Battery - I hardly knew ye - Page 2

Viejo · 02-15-2014, 02:04 PM

So tell me if I'm doing the right thing with my batteries.

The van is connected by extension cord to a 15A circuit in the garage.
My house side does not charge the starting batteries - by design.
I have a 1.5A float charger plugged into the van 110 and the dashboard 12v.
I have volt meters on both battery sets.
Whenever either battery set drops below 12.60 I plug in the extension cord for about 24hrs which brings them up to about 12.85. This happens once or twice a week.

In the past, I just kept the van plugged in all the time but found that I had to add water to the house side golf cart batteries too often.

Is 12.60 the proper level to let them drop to? What voltage should the charger be putting on the house side when it's just maintaining a charged battery?

edroid · 02-15-2014, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joey2cool

Your battery is dead. Now let's talk about your charging habits. How often do you check battery voltage levels? At what level do you decide to recharge? Hope this isn't too presumptuous of me to ask. Two years is at the short end of a battery life span, but not out of the question.

I had all breakers off and removed the fuse from the CO detector. About once a month I would plug the van in to a 30 amp wall circuit. These batteries are supposed to only lose 5% per month, no?

Thinking I should try a trickle charger. The van is wired for a Zamp solar auxilliary panel, but I wonder if I could plug a trickle charger in to that?

I ordered a new battery. A Deka. Should be in next week.

Ford_6L_E350 · 02-15-2014, 04:19 PM

Did you turn the breakers on when you plugged into shore power? I would imagine you did turn them on, but if not then the batteries won't get any charge.

Mike

edroid · 02-15-2014, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ford_6L_E350

Did you turn the breakers on when you plugged into shore power? I would imagine you did turn them on, but if not then the batteries won't get any charge.

Mike

Yes, I would plug the van in, turn on the breaker and just kind of poke around the van to see that everything was ship shape. . . Next day turn off 30 amp main breaker and unplug.

Ford_6L_E350 · 02-15-2014, 07:52 PM

On my van I have to turn on two breakers to get it to charge the batteries (or supply 12V). I never can remember which two, so I turn on all four and everything is fine. Your van may be different.

I didn't see what voltage you had when the shore power was on, only that it dropped to 10.8V after a charge. In that case, your battery is good for a boat anchor or a core when you replace it.

Probably there is a drain on the battery or it was just a bad battery - even some 'new' batteries are bad. Make sure you buy a quality bad from a shop that has good turnover - you don't want a battery that has been sitting on the shelf for a year.

Oh, check your radio switch and make sure it is set to starting batteries, not the house batteries. For some reason that switch can drain your house batteries even if the radio is off.

Mike

edroid · 02-15-2014, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ford_6L_E350

On my van I have to turn on two breakers to get it to charge the batteries (or supply 12V). I never can remember which two, so I turn on all four and everything is fine. Your van may be different.

I didn't see what voltage you had when the shore power was on, only that it dropped to 10.8V after a charge. In that case, your battery is good for a boat anchor or a core when you replace it.

Probably there is a drain on the battery or it was just a bad battery - even some 'new' batteries are bad. Make sure you buy a quality bad from a shop that has good turnover - you don't want a battery that has been sitting on the shelf for a year.

Oh, check your radio switch and make sure it is set to starting batteries, not the house batteries. For some reason that switch can drain your house batteries even if the radio is off.

Mike

Thanks Mike, Good advice that I will follow. Hoping it was "just" a bad battery and not a short somewhere. Cheers, Ed

Scalf77 · 02-16-2014, 09:17 AM

I suspect that you will need to pay attention after installing your new battery. Especially to both how you charge your system and to watch for any unexpected loads. A lot of things depend on your exact build, as Mike said he needs two breakers on, to have show power charge the system. I suspect that he does not have a inverter, and just a charger, but even then I could only really tell you how my inverter works, (No AC breakers needed needed for the charger portion of the inverter to work).

I still have worries about the "cycling noise" that you have heard coming from a area marked ACR. As other have stated normal operation of the ACR would close when going above:
Blue Sea 7620 ACR
Combines above 13.5 for 30secs, or 13.0 for 90secs
Isolated below 12.75 for 30secs, or 12.35 for 10secs

You should be able to hear this noise when the battery voltages (either one) goes thru these values. So while monitoring your starting battery you should here combine when the van starts and he voltage has meet the above condition, remember that value is at the ACR so the actual value you read may be slightly off depending on where you take the measurement. When you turn off the van as the voltage level of the batteries drop you again will here as it isolates.

It should go through the same process when you plug in and charge, this time you would monitor the house battery. In general you will never here the ACR activate again unless you pass through these voltage levels. If that is happening then there would be a problem with the wiring. Possible suspects that I would look for would be the red "remote" wire, this shorting to 12 volts would combine the ACR. I am not sure if yours has the switch wired in, as I believe sportsmobile usually made it optional. Other wires to look at would be Brown "isolation 1"; Green :isolation 2" and orange "isolation 3", any of these three wires would cause the ACR to isolate. It is possible that it may actually monitor the state of the ACR, so that this would not happen if it was already isolated, but it is at least something t look at. While the power usage of the ACR is relatively small when in either combined or isolated, the power used in transition is about 7 amps. Of course the other wire to check would be the Ground connection "black wire" and that the battery connections are good and not loose.
In any case once you confirm to yourself that the noise you hear is the ACR. It is possible that they have used some automatic resettable circuit breaker that may also cycle. Good luck

-greg

**daveb** · 02-16-2014, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viejo

So tell me if I'm doing the right thing with my batteries.

The van is connected by extension cord to a 15A circuit in the garage.
My house side does not charge the starting batteries - by design.
I have a 1.5A float charger plugged into the van 110 and the dashboard 12v.
I have volt meters on both battery sets.
Whenever either battery set drops below 12.60 I plug in the extension cord for about 24hrs which brings them up to about 12.85. This happens once or twice a week.

In the past, I just kept the van plugged in all the time but found that I had to add water to the house side golf cart batteries too often.

Is 12.60 the proper level to let them drop to? What voltage should the charger be putting on the house side when it's just maintaining a charged battery?

I avoid cycling my batteries when the van sits. Every time you let the voltage drop below 12.8 and charge it back up you cycle the battery and batteries are only good for so many cycles. A full cycle is dropping the battery voltage to the low safe point and bringing it up to 100%. But small cycles can also do some damage and you might not be able to reach 100% over time. 1.5 amps is a little high for a maintenance charge and I can see why you might dry out a cell. There are pros and cons to fully automatic 3-4 stage chargers compared to single stage maintenance types. I have a single stage that only puts out .8 amps that I find useful for batteries I keep in long term storage. From time to time I put a standard charge to it. Works for me.

edroid · 02-17-2014, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ford_6L_E350

Oh, check your radio switch and make sure it is set to starting batteries, not the house batteries. For some reason that switch can drain your house batteries even if the radio is off.

Mike

I just remembered I had an issue with the radio switch early on. Definitely something worth looking in to.

Scalf77 · 02-18-2014, 06:49 AM

If the radio switch is set House it will be enabling a relay to provide power from the house battery. If you manually turn the radio off with the switch still in the house position, it will continue to enable the relay thus drawing current. So leaving the switch in this position with the radio off will cause a current draw, there would also be the current draw of the LED. While neither of these is huge, over a extended period of time it would have a impact.

-greg