Bad Batteries?

[NWIP]

I would think a call to manufacture of converter/charger would help make sure you have correct settings for the new batteries

 

[Neal]

No battery expert here but if ONE of them are bad it may affect others so each battery needs to be tested to find the one bad one in the group.

 

[Chuggs]

Antifreeze Refractometer for Glycol, Antifreeze, Coolant and Battery Acid. Antifreeze Tester for Measuring Freezing Point of Automobile Antifreeze and Battery Fluid Condition. Antifreeze Refractometer for Glycol, Antifreeze, Coolant and Battery Acid. Antifreeze Tester for Measuring Freezing Point of Automobile Antifreeze and Battery Fluid Condition.: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

I would fully charge the batteries...then disconnect the batteries...let them sit for at least 2 hrs to dissipate any surface charge...take voltage readings for each battery...and specific gravity reading for each cell. This will help identify a weakened battery or cell. Crowne is a reputable mfg...I feel somewhat confident that plate erosion is NOT your concern. Sulphation is the enemy. When you discharge the battery the sulfuric acid reacts with lead to form depisits of Lead Sulphate on the plates. Recharging should dissolve this deposited and put the irons back into the liquid solution. Your specific gravity measures this. A fully charged battery should have a particular specific gravity...if you notice your batteries do not meet this benchmark...of note, you are victim to suplhation that has not dissolved back into solution. This robs your battery of capacity. Ideally, we all would be measuring our specific gravity each quarter...and if a battery is low, or I individual cells show variance...we do the equalization or conditioning charge. There are some commercial tonics which are claimed to help with this...and Battery Minder uses high frequency pulses to help desulohate a battery. May be worth a try on such young batteries.

The way you have them wired...although I am guilty of the same...is not ideal. Ideally, the pathways should be equal. Your leads take a shorter path across the front two...and a longer path across the rear two. This will make one pair work more than the other. In future cabling design...especially since your shunt goes to one location...best practice is most positive and most negative. The pathway across any pair should be equal length...length of cables or jumper bars... This way the resistance is the same. It goes along with the idea that batteries should all be changed as a set...of equal capacity and age.

I kinda wave the BS flag on amperage. Amperage is a rate. I may be wrong, but equalization/desulphating is done off of voltage... I think it is quite possible that you didn't do this often enough...again, we all are probably guilty of this. The longer sulphate are left on the plates...the more difficult they are to redissolve.

The enemy is allowing a battery to sit in a discharged state. If you had your batteries on a charger, they should have stayed fully charged. I rarely see amperage get much above 10A each day when my solar system wakes and brings my bank up to absorption voltage, then drops down to just a couple of amps to float the remainder of the day. Can high amps be good? I guess heating the solution may make a difference...but charge is charge...if the battery reaches full charge, you've done what you can to redissolve the lead sulphate.

I will probably do a few equalization rounds on my own batteries...and see if the voltage follows the common drop proportional to aH used... But don't really expect a miracle. They are 4 years old...and I expect for the capacity to go down with age. I'll hopefully notice a change in S.G. after each round...but we'll see.

Without being able to take a drop of battery acid out for testing, I'm not sure what AGM owner's use to quantify a time to equalize...

 

[Jim]

Thank you for that @Chuggs

Is the attached drawing correct ? Or have I missed the boat ?

 

[Chuggs]

Perfect...once the electron passes to the most positive or most negative...I see two lengths of copper to make the journey regardless of front pair or rear pair. It looks to me you have a balanced pathway. Sorry, but I really can’t quantify the importance of this...it just seems to be the “best practice“.

 

[Neal]

@Chuggs do you have a picture of the Newmar battery wiring diagram on the side of the bay? I checked and don't have a pic but if you have one in your files and want to attach it if it would help visualize how to interconnect the batteries feel free to attach.

 

[Chuggs]

Newmar wired separate components to different pairs. House, BIM, and Inverter... It isn't a great wiring option...and even worse once all grounds are routed to a common terminal w/shunt installation.

So, it's how it came wired...but not in my opinion a good example.

Bad photo...but the Inverter is basically wired to the top right pair, the house is wired to the lower right pair, and the BIM or Chassis interface is wired to the top left pair. I guess the bottom left pair is just waiting for something new... I think thier rational was to make it easier to connect rings to individual post and minimize stacking.

 

[Neal]

I'm looking forward to your doodle or iCircuit @Chuggs And of course battery choice as when the time comes I'll be mirroring you of course!

What are your indications of batteries needing to be replaced? If your CFO is reading this and it may affect acquisition then we should go to the SCIF for secure comms. I don't need any more restraining orders from CINCHOUSE.

 

[Rinsrig]

My RV runs solely on solar power, I have the ability to plug into shore power, but I don't have the need for it. Instead of using electrical heat for my coach, I use a 2K diesel heater, it averages 1 gallon for 12 hours of heat time, and it runs on 12 volt, so I never have to worry about running out of power before the next sunrise. I have 2 310 watt solar panels with a 30 amp MTTP charge controller with 2 200Ah AGM batteries (will soon upgrade to another 2 to the system). I can also use red diesel (farm diesel) in the heater, which cuts the fuel price in half.

 

[liam135]

If you think about the future of the entire planet, switching to green energy is a good option to replace large nuclear power plants. And plus, anyone can install a couple of panels on their roof. Here's an interesting article on the subject - Easy Tips on Choosing the Right Microinverter for Your Solar System - Jt.Org

 

[RandyB]

Running any resistance heating element from an inverter is a big task. example:

Your 1,500 watt heater is drawing 138 amps of DC current from 12 volt batteries.

edit...sorry, I just noticed the original post date of nearly 2 years ago.

 

[JRW-NAW]

Temperature also affects battery performance.

What are temperature effects on batteries? - Intercel Batteries

Battery capacity (how many amp-hours it can hold) is reduced as temperature goes down, and increased as temperature goes up. This is why your car battery dies

www.intercel.eu

Safe Travels.