I replaced the two house batteries yesterday. Both were significantly bulging. The tech at Interstate batteries tested them and said that one was bad and the other wasn't very good. So I replaced them both. I asked what could have caused the problem and he suggested overheating from overcharging for too long. How do I avoid a repeat of this problem. It's a 2009 Sportsmobile.
The new batteries are sealed lead acid. Interstate Battery Center calls them "Deep Cycle Mobility". There is a Xantrex LinkPro battery monitor. The inverter is a Tripp-Lite Model MRV2012VL. The Sportsmobile is built on a 2009 Freightliner.
Larry
I guess the better question was what kind were the old batteries. I would suspect that since one was bad and one not so good, that maybe you dropped a cell in the bad battery, that would cause overcharging that would then take out the second one.
I did have a bulging house battery once after I found the cable shorted.
The battery monitor seems to indicate that everything is working well now. At this time of the year, the primary draw is for the refrigerator. The manual tells me that the fridge will draw about 2.5 amp hours. So a fully charged battery should power the fridge for several days. We use a little bit of light when preparing for bed, but that's minimal. We might use the ceiling fans a bit this weekend since we will be camping at low elevation and it will be hot. Usually we are camping in the mountains in Colorado and we rely on natural cooling in the evening.
The previous batteries were also sealed lead acid.
Larry
The previous batteries were also sealed lead acid.
Larry
And why I asked what kind of batteries you have. Sealed wet cell batteries are not the best choice as house batteries. Wet cell deep cycle batteries often have caps that can be opened to replenish the water, but maintenance free batteries don’t and do not well with constant charging. AGM types are more forgiving especially with solar. My guess is the water got low and exposed the plates.
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2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer
You never mentioned the capacity in Ah of your house bank but 2.5 Ah continuous can add up quickly, 60 Ah in 24 hrs, then consider that the usable capacity of a lead acid battery is 50% or less of rated capacity and you can degrade batteries really quickly.
In this case it could have been a bad cell or other but might be worth another look at usable bank capacity vs loads.
I also learned a hard lesson in chronic undercharging using a ACR but pretty easy to run into that issue with a dedicated charger with incorrect settings for the bank as well
Sportsmobile (AKA Money Pit)
Vanna
Linear Mode
