my first battery in the van lasted 21 mths ,must be ground hog day the current battery has just packed it in again 21 mths ,projector battery charger,red arc12v to 12 v, battery has never been lower than 12.2 usually sits around 12.5 to 12.6 freecamping ,when on power it goes up to over 13 volts and drops back to 12.6,so this thing has been mothered,the first battery came with the van ,the second bought from battery world,can anyone suggest a good brand and where to buy it,full river comes up a lot but it would be Avery expensive 21 mths
-- Edited by Ron-D on Thursday 23rd of May 2019 05:59:58 PM
Hi
Sounds like your charging battery
Projecta 240v amps??
DC/DC amperage ?? does it have solar provision??
If u have small power cable for the dc/dc it will double/triple charge time .
If u do camping with no solar this would place a lot of stress on battery [s]
Battery protection
12v low volt disconnect with time delay Projecta do a 30amp unit
Isolator ON/OFF to 100% disconnect batts during storage . To stop electrical leaching loads .
Thanks for all your advice the charger is set for agm ,the van has a low voltage cut out ,which worked on the original battery failure ,this ones weird ,the battery charges up to full voltage ok,and when running the tv after a while,the volts will drop to 10 volts,the low voltage cut out has not worked at this stage,but as soon as you turn the tv off the battery goes straight up to 13 volts,after that even the LEDs will drop the battery voltage,and as soon as there turned off 13 volts appears on the reg again.the volt meter is working fine I double check it with my hand meter,the battery is well looked after weird problem ,all I can do really is buy a new battery,full river would be my choice but not with this system the way it is..
I have rewired the fridge as there was a 0.17 volt drop within the fridge due to under sized wiring from poor quality manufacturing standards in my Waeco fridge.
Then there was the voltage drop from battery to fridge & voltage drop from solar to battery all knobbling the system.
If the crap manufacturing & construction standards & quality are not fixed then your entire setup has to work much harder costing you you a lot more.
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Ron, as soon as our battery voltage goes below the pre set cut off eg 12v, Off go lights TV etc
Re (but as soon as you turn the tv off the battery goes straight up to 13 volts,after that even the LEDs will drop the battery voltage,and as soon as there turned off 13 volts appears on the reg again.)
To me, that's because your current battery needs to be replaced.
I got 8 years out of two 120ah Fullriver AGMs, they were still ok when I took them out, but we were doing a big trip, so rather than risk failure replaced with 2 150ah of the same brand....$600 each...ouch.
-- Edited by Muskat55 on Friday 24th of May 2019 01:42:07 PM
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Hi Ron, as weird as this sounds, set the solar and DC to DC chargers to flooded cell setting. The problem is plate sulphation due to the battery never actually reaching fully charged. If you have a good mains charger, and you mentioned a Projecta unit, that will have a rejuvenate function, set that to run a few times and then put the charger into the flooded cell charge position and let it charge for at least 24 hrs.
Try the battery over night, then repeat the rejuvenate and 24 hr charge cycles and see if it comes good. You have nothing to loose ......
T1 Terry
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Hi Ron, as weird as this sounds, set the solar and DC to DC chargers to flooded cell setting. The problem is plate sulphation due to the battery never actually reaching fully charged. If you have a good mains charger, and you mentioned a Projecta unit, that will have a rejuvenate function, set that to run a few times and then put the charger into the flooded cell charge position and let it charge for at least 24 hrs. Try the battery over night, then repeat the rejuvenate and 24 hr charge cycles and see if it comes good. You have nothing to loose ......
T1 Terry
The battery should be reaching fully charged Terry when at home its left on 240 for long periods and goes up to 13.6 volts and eventually drops down to 12.6 volts,,freecamping we have a Victron solar charger the only things running in the van is LEDs and tv fridge and cooking appliances are on gas,so the battery is well fed and looked after,thats the frustrating thing we dont run much and mother this thing with good quality gear and I still cant get a good run out of batteries,the battery is a Remco 120 amp bought from battery world,thanks for your advice Terry and I will follow it but I think its a long shot.
Ron, When Freedom Camping, my understanding is that some TV's will still run at 11 volts or less, ditto LEDs, if your cutout is not working at say a 12v cutoff and unknown to you, your TV/lights are running at say 11volts ( rain/cloud cover) for a few days, this will greatly reduce your battery life, do it a few times and they are worth $7 at the recycle yard unless the T1T solution resurrects them.
The fact the battery bounce straight back to over 12.8v says it is both sulphated and there is still possibly something putting in a bit of current.
13.6v is a maintenance voltage for a fully charged battery, 14.4v to 14.8v is the bulk charging voltage with 14.4v maintained for hrs once the 14.8v bulk voltage has been reached. The fact the battery drops back to 12.6v says it was never fully charged, it should be able to hold 12.8v with a 6 amp load (120Ah battery) for a while before the voltage slowly drops to 12.6v, it should be able to hold close to that voltage for hrs and not drop to 12v in under 10 hrs.
It will take quite a few cycles back to fully charged where it will hold a voltage better than 12v for at least an hr. Don't be discouraged if you only get a few mins or only 1/2hr early on, it will take time to clear the sulphation out of the plates because it is not just on the surface, it goes all the way through the plate.
If you are having any success, this time will increase but maybe only mins at first, but it must reach fully charged each time.
The way to know it has reached the point where no more chemical reaction is taking place and only some electrolytic and heating is occuring, wait till the current drops back to a few amps at 14.4v, this still isn't fully charged, but at this stage the last 2% or so will not make things much better. Once you can get more than 5 hrs with a 6 amp load and stay above 12v while still under load, you can start to extend the charging at 14.4v until you see the amps have dropped below 2 amps but not reduced any more after an hr. To get the last 1% or so requires a constant 13.8v for 24hrs or more.
Needless to say, not very many RV batteries ever get fully charged and certainly not while in cyclic use.
T1 Terry
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