Victron Energy 106Ah Lead Carbon Dual Purpose Leisure Battery

Victron Energy's Lead Carbon batteries offer better partial state of charge performance, more cycles and higher efficiency than their standard flooded lead acid counterparts.

The lead carbon composite replaces the active material on the negative plates within the cells of the leisure battery - this may reduce reduce sulfation (though this is not proven yet) and also improves the charge acceptance of the negative plate.

The advantages of lead carbon therefore are:

• Less sulfation in case of partial state-of-charge operation.
• Lower charge voltage and therefore higher efficiency and less corrosion of the positive plate.
• The overall result is improved cycle life.

Failure modes of flat plate VRLA lead acid batteries in case of intensive cycling

The most common failure modes are:

• Softening or shedding of the active material. During discharge the lead oxide (PbO2) of the positive plate is transformed into lead sulfate (PbSO4), and back to lead oxide during charging. Frequent cycling will reduce cohesion of the positive plate material due to the higher volume of lead sulfate compared to lead oxide.
• Corrosion of the grid of the positive plate. This corrosion reaction accelerates at the end of the charge process due to the, necessary, presence of sulfuric acid.
• Sulfation of the active material of the negative plate. During discharge the lead (Pb) of the negative plate is also transformed into lead sulfate (PbSO4). When left in a low state-of-charge, the lead sulfate crystals on the negative plate grow and harden and form and impenetrable layer that cannot be reconverted into active material. The result is decreasing capacity, until the battery becomes useless.

Charging

It takes time to recharge a lead acid battery:

Ideally, a lead acid battery should be charged a rate not exceeding 0,2C, and the bulk charge phase should be followed by eight hours of absorption charge. Increasing charge current and charge voltage will shorten recharge time at the expense of reduced service life due to temperature increase and faster corrosion of the positive plate due to the higher charge voltage.

Confused by some of the jargon surrounding leisure batteries or need some general guidance? Consult our Leisure Battery Guide for more information.