# Greensaver sp210-6 silicone battery test, real world



## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Well its been 2 months and 1000 miles

NO real complaints thus far, the batteries have grown in capacity and they don't appear to be very sensative to overcharge (voltage shoots up rapidly enough to cause the charger to kill)

The batteries sag rapidly but maintain the same lowish voltage for what seems like forever, I can easily get over 40 miles range @48v with a 2200lb minivan plus cargo and people. (not bad for a 210ahr rated gel) Do to the sag I have employed field reduction and now have a top speed of 38-40mph which isn't bad for a 48v vehicle stuck in 2nd gear. The battery capacity seems to continue to grow, which is good, coupled with them supporting a 100% DOD these should make good batteries.

Its difficult to determine SOC while driving since the batteries shoot back up and stay at about the same low voltage from start to finish.

I will try a controlled "push" one of these days to see how far I can go.

My only complaint is that the batteries are very sensative to any imbalance in load, my little voltmeter forces me to do a 5-15 minute charge on one set once a week to keep everything balanced out.

Ah well, lets see what my song is in 5 years. I am hopeing they are as long lasting as specified by greensaver.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Although I have to balance and might have done some slight damage to a few I have over 2500 miles on them so far, time to keep on going


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## Alexander_B (Oct 19, 2010)

sounds very nice, that extra 20% dod and extra rated capacity (or is that just 2 ways of saying the same) + the added resistance to abuse seem like a good deal, lets find out if I can obtain silicon (?) batteries over here locally for a fair price 

[edit:] silicon = silica, aka gel? ah well..


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Remember though I am using the 6v batteries, I have heard some rather bad things about the smaller 12v varieties, most of the positive is from 6v and 8v bad boys.

They sag a bit more but maintain the same voltage throughout as compared to AGMs, the main trouble I have had is with balancing and with charging.

These batteries are very sensative to temperature in regards to charging, very easy to undercharge in the winter and overcharge in the summer, so make sure you have a temperature compensated charger (or one you can adjust) Overcharging I am told is VERY bad but they are somewhat tolerant to it, just not as much as a floody but more so than an AGM.

If these batteries could get more mainstream we might see the prices come down a bit and then the deal would only get sweeter 

I would contact the US rep who is also an electric vehicle owner and find out which batteries work the best, there were some knockoffs a few years ago that were poorly made.

Good Luck
Ryan


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

"sounds very nice, that extra 20% dod and extra rated capacity (or is that just 2 ways of saying the same) + the added resistance to abuse seem like a good deal, lets find out if I can obtain silicon (?) batteries over here locally for a fair price "

Actually the batteries are rated the same as FLA all they did is MOVE the voltage that fully discharged refers to, so in actuality you still need to follow no more than 80% DOD and likely for best life no more than 50% DOD but I guess I have exceeded it fairly regularly (the 50% one) These are more resistant to overdischarge but not immune.

If you want to drain them low you need to monitor each battery because any slight imbalance and you might damage one. That statement is also true of charging. I've had a couple of them up to 17v's briefly because of my assine charger, that is a no no but they still seem to have full capacity.

I have enjoyed having this set of reliable sealed batteries, I don't enjoy the balancing issues though but I do have a nice range and speed for a 48v 2800lb EV

Good Luck


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## DIYguy (Sep 18, 2008)

hey there, I just thought I would mention... I use AGM's in my EV and to keep them balanced I use 5 of these EQ-48 from HDM. They work great. Perhaps they could do a 6 volt design for you .... or you could just use them across 2 batteries....for 12 volts. They are fully potted and good for wet environments.... http://www.hdm-sys.com/pdf/hdm_equalizer_specs.pdf

They balance with a full 5 amps during charge, discharge and while idle.


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## GerhardRP (Nov 17, 2009)

Nice that the supplier gives detailed specs. 
http://www.greensaver.cn/en/Product/manage/upload/picupload/sp210-6.pdf
Gerhard


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## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

You won't hear me knocking GEL batteries.
Mine are working great, stay balanced and take a little overcharge with ease.
Would never use FLAs again.
Deka 12 volt GELs


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## fivari (May 13, 2011)

DIYguy said:


> hey there, I just thought I would mention... I use AGM's in my EV and to keep them balanced I use 5 of these EQ-48 from HDM. They work great. Perhaps they could do a 6 volt design for you .... or you could just use them across 2 batteries....for 12 volts. They are fully potted and good for wet environments.... http://www.hdm-sys.com/pdf/hdm_equalizer_specs.pdf
> 
> They balance with a full 5 amps during charge, discharge and while idle.


I realise that I am replying to an old message, but where did you buy this EQ48 Equalizer? I can't find any purchase information on their website.
thanks,
Filip


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## MikeBoxwell (Aug 5, 2008)

It's been a long time since this thread was posted to, but I was wondering how the Greensaver batteries were coping, now they are getting close to their second birthday?

It would be great to have some really long term information about these batteries.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Sorry about my delay in responding.

I have had a bit of trouble qualifying how the batteries are performing because there isn't much good quality information on how to charge, how to balance, etc. I also really do not want to load test because of all the irritation in balancing that followed.

I will say that if your gel pack has any type of uneven current draw or if you ever use a segment of your pack for "other" activities these can become a pain in the arse. (aka I use the EV to run a craft booth in the summer as well as the car, 24v's worth runs the laser printer, computer, etc)

Anyway I thought I had ruined a set of (2) of the batteries that attach to my voltmeter, that and my father draining the batteries down to 5.2 volts about 6 times in a row. We also overcharged the crap out of them daily for about a year (vented a bit). It appeared like the pair of batteries only had about 50% of their original capacity.

With a carefull rest (car was down for the winter) the batteries are coming back nicely after a good fast & controlled 3 stage charge on each battery.

I would say they have about 90%+ of original capacity (they hold 6.48volts+ at rest), my range (summer time) appears to still be +/-40 miles depending on conditions, temp, wind etc. Winter time they were performing very poorly but I think it was more to do with the charger (and the fact the motor was running on 2 brushes).

I don't have the original "battery install" odometer reading in front of me, so I don't have the miles in front of me, when I get back I will see how many miles we have logged, since its my fathers car now, he isn't as gung ho as I am on only driving EV miles so I am uncertain how much has been logged 011-012.

Cheers
Ryan


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

rmay635703 said:


> Sorry about my delay in responding.
> 
> I don't have the original "battery install" odometer reading in front of me, so I don't have the miles in front of me, when I get back I will see how many miles we have logged, since its my fathers car now, he isn't as gung ho as I am on only driving EV miles so I am uncertain how much has been logged 011-012.
> 
> ...


Well roughly 8600 miles on the car 6500 miles on the batteries.

I used a 12v 3 stage 35amp charger and balanced them earlier this year and all came to rest after 30 hours at around 6.5 volts (6.48 but heck)

Originally these would stay around 6.6 volts but they are not rated to rest above 6.5 volts.

My range summer time is good, winter was sucking but I have a feeling the car needs its brakes adjusted somehow (must be a little drag) damn thing has disk brakes, those are the enemy of EVs! Reason I think that is,
1. doesn't coast as easily as I remember
2. Top speed is never over 28mph on the flat without field reduction, back a few years ago 31mph was easy.

I've also found the 2 batteries that were "damaged" want to go out of balance slightly after about 20 chargings.

I may have to make it apart of my monthly maintenance to recharge all 8 batteries using the 3 stage 35amp charger (7.1volts peak nice for gel)

Also I still use the craptaskic wrong profile charger, I just kill it between 6.7 and 7.5 volts depending on temperature, whether I plan on driving right after and my expected driving distance the next day.

These batteries are hard to charge (without overcharging) when its hot but discharge better in heat, sucks. They charge fully and easily in the winter but then sag, bleh I think their age might be catching up in other ways.

Still compared to some of the other floody battery stories I hear I think I am doing well and despite overcharging and imbalancing the pack I did not kill it, if I had lithium that pack would have lit up by now.

The batteries have only been charged about 520 times thus far, with a bunch of 8 mile (winter) trips and a bunch of 30/40 mile trips mixed in (summertime to beach or parks)

It will take some time to rack up miles and charges unless my father keeps up the daily driver bit again, this winter he didn't use it much (350 miles)
When he REALLY should have used the car due to his backup being a suburban with fuel prices being what they are.

Ah well.


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## chuck_b24 (Oct 9, 2012)

Hello where did you buy these from??? thanks


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

There is only one supplier I know of and he was just a guy that imports them for various EV'rs

his website was
www.[I]siliconebatteriesusa[/I].com
email was 

eric at siliconebatteriesusa dot com
Telephone: 559-855-8131

http://web.archive.org/web/20100218055007/http://www.siliconebatteriesusa.com/?page_id=2

his was very small potatoes and may have given up his little enterprise.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

I haven't driven much this summer, some jackarse ran a stoplight and crashed into the rear passenger side door and she doesn't roll quite right, the impact cracked the case of one of the batteries and I can't find any local replacements for it anymore.

Oddly I sealed the crack and the battery still works but only at about 50ahr, I have to run on 7 batteries which sucks on a 48v vehicle.

The other batteries appear to be in a holding pattern around 80% capacity, you use them or loose them it appears, so I gotta find someone cheap to yank my one rear wheel perfectly straight without bankrupcy.

Cheers
Ryan


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