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Please don't tell me to contact the battery manufacturer. That is a copout response which seems to be the standard way to answer this question. ALSO, it is not the same as an AGM. An AGM charges faster and is less tolerant to overcharging.
My Noco Genius very simply has Li, AGM, FLA as presets to select. If you can have one that covers AGM than why not FLA?
@danieljanse The Orion "smart" has charge profiles to suit 8 different styles of batteries. Surely one of those will suit your battery?
Even if you dont find a charge profile to suit your battery, you can then program the Orion with a profile that will suit your battery.
This is such a typical response in the Victron community. Why should I have to play with settings when FLA batteries have been around for 50 years? There may be 8 presets but none are for this "old" battery style. I consider this a heavy-handed attempt by a European company to try and classify FLA as obsolete. If you walk into a US auto parts store or WalMart, the majority of choices...especially economic ones...are FLA.
Think about the absurdity of what you and others have suggested. You are asking to me guess and risk ruining a $150 battery? Victron is suppose to be a battery centric company with all the data possible to include educated presets for FLA. Just do it or list one here. Or better yet, a complete series based on common deep cycle parameters.
I have a Super Start battery and the manufacturer could be one of a few different entities. I have no interest in tracking this down. My frustration is solely with Victron. Please don't take it personally. I hope very much that they monitor this community and might consider adding such a preset. I'm not an expert, but they are, so I just wish they would show some common sense.
Well, I contacted Interstate Battery about the equivalent deep cycle FLA that they make and got the following data:
That seems like a really high Absorption voltage from what I have been reading on here. I have no idea how to extract a value for the Bulk settings, either. Why is such a dangerous, yet common and well understood, process left so much to guess-work?
An Interstate SRM-24 battery is not really a deep cycle battery. It is a compromise between a engine starting battery and a marine trolling battery. Unfortunately, it is not optimized for either function. Approx 81 amp-hour? I would not expect much from that battery.
From your chart, you should notice that ... Many battery manufacturers have very different charging parameters for FLA. I can guarantee you that NOCO does not use the charging parameters specified in your SRM-24 table.
In the Victron Orion, you could create a "User Defined" battery setting based on the "Factory Default", but change the Absorb Voltage field to 14.4 volts. Start there.
Also, I can not even find a DC-to-DC Charger on the NOCO website???
If there was a Noco (or Schumacher which I also really like) DC-DC charger I would never have even considered the Victron. Probably should have gone Renogy.
Sorry, there is no pre-defined '"FLA" specific battery setting in the Orion DC-DC charger. Maybe, there should be? The "Factory Default" is a very good starting point for FLA. I think you will find that configuring any DC-DC charger is more complex than a typical plug-n-play AC powered charger.
@JohnC any suggestions?...
@danieljanse in the meanwhile, check out this thread.
Different manufacturers give different charging specs. Charging terminology is somewhat vague amongst manufactures also.
Also users have requirements for their batteries. A battery in a standby / backup situation, will need a different charge profile, compared to a battery that is cycled everyday.
You could use the preset > Gel Victron deep discharge (2).
Fla's can be successfully charged using any of the Victron profiles. They're rugged, and overcharge might boil off water and heat them up, but won't kill them under realistic V's and charge rates. They can handle a faster charge than agm's.
The Victron presets seem pretty much based on Victron batteries. Fair enough, and expecting a preset for that 'Interstate' one you posted would be crazy. Hmm, no mention there of Temperature Compensation either..
If you're deep cycling a batt rather than using it as a starter batt, then you really need to know what you want to do. As mentioned, the Gel2 profile is good, or the less aggressive Gel1. But in a deep cycle situation it becomes 'personal', you're working them harder, and a custom profile is usually worth the effort if needed.
You seem fixed on your Noco's talents. But a separate profile for agm and fla I'd suggest as just a sales pitch.
@JohnC your kick 'em til they cry approach to charging sounds like a Mad Max movie where everyone is driving a Telsa instead of a supercharged hot rod. Did I not mention the poor fella who formed enough oxyhydrogen that his batteries exploded? I'll bet they boiled a bit before they did that...maybe someone on here will read your brazen posts and just give it a whirl and end up not as lucky as @hennyv. But you probably spent as much on ventilation as you did on batteries, hmmm?
https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/198893/exploded-flooded-acid-batteries.html
All I'm saying to Victron is that if your going to make something that can kill people, try to remove some of the doubt. There is no tech support for this company that I can find and when I ask about FLA they send in @JohnC Wayne. I had to contact Interstate to get the data for "a" group 24DCMJ because Interstate cares enough to have a tech support line while Super Start doesn't. Why Victron take some interns and have them start building a nice database searchable by typical battery profiles and perceived workloads. Then it can spit out "user profiles" based on the actual data you guys and your industry have accumulated over the last 100 years. Or we, your customers, can just keep taking shots in the dark...cool, whatever.
Why are you so willing to trust an unknown and unverified preset from some other charger manufacture but when it comes to the MFG of the battery you have, you question their published specifications? You cant have it both ways. Make up your mind. If it bothers you that much find out what the preset values are for the NoCo and use that in the Victron. You obviously have complete and total blind faith in the NoCo.
Anyway, Victron is typically not for "Low Information" people.
Blind faith wont cut it with this crowd. They want to tweak and adjust.
I suggest you return your equipment and go with something simple.
Ignorance is Bliss.
@elvis Noco Genius charges my batteries without fault. This is experience. They are Genius!
The Victron has blown up batteries due to the needless complexity they are peddling to engineering types who would rather spend 2 hours adjusting their TV display settings and audio profiles rather than just watching the damn movie...you know who you are!
When something should be simple, or better yet can be simple, why make it complicated?
I saw that Interstate had a very high absorption voltage and questioned its validity. I knew it was high because I took the time to read a few posts on here suggesting 14.4V was reasonable. I'm not going to crank up my charge voltage because some guy is telling me to poop or get off the pot. People make mistakes all the time...Elvis did.
@klim8skeptic Thanks
This topic has gone as far as it can. Advice provided and rejected, nothing more to add.
