Sure Power battery separator clicks and cycles continuously.

[boywonder]

To check amperage, you need to set the meter to DC amps, and move the positive lead to the "amps" position on the meter. Then connect the meter in series (said another way-inline) with the load....this means that you will have to disconnect a cable and use the meter leads to complete the connection.....so disconnected cable to meter + and meter -to where cable was connected.

Be sure to use the 10A current setting and if the current flowing is more than 10A you will blow the fuse in your meter.

A few things to understand about multimeters....in voltage mode they have very high resistance; this means you can check voltages between anything and not short anything out.

In current mode, the meter has zero resistance (it's a dead short)...just like a piece of wire........the zero resistance is to allow connection in-line and accurately measure current.

[syncrow]

Originally Posted by boywonder

Yup...that's one of the issues with the coil-based Surepower products. When there is little sun, say less than an amp's worth, a good chunk of that solar power goes into heating up the relay instead of flowing to the batteries.

If you end up replacing the separator, consider a Blue Sea ACR....the basic units are around $75 and the fancy 7622 is about $175. They are both bi-directional for solar and don't have relay coils to burn power.

There are a number of threads here discussing the Surepower units cycling; do a search for Surepower.

It sounds like your house battery may be the problem.....an easy and cheap test would be to temporarily replace the house battery with another good battery (doesn't have to be a deep cycle for testing, steal the battery from the wife's car)....and see if the cycling stops.

Does it cycle in full sun?

Yes I plan on purchasing a new Blue Sea separator even if my 10 year old one is still working. I just replaced my 5 1/2 year old starter battery that was showing signs of getting weak, not to mention the bulge on the side. My wife wants the security. That battery was purchased while traveling in
Baja. The original went bad about 50 miles from the nearest town and 20 miles from the nearest paved road.

I have read a good number of threads about separator clicking and cycling but have not found one that addresses my specific issue.

I changed out my house battery today and the clicking and cycling stopped. I am not convinced yet that the house battery is actually bad. It showed a full charge when I took it out. There is a Life Line battery distributor close to my house so I am going to have them check it out tomorrow.

The separator does click and cycle continuously even when the van is in full sun.

Thank you for your advice.

[syncrow]

Originally Posted by daveb

A good battery monitor can tell you a lot. One way I can tell I have an issue with a battery is seeing unusually high amperage during a charge and it doesn't taper off to an amp or two after a charging session. It's normal for the Surepower separator to act that way if a battery isn't allowing the solar to keep it at a float level. That would be my first guess and would try what BW posted suggesting you pull the battery and stick a different one in there. However what I did was to get rid of that separator ASAP. I had a host of issues with Surepower.

I changed out the house battery today and the problem seems to have gone away. I will have the battery checked by the Life Line distributor close by tomorrow. It is just two years old.

I need to look into a battery monitor and how to use it.

Thank you for your comment.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by syncrow

I changed out the house battery today and the problem seems to have gone away. I will have the battery checked by the Life Line distributor close by tomorrow. It is just two years old.

I need to look into a battery monitor and how to use it.

Thank you for your comment.

To test a battery, they need to do a timed load test. Another method is to let the battery sit after a charge and see if the voltage drops below 12.8 after a couple of days.
With a new battery, you'll see that the separator will take longer to open after any charging has just been stopped. This is due to the float charge that has to dissipate after the charge is stopped. So after a drive, after the shore charger is shut off, or the sun doesn't produce enough to keep the batteries at about 12.8 volts or higher, the voltage begins to drop (depending on the amperage the load is pulling) until it reaches 12.8 volts. At that point the battery reserve is considered 100% @ 12.8 volts and the separator is supposed to open.
Even my Blue Sea 7622 will cycle on and off especially if the charge amperage is close to what the load is pulling. For example if I have the fridge running (about 5 amps) and I have only 3 amps or so of solar charging, the separator opens when the fridge cycles on and the voltage drops below 12.8. After the fridge shuts down, the voltage slowly starts to climb to the point the separator closes...thunk. Sooner or later the solar output is so low it can't keep up with the load and the separator opens and stays open until the charging starts over and the battery charge voltage reaches about 13.2v or higher.

The main thing is when something on your van starts acting differently than normal. My first guess was the house battery because the vehicle started OK when you kept the separator open and you only have 1 starting battery. With a diesel and two starting batteries, the same problems can happen that you're seeing provided one of the starting batteries performing below average. The good battery can mask the bad batteries output and still allow the engine to kick over. Unfortunately other things can cause similar issues and I'd hate for you to toss a good battery if that isn't the problem.

I'd still ask Lifeline about Equalizing the battery. It might help prolong its life if you find that it can be put back into service.

[syncrow]

Originally Posted by daveb

To test a battery, they need to do a timed load test.

I'd still ask Lifeline about Equalizing the battery. It might help prolong its life if you find that it can be put back into service.

I took my battery to Life Line for testing and equalizing. The first capacity test came in at 33% which is short of factory specs. Dave charged it at 15.7 volts for 7 hours and then ran a second capacity test. It came in a down 15% which is within factory specs for a two year old battery.

I picked up the battery and installed it yesterday. I also ordered a new Blue Sea 7622 ML_ACR. It came in one day with free shipping from Amazon. I bought it because my Sure Power is ten years old and the consensus is that the Blue Sea is better suited for my application. I was pretty sure my old separator was causing my problems.

I put the battery in and installed the ACR. It worked fine and my solar controller read 13.7 volts. I then notices that I did not have any power to my interior lights and power outlets etc. While I was trying to figure what I had done wrong the power just came back on. I figured the ACR needed some time to set or something.

I then went on to rearrange things because the new ACR didn't fit where the separator was and was using a power tool plugged into my inverter. The power went out again but this time did not come back on. I have gone through my connections and checked the fuses and have not found the problem.

Any suggestions? I thought I was done.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by syncrow

I put the battery in and installed the ACR. It worked fine and my solar controller read 13.7 volts. I then notices that I did not have any power to my interior lights and power outlets etc. While I was trying to figure what I had done wrong the power just came back on. I figured the ACR needed some time to set or something.

I then went on to rearrange things because the new ACR didn't fit where the separator was and was using a power tool plugged into my inverter. The power went out again but this time did not come back on. I have gone through my connections and checked the fuses and have not found the problem.

Any suggestions? I thought I was done.

So when you say no power to lights and outlets, are you saying the 12vDC lights and outlets? Most builds have a higher amp breaker that feeds the 12vDC system. I'd look at that Breaker.

What size inverter is it and where is it connected to the house battery system? A large inverter shouldn't run through a small breaker if it was installed correctly.

You might have a parasitic draw from the inverter or a minor short in the inverters supply lines.

Then again sometimes there is more than one problem. An high end amp meter goes a long way in finding problems. Perhaps the inverter is bad and started all of this.

[syncrow]

Originally Posted by daveb

So when you say no power to lights and outlets, are you saying the 12vDC lights and outlets? Most builds have a higher amp breaker that feeds the 12vDC system. I'd look at that Breaker.

What size inverter is it and where is it connected to the house battery system? A large inverter shouldn't run through a small breaker if it was installed correctly.

You might have a parasitic draw from the inverter or a minor short in the inverters supply lines.

Then again sometimes there is more than one problem. An high end amp meter goes a long way in finding problems. Perhaps the inverter is bad and started all of this.

Yes, I am referring to the 12V lights inside my van and the cigarette lighter type power outlets in the rear of the van. I have three of them. My inverter is a 400 watt portable type I plug into one of the power outlets and I have used it for many years charging rechargeable batteries, mobile phones, laptops etc. I have to say this is the first time I have used it to power a 240/325 watt 2.5A soldering gun.

I did spend a little time after I wrote my post and looked in my Sportsmobile manual for 12V info. I remember reading about distribution center, circuit breaker and fuses while I was trouble shooting my separator. I found reference to my circuit breaker with a very small reset button. I pressed the reset button on the circuit breaker and my power came back on.

I think I am, again, good to go. I will do a little studying on what is the max draw I can plug into my portable inverter. I am actually glad this happened. I think I will invest in a permanently installed and correctly wired inverter so I will be able to use power tools etc. when needed, especially for when I am away from home.

Thanks again for your and others assistance.

[daveb]

That's not a huge inverter and can pull about 30+ amps of DC current but it's still kinda heavy to run through a power port. Your 110AC / 325 watt solder iron (I assume 240 was a typo or you meant 240-325 watts @ 110vAC) would pull about 27 amps of DC power to run it. Sometimes the breakers just trip with an additional heavy load applied. I'm not sure what most DC outlets are rated for. My Blue Sea ports are protected with a 10 amp fuse. I mean most of the time the inverter isn't having to supply that much current to worry about but I'm not sure what the capability is with the ports SMB installs.

[ssk109]

I am new to the forum and joined after reading this thread. I have a similar issue which just started the last couple weeks.

Van: Running at idle
Inverter: On
Supplemental A/C OR hot water heater: On
No other major current drain - low voltage DC stuff.

Issue:
House battery voltage drops quickly from ~13.8+/- to 11.6V
Solenoid/Relay(?) "clunk" heard
Engine goes under load (revs a little)
House battery jumps to ~13+ V
Solenoid/Relay(?) "clunk" heard
Repeats every 30-45 seconds

2007 Dodge Sprinter Sportmobile
Solar: 310W
Inverter: 2000W
AGM 198Ah batter <1 yr old
210A alternator

Feels like the AC load is being powered by the house battery until it reaches a critical low voltage then triggers the isolator to charge it. When sufficient voltage is reached, isolator triggers back and the cycle repeats.

I have no idea which type of isolator was installed. It's original from Sportsmobile circa 2007.

[Scalf77]

When the engine is running at idle, the alternator can not provide enough current to keep the voltage above the set point, so you hear it disconnect and then the voltage rises and the it connects again. Then the cycle continues, sounds like you have a pretty good load on the system while the engine is running, I would try to reduce that load as much as possible.

Also make sure that you get the house battery fully charged (on shore power). The state of charge on your house battery will also come into play.

-greg