Date:         Mon, 1 Aug 2016 08:55:43 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      testing capacity of house battery
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I have a few years old non-deep-cycle automotive starting battery I've been
using as my house battery in the 86 Westy.  it's been acting a little flaky
so I pulled it out for some testing and possible replacement.  I've had
some other issues/symptoms with my house battery side of the electrical
system so I wanted to take a possibly failing battery out of the equation.

I last drove the van about a week ago for about 2 hours with not much load
on the house battery.  I hooked up the battery to one of these:
http://www.banggood.com/ZB2L3-Battery-Capacity-Tester-External-Load-Discharge-Type-Module-p-1058571.html
For the load I used a tail light bulb with both filaments burning.  This
put 2.55Amps load on the battery according to the display on the above
device.  I set the device to stop discharging at 10.5V and it came out to
about 13Ah of capacity.  That sounds low to me and like the battery was
either not very well charged or it's toast.  I've now got it on a charger
and will check it again after it's recharged.  comments?  is discharging it
to 10.5V more damaging than any info I gain from testing it?

Edward