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05-08-2012, 11:43 AM
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#1
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Marin County, CA
Posts: 32
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Charging at home question
So I use my dog bone to plug into the house outlet in the garage, and my intention is to keep my batteries charged and happy till the next trip.
So here's my question:
When I plug in to the shore power described above, the volt meter doesn't budge much upward. But then when I switch my 110 main fuse to "On" the volt meter jumps up to where I would expect it to be, which is around 13+.
Do I keep my fuse switches "On" when I'm at home charging?
Thanks in advance.
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05-08-2012, 12:01 PM
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#2
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Site Team
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Posts: 1,202
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Re: Charging at home question
Yes. The GFI fuse needs to be on as well. You should also connect to shore power before turning the 110 on & turn 110 off before disconnecting the shore power.
__________________
-Don-
Life and baseball both sometimes are not fair, but it is how you play the hops that counts. —Scott Miller, NYT Sports
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05-08-2012, 12:02 PM
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#3
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Site Team
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Covina
Posts: 1,317
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Charging at home question
With the breaker panel on your charger is working.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
__________________
Kelly, Claudine, Sophie dog, Bell the redheaded step child and Gooseberry RIP.
Most the time the Copilot is Now Sophie dog the noise maker.
2000 7.3 PS Quigley/RB30 with a 6 window poptop.
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05-08-2012, 12:12 PM
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#4
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Marin County, CA
Posts: 32
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Re: Charging at home question
Quote:
Originally Posted by rionapo
Yes. The GFI fuse needs to be on as well. You should also connect to shore power before turning the 110 on & turn 110 off before disconnecting the shore power.
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Great. Thanks....
So I rarely use (if ever) the 110 outlets, so I'm assuming that it's ok to leave those fuses "off" when I'm not charging?
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05-08-2012, 01:34 PM
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#5
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Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Turlock Ca
Posts: 10,407
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Re: Charging at home question
yep, you just need the breaker on that feeds the onboard charger. Just be aware if your charger is not a smart charger and puts out more than about 5 amps, it's possible to overcharge your batteries. Also depending how the 12 volt system is configured, the starting batteries may or may not receive a charge. If the system does combine more than one battery, a single faulting battery can fool even a smart charger into overcharging the complete system. Best solution is to frequently monitor the charge when plugged in.
__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer
Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures.......... On and off road adventures
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05-08-2012, 01:40 PM
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#6
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Marin County, CA
Posts: 32
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Re: Charging at home question
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveb
yep, you just need the breaker on that feeds the onboard charger. Just be aware if your charger is not a smart charger and puts out more than about 5 amps, it's possible to overcharge your batteries. Also depending how the 12 volt system is configured, the starting batteries may or may not receive a charge. If the system does combine more than one battery, a single faulting battery can fool even a smart charger into overcharging the complete system. Best solution is to frequently monitor the charge when plugged in.
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Frequently monitor meaning don't leave it plugged in for a week?
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05-08-2012, 03:28 PM
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#7
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Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Turlock Ca
Posts: 10,407
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Re: Charging at home question
Depends on the charger and the system. For instance, I had a starting battery (one of two) fail. My system is set to charge both house and chassis battery systems. Because my charger is a high amp smart charger, normally it supplies a heavy bulk high amp charge and eventunately tappers off to a low amp maintenance mode. But the bad battery made the charger think the batteries were dead so it rampped up to high and continued that way. I was just lucky to walk out in the morning and smelled the battery boiling. It was so hot I could not touch it. I was lucky it didn't blow up and/or cause a fire. I doubt it caused any trouble for my AGM batteries but if they were wet cell types, they would also be subject to over charge. If left that way for a month it might be costly in more ways than one. I lost a set of 105 amp marine batteries in my bass boat using a 10Amp car charger when I didn't monitor the water level and charge. I bought a charger with a timer on it so it would shut down after a set time. For the most part a light amp maintenance charger is a safer method to charge for long periods.
__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer
Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures.......... On and off road adventures
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05-08-2012, 04:01 PM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Marin County, CA
Posts: 32
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Re: Charging at home question
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveb
Depends on the charger and the system. For instance, I had a starting battery (one of two) fail. My system is set to charge both house and chassis battery systems. Because my charger is a high amp smart charger, normally it supplies a heavy bulk high amp charge and eventunately tappers off to a low amp maintenance mode. But the bad battery made the charger think the batteries were dead so it rampped up to high and continued that way. I was just lucky to walk out in the morning and smelled the battery boiling. It was so hot I could not touch it. I was lucky it didn't blow up and/or cause a fire. I doubt it caused any trouble for my AGM batteries but if they were wet cell types, they would also be subject to over charge. If left that way for a month it might be costly in more ways than one. I lost a set of 105 amp marine batteries in my bass boat using a 10Amp car charger when I didn't monitor the water level and charge. I bought a charger with a timer on it so it would shut down after a set time. For the most part a light amp maintenance charger is a safer method to charge for long periods.
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Great info. Thanks for your help.
I'll take a closer look at what I have and begin to come up with a safe game plan.
THanks again.
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05-08-2012, 04:37 PM
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#9
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Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Turlock Ca
Posts: 10,407
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Re: Charging at home question
That's why a good charger with an amp display or amp meter is nice to have. As the battery fails you can see the amperage rise to abnormal levels indicating something is wrong. I don't want to scare you off as many members kick on thier charger all the time. I'm just saying bad things can happen if you don't stay on top of your charging sessions over long periods of time. In my case I did see the amp meter jump to unusually high levels and didn't take action...it will never happen again.
Good Luck
__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer
Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures.......... On and off road adventures
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05-08-2012, 08:20 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Washington - Ridgefield
Posts: 4,728
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Re: Charging at home question
If you want to leave your van on shore power unattended, invest in a low cost timer. Set it to come on for an hour twice a week. That will keep up with battery self-discharge and greatly reduce the risk of overcharging.
Mike
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