Cyclic Applications

Cyclic Batteries Explained

Dryfit batteries are lead-acid batteries, similar to automotive batteries except that the electrolyte (Acid and water) is immobilised in a silica gel substance. As well the case is sealed and safety valves are fitted to release excess gases in case of overcharging. This design makes them safe for use in electric vehicles and they can be charged inside premises with no danger of poisonous gas and acid escaping.

The battery construction has been purposely designed so that it can be fully charged and discharged hundreds of times under extremes of use and charging regimes, it is important to realise that most brands of sealed batteries are NOT designed to do this but are designed for other applications like starting vehicles or providing back up power in alarm systems or computer systems etc. where the battery is not subject to such extremes. In fact most of these batteries do not use Gel technology but utilise a cheaper micro fibre mat placed between the battery plates and the electrolyte is simply poured in and absorbed like a sponge. The gel type of construction utilised by Sonnenschein adds to the cost of the battery as internally the components need to be of much higher quality and the battery manufactured to fine tolerances to get the consistent high performance expected of these batteries. This approach has resulted in a battery that has a life of at least 3-6 times that of other similar type batteries available on the market in this particular type of application. As such the original purchase price of the battery is not the true cost, as replacement frequency, fitting costs and maintenance need to be considered.

Lifetime

In cyclic application such as wheelchairs and scooters the batteries are guaranteed to perform 400 x 100% (Sonnenschein Dry Fit Motive Power Series) charge and discharge cycles, at the end of which 60% of the batteries rated capacity is left. (This is a worst case; in fact most people get considerably more than this.) Please note that this does not mean that a certain vehicle will travel X number of kilometres as there are a lot of variables, like the weight of the customer, the terrain, the size of the batteries etc. that affect the distance that can be travelled. Also if you get a user who discharges the batteries say on average 50% per day he will get approximately 400 charge/discharge cycles. So with very heavy users in wheelchair applications it can occur that the batteries will be worn out after as little as seven to 10 months but this is normally the rare exception, the average is about 18 months to 2 years in vehicles. In Golf applications about 400 rounds for Sonnenschein Dry Fit Motive Power Series or more can be expected. Also all lead-acid batteries including Sonnenschein degrade naturally (due to the acid slowly corroding the lead plates) whether they are being used or not and dryfit batteries will last about 4-5 years even if they are used only lightly

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