Fight: Water Pump vs. Battery - Page 6

Scalf77 · 12-07-2014, 11:32 AM

In my experience the problem is more likely going to happen the other way around. You have your Van plugged in and the long period of time at float reduces water out wet cell batteries. I believe there are multiple forum members that now run AGM's for starters, partly for this reason.

I would look in other areas as the cause of failure. In my experience I would think that battery was undercharged unless something was not working correctly. While many people see their solar charger working, they don't verify the distinct charging phases the controller is going through, and does it ever make it to the final float stage. And the same goes for plugging in.

-greg

rallypanam · 12-07-2014, 11:46 AM

This all makes my head hurt. Or maybe that was the tequila.

Anyway, I can't see it being too high voltage, everyone on this forum is running ~14v alternator charge to their house battery when driving.. and not everyone is killing batteries.

As for the solar charger.. Blue Sky Sun Charger 30 - I've never verified the actually charging cycles, but I assume it works as intended.. And I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly.

**daveb** · 12-07-2014, 12:44 PM

I agree with Greg. I've found it is very difficult to boil off an AGM battery compared to a standard wet cell battery unless you're using the wrong charging and/or maintenance procedures or the wrong charger. The problem with wet cell batteries is when you expose the plates. I've owned bass boats since 1980 and had nothing but problems with wet cell batteries sulfating even if the water was kept up. The best thing that happened to me were AGM's. I've had a set of Optima's for 7 years and they have worked fine with a bulk charger and a low amp maintenance charger. I doubt I'll go back with Optima's as their quality standards have dropped over the years and will go with the better made batteries on the market. You usually get what you pay for. The number one fact that makes batteries a premium or non premium type is the quality of the lead used by the manufacture so I have a tendency to stick with the high end battery companies.

The fact that the majority of owners are not having issues with large number of the vans coming off the line at SMB points to something else other than the alternator charge being the problem. I do think that many owners w/o solar have more of a tendency to keep their batteries undercharged. In reference to alternator overcharging, I'm not saying there can't be an issue with the regulator but in that situation the starting batteries would probably fail before the house AGM.
I use my vehicle as a daily driver and if the batteries were so sensitive to an alternator charge they would have died a year or so back. I'm not saying that a well regulated alternator charge won't help with extending battery life, only that a new battery should not be destroyed so quickly with a standard alternator charge. At the price of batteries these days I have looked into a better smart regulated alternator charge but so far I haven't had enough trouble that makes me want to spend the extra bucks on something like that and I won't fix something that's not broke.

**daveb** · 12-07-2014, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rallypanam

This all makes my head hurt. Or maybe that was the tequila.

Anyway, I can't see it being too high voltage, everyone on this forum is running ~14v alternator charge to their house battery when driving.. and not everyone is killing batteries.

As for the solar charger.. Blue Sky Sun Charger 30 - I've never verified the actually charging cycles, but I assume it works as intended.. And I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly.

Never thought of it but if it's like mine there is a equalize button on there and if that is selected it will fry your battery.

arctictraveller · 12-07-2014, 01:50 PM

[quote="rallypanam"]This all makes my head hurt. Or maybe that was the tequila.

Tequila will do that sometimes. Anyway, I'm not trying to make anyone's head explode, I'm simply trying to come up with a possible explanation of why a new battery failed prematurely. Following the manufacturers charging recommendations should result in a longer life. Not following them does not mean it will fail immediately, but the overall life span will probably be reduced some. The further from the manufactures recommendations, the shorter the life span.

Anyway, I can't see it being too high voltage, everyone on this forum is running ~14v alternator charge to their house battery when driving.. and not everyone is killing batteries.

Agreed, but is everyone running AGM's? I also agree that looking for a problem that may not exist in not productive. If your satisfied with the life span of your batteries, you need not look any further.

Tequila it is........Cheers

**daveb** · 12-07-2014, 02:05 PM

I'll bet over 90% of the vans coming out of SMB are using AGM types. It's certainly true with the Fresno shop. I've seen a couple custom 6 volt cart battery setups and a couple Lithium banks. I don't know when they started using AGM's but Lifeline was the brand used in 05-07, then they went to Deka, and in about 2010 or 2011 they switched to Universal. I'd rather pay the extra for a Lifeline, Concorde or Deka myself. JMO

rallypanam · 12-07-2014, 11:10 PM

So I put this together.. kind of for future reference (once I flesh it out more)..

Still no issues.. no draw based on clamp meter, solar and alternator appear to charge it correctly.

Scalf77 · 12-08-2014, 07:01 AM

Nice diagram, I would check your linklite, you should be able see current going in and out of the battery, I would expect it to be picking up the load from the alarms, and measuring some current draw. I suspect that the draw would be to low for a clamp on meter.

Does your solar charger have temperature compensation? is the temp probe hooked up if you have it? Re-check the parameters that are set in the charger for battery type etc. You obviously have the skill set to understand it, and by poking around you get a better understanding how the whole thing works. I would say your linklite would be your best friend in this case.

Happy hunting, who knows it might have just been a bad battery, your sure it was a AGM and not GEL? I once was doing a search for the universal battery and their numbers were very close I believe, and the particular site I was at viewed them as interchangeable.

If you have any questions on the linklite, feel free to PM. I have the XBM, but they are very close.

-greg

rallypanam · 12-08-2014, 09:19 AM

Yes, solar charger has temperature sensor and it is hooked up as directed..

I pull the alarm fuse when parked, so there is no draw from that.

As for the battery, I don't know it's an AGM, but I purchased it as an AGM, so unless they are substituting gel batteries for the AGM when they sell them - which seems unlikely - I assume it's an AGM.

On the Linklite, I do see current going in and out as would be expected - but I haven't delved into it deeply, as I'm sure with many of these gadgets, it does three times as much as I've figured out, so I need to go through the manual and triple check everything.

rallypanam · 12-08-2014, 09:54 AM

New update: I submitted a form on the http://www.wholesalebatteriesdirect.com/ website at 1:22pm on Friday, they emailed back an hour later at 2:25pm requesting photos of the battery's voltage. I sent them the ones above on Saturday afternoon, and they just got back to me saying (as we all can see) that the battery is dead and they have approved a warranty claim and a new one will be shipped to me.

So assuming that goes through smoothly, kudos to them for honoring their one year warranty.