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 Post subject: Wheat Lamps
PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:02 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
so, i know we all have a bunch of wheat lamps between us with different battery lives, but heres the story of my 2. so, last night i decieded to do the ol run test to see how long they lasted. i have a brand new battery on one and i knew that better last 12-14 hrs. the other one is 7 years old! this is the one i wanted to test against the new one. so, i turned them on at 5:30 yesterday. at 6 am this morning when i got up, they both were burning just as strong as each other and when i turned them on! now this battey is 7 years old, almost 8. i have never added distilled water to it. i just took it out of the sink tap and squirted it in when it was low. now i know they say to use distilled so you dont get mineral deposits building up on the plates, but, i got this lamp in 03 and have used it since. i think the secret is always leaving it on the charger until we are ready to go. after when we come out i put it on high until the needle enters the black noting a full charge, then switch it to low. i dont take it off until we go in again. i know when you go in every day at a big operation all the lamps are on a rack charger that only charges on high and you have nothing to do about charge rate and you use them every day. but for us who only use them 3 or 4 times a week, keeping them on low all the time seems to keep these things alive much longer. i know they now make a "smart charger" that has a red led that tells you when the battery is charged. supposedly, even though it switches itself to low, you can still hear the acid in the battery bubbling, which is not good.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:24 pm 
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Location: Hard coal region, PA
iisshh I think i'd stick with the old chargers in that case. The manual, if you will. The only issue I ever have with my bettery is that it flickers sometimes. It'll go from bright to slightly dimmer for a few seconds then back to bright again, and keep flickering like that for a while. Usually it goes away, but it's kindof annoying. I don't know what might casue that? its not the filament in the bulb becaseu i can change between the 2 and it will continue to flicker. oh well I guess.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:33 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
hey banksey, have you ever taken the top off and cleaned the corrosion off the terminals?

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:44 pm 
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i did once with one of them.. I think it was the old one though. I'll have to take a look at them one of these days. Maybe at the mine on Saturday.

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:49 pm 
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Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
Yeah, the blinking would be either corroded terminals, warn contacts on the end of the bulb, or a broken wire somewhere. A bad battery would either not work or dim quickly..

I generally never leave anything on the charger too long. But Lead Acid batteries don't have memory effects and so long as they stay fully charged, they do well. The only thing that kills lead acid batteries is being used when they are too low and being over charged. Perhaps leaving your charger on low works well and doesn't over charge it.

Did you ever check the voltage of your wheat lamp after being left on the charger for a week or so?

Miner Greg


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:58 pm 
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no never did but im going to guess its around 5 volts

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:09 pm 
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I'm curious, you should measure it sometime after a full charge, I'm curious what they stay at..

Miner Greg


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:10 pm 
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yea ill bring my multimeter home from work on monday and check it out.

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