Is your Separator HOT?

Jeffrey · 02-28-2009, 03:48 PM

Since I've been hanging out more with the electrical stuff under the seat, I noticed that my separator unit, although disconnected on one side for the past few days, is literally too hot to even touch! My van has been sitting parked all night, the solar panels are keeping my house battery right at 14.00 volts today, yet the separator is really hot. How can this be? What power can be passing thru it with one terminal post disconnected from any cables?

For full disclosure, I disconnected the only fat red cable from one side of the unit that appears to go under the floor and I believe goes to the starter batteries. I did this to isolate the house 12v system completely from the Ford side while they were diagnosing my other problem at the dealer. The other top post of the separator has a few cables attached to it and I believe that is the house circuit side of the system. In a 50 plan, that is the side towards the front of the vehicle. With one post bare (the rear one), how could any current pass and generate heat?

Jeffrey · 03-01-2009, 10:44 AM

This morning I checked and it was cold! The only difference I could think of was that yesterday I checked during the day, and the Blue Sky solar controller indicated a 14v. reading for the house battery. This morning, the house battery had 12.7v. Nothing was drawing any power. no fridge, no lights, nada (except the CO detector, but the draw is miniscule). Why wouldn't the house battery retain it's full charge overnight? Temperature drop? I live in So CA, and it dropped to about 55 degrees last night. Big deal. I am not an expert on the solar system, but it appears to be working fine. However, it's possible that the panels and/or battery are draining thru the separator when in the sun. Why else would the unit be so hot yesterday, cool today, and the voltage less this morning?

Jeffrey · 03-01-2009, 01:03 PM

Just a few hours later......

It's hot again. No driving or any other use of the van. But, the sun is out so it must be a function of the solar charging.

I'd like to hear your experiences, since I'm tired of talking to myself about this.

pjpvi · 03-01-2009, 01:20 PM

Mine gets very hot when the solar is doing it's job. I will also hear it clicking occasionally when PV panels are in full sun for a long time. My assumption is that it is a relay switching between the house and van batteries, but I have nothing to back that assumption.

Phil

jage · 03-01-2009, 08:29 PM

Mine got hot with no solar. The separator doesn't know that you disconnected the wire to the starter batteries, it only knows that the house side is at enough voltage that it needs to close, so it closes and somehow when it's closed it gets hot, probably because it uses voltage to stay closed. (heat in the electromagnetic coil?)

John Kalmbach · 03-05-2009, 12:20 AM

Jage is right about the source of the heat at the Separator. Removing the small ground wire on the Separator will disable the Separator, thereby eliminating the heat source.

A fully charged battery rests at about 12.8vdc without any load on it. The solar panels will charge the battery at over 14vdc. Once the charge source is removed, the battery voltage will slowly settle down to the 12.8vdc level if the battery is fully charged and without a load.

I hope this helps!

John K.

Jeffrey · 03-05-2009, 11:39 AM

Yes, John, that helps, and I know I'm OK now.