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House Battery Help

Yahoo Message Number: 67934
After removing coach from dry storage and hooking up to shore power @ indoor storage place...one of my house batteries is now bubbling over (batts are 1 yr old). Link 2000 shows to be in "float" mode, but voltage was only 11.8 (I have the Freedom 20 Inverter). Chasis batteries at 12.6 but I had connected a batt maintainer (I also have an Echo).
I've read other posts here that said "equalize". Did that last night, but batt was really hot & bubbly this a.m. Not sure is equalizing worked or not. Any ideas what the problem is? Batts have always charged up well, gone into float mode, and no bubbling?

Thanks - Jody Briggs
2002 Magna

Re: House Battery Help

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 67941
Looks like you have a bad battery. Can you take it back to where you purchased the batteries and them check it? Should have warranty of some kind at 1 yr old. They can do a quick charge check as well. 11.8 on a 12 volt is a dead battery.

Leonard Kerns
97' Magna 5418

Re: House Battery Help

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 67942
You didn't mention how long in dry storage or whether it was hooked up to shore power while stored or how long or whether you checked the voltages before hooking up to shore power and starting the inverter/charger. It sounds like you have one bad domestic/house battery (or cell in one battery) in spite of being only one yr old. Sound like it was stored with the "battery maintainer" on the coach/chassis battery and it survived OK while the house bank depleted.

Jim M

'02 Intrigue #11410 ISL 400

Re: House Battery Help

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 67948
Jody

Equalizing applies about 15.5 volts to the batteries and takes about 8 hours to really do any good... Before equalizing, reduce your amperage at the "power sharing" panel to 5 amps which will keep the amperage drawn by the batteries to about 5 amps... Don't "top off" the cells with H2o before equalizing... Some bubbling/heat is normally caused by the equalizing process...

Did you hook up the batt "maintainer" to both chassis and house batteries? Since the chassis batts are fully charged (12.66 Volts is a full charge), and the house batts are fully discharged (11.8 volts is fully dis-charged), sounds as if the house batts were getting no charge as the coach was stored...
"Read" the voltage at the batt terminals with a good quality VOM... If it didn't come up after you equalized:

1.) remove and clean the battery connectors... clean the batt terminals and re-install the connectors...

2.) Run the equalizing process again...

3.) After equalizing, let the batts sit for a few hours... This will let the "false" or "surface" charge dissipate so you can read the "real" voltage provided by the batteries... voltage should be about 12.66

If the voltage doesn't come up after equalizing, you probably need new batteries...
Best way to store the coach is to plug into AC, turn off the house disconnect switch, and let the Link 2000 charger and Echo Charger do their job...

buck

k7wn, '99Magna5653, Cat C10, Allison HD4060

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Re: House Battery Help

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 67949
It was in dry storage since last summer w/o any shore power. I would go by every month or so & run gen to re-charge. Before going into storage it was fine...Batts would go to 13.8 to 14v +/-. Didn't do batt maintainer on chasis until out of storage. Forgot to mention I had to add water to all batts. And, was getting E-3 (overtemp)on Link 2000. - Thanks
 

Re: House Battery Help

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 67950
Is it likely that both batts are bad or just the 1 bubbling? BTW, didn't try maintainer until I brought it out of dry storage. And, I was getting the E-3 (overtemp) after equalizing.-Thanks