AGM Buldging ? Normal or problem?

[Salts]

Went to Sam's Club today and purchased a Duracell AGM Dual Purpose Marine battery. I'm using a NOCO MINI1 charger to keep it charged up. Its being used to extend the run time of an APC UPS for our computers.

I've only had it for about 4 hours, the NOCO charger was purchased just for the purpose of maintaining this battery.

While I was tucking away cables, I noticed the sides bulging (see photo). The front and back faces of the battery casing look very flat as does the top.. bulging.jpg its just the sides that have a bulging. The NOCO MINI1 is a max 4 amp charger so I can't imagine that being the problem.

Is this just a manufacturing artifact? Or is this a problem?

Other than the small battery for the motorcycle, this is my first AGM.

[Bala]

If it is not hot I see nothing bad happening, if its hot then you have a problem.

I would suggest look at others in the store to see if they are the same new.

[Salts]

If it is not hot I see nothing bad happening, if its hot then you have a problem.

I would suggest look at others in the store to see if they are the same new.

Its not at all hot.. not even warm. Its in my basement and feels to be the same temperature as all other objects. Its about 65°F down there.

She has to take a core back to them so I'll have her check.

[Salts]

Found a user photo via google.. Same battery! LOL Does it look bulged?
attachment.php?attachmentid=686228&d=1467473450.jpg

[sdold]

I think some internal pressure during charging is normal, but I'd call the manufacturer and try to talk to someone that seems to know about this, and email him the picture and see what he thinks. If he says it's OK, at least you'll have the email to back up a warranty claim. It looks more bulged than the ones on the shelf, although the angle is different and makes it a little hard to tell.

[PNjunction]

Those are fine rebadges of Deka / East Penn AGM's. Slight bulging at the sides is normal. Many many years ago I was concerned too, but *slight* side bulging is normal over it's lifetime, and I freaked out just like you did, being very alert to how abuse of agm's, and especially gel's bulge out when abused.

If you look hard enough, you'll see the bulge change a little bit depending on if you are charging them hard, ambient temp and so forth so not to worry with the Deka / East Penn and rebadges from seeing this. All of mine have done this to some degree.

Note that with Deka/EP/rebadges, the MAX voltage for them is 14.4v CV. Don't be tempted to use a generic "agm" setting with other chargers that may take them to 14.6 or 14.7v. Deka's are *conventional* agm's, and don't need to be pushed to higher than 14.4v, and it appears that your NOCO has 14.4v as the setpoint.

In your relatively cool environment, I think you'll be just fine with that charger, since I'm not sure that Noco incoporates temperature-compensation.

For some documentation about your rebadge, East Penn still has an oldie-but-goodie technical reference manual which has more or less withstood the test of time for their models:

http://www.dekabatteries.com/assets/base/0139.pdf

These make great solar starter-learner batts too for those wishing to go agm for small scale stuff. There are a lot of good AGM's out there, and the Deka / East Penn is always a no-brainer recommendation without hesitation - especially for those who look like they are willing to care for them in some manner like you are.