 16Ah batteries will yield
about 4 minutes of welding arc time and 55Ah batteries will yield about 15
to 20 minutes of welding arc time.
The following considerations allow you to get the most out of your batteries:
- Minimize temperature effects; higher temperatures shorten battery life and colder temperatures reduce performance.
- Use recharge methods that keep pace with the deep discharge application of welding; it is important not to undercharge or use a shorter than required charge time.
- How deep the discharge will also effect battery life; GOWELD®
has a built in battery protection monitor that automatically turns off the control and motor circuit to notify the user to stop welding in order to
protect the batteries from too deep a discharge.
- Any standby charging should minimize over-charge currents.
Click here for setup procedure
Warning: Batteries are capable of generating high
instantaneous currents and such large currents can cause personal injury. Care
should be taken not to accidentally short circuit the batteries!
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