Battery Question

[Lorrick]

Has anyone fitted a Silver Calcium battery to there Defender, I have a 2002 TD5 and will have to change the battery soon, have been looking at the Silver Calcium type as I have one in another vehicle. Just wondering if anyone has any input on to do or not as the case may be ?

Richard

[Boydie]

In Oz you would be hard pressed to find any manufacturer of heavy duty 4WD battery that do not use Silver Calcium technology in their batteries, so unless the UK is vastly different I'd guess the answer is .......... go for it.

[SORNagain]

Depends what you intend to use the battery for I think. Silver calcium batteries need a higher charging voltage of 14.8 volts, so you may not be able to charge them fully. Ford have a 'smart charge' system on many of their vehicles, where the output voltage of the alternator is controlled by the ECU to accomplish this.

As far as I know the pros & cons are as follows:

Normal lead acid - has added antimony to strenghten the electrodes. Great for deep cycling but the antimony acts as a catalyst and cause the battery to use water.

Lead + calcium - the calcium stops the water usage, but it is not as good for deep cycling as the normal type. Often labelled 'maintenence free'

Lead + calcium + silver - the silver allows the battery to charge faster, by reducing the internal resistance. Might crank better too. Cycling ability the same though.

As this wasn't complicated enough, there are hybrid types with antimony on one plate & calcium on the other! Given that there is a fair amount of maintenence involved in owning a landrover anyway, I would be inclined to stick to the standard type.

[simonr]

SORNAgain's answer is pretty good!

Calcium Batteries are generally good in applications that are not too demanding - starting smaller engines for example. The Calcium aids in water recombination meaning that less gas is evolved during charging and the battery will cope with more charge discharge cycles. The negatives are they are more easily damaged if you over-discharge them (Deep Discharge) and they do not deliver as high current as regular Lead/Antimony.

Calcium Silver - will discharge at higher currents so good for starting bigger engines and can be charged more rapidly than Calcium alone. However, do not like deep discharge either.

In both of the above, they are good in hazardous environments where venting of explosive gas is a problem. Most truely sealed, AGM or Gel batteries use Calcium so they do not loose water during their life.

Regular flooded cell batteries still give (in my opinion) the best combination of features for use in a 4x4. Deep Discharge, High Cranking Current (or Winching Current) and Higher capacity for the size / weight. They do gas more so have a shorter life in some situations - but my experience says batteries die faster by over discharge, high current charging and discharging than through venting (in 4x4's) - so protection from the former is more valuable than the latter.

If you had a smaller car - I would advise the opposite. This is why most batteries are Calcium as most people drive small to medium sized card.

Si

[Lorrick]

Thanks to you all, and Boydie we are probably miles behind you :-) Well I think I will stay with the old type, life's confusing enough as it is

[Eightpot]

I had a Bosch silver calcium battery fitted to my 90 - don't think I got a years use out of it before it died after running it flat a couple of times.

[Phillis]

I had a Bosch silver calcium battery fitted to my 90 - don't think I got a years use out of it before it died after running it flat a couple of times.

i had one fitted on my 90, which i removed from my 306, so it was a bit small, but once it went flat it soon kept discharging very quickly, got a numax leisure battery on it now and its spot on

[JeffR]

Got one in my 110 V8 and can't fault it! Spins the engine over no sweat (even at minus stupid temps) , holds it's charge and been there for a couple of years.