In the following, we have 144 2V 300 Ah cells from the same batch in 24V systems.
One of the banks has been monitored by annual discharge.
The other 5 banks were not, but had a test discharge just after 5 years service life.
The direct observation was the the capacity of all five banks which did not have intervention discharging were uniformly lower (some below 80%) than for the monitored group.
Further, just like with the gel cells, a second discharge done immediately after float recharging the first yielded a better capacity result. Again it looks as if the mere event of discharge helps retain the capacity of these batteries on float.
Don’t go out and buy it yet. It doesn’t seem to work all that well for monoblocks and some even return a lower capacity. But, I gotta say, in general the observation is consistent with our carefully monitored trials in that VRLAs, both AGM and gel seem to be happy if receive the occasion full discharge.
