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Topic: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to? (Read 816 times) previous topic - next topic
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04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Yahoo Message Number: 71442
OK, so I did spend 5 mins surfing and searching, before just posting for input:)!

How long to discharge?

How lont to charge, via generator?

-Two 8D AGM Lifeline
-Three years old

-Bought the coach a year ago, and do not know if 1st owner abused them or not

Usage on discharge, when fully charged.
-A few lights on, but off when not needed.
-Inverter off, unless needed

-One five min usage of the microwave -One two hour movie OEM JVC 24" tube TV, and the Bose 321 -Hydrohot on a few times

-Fridge kickin in/off a few times, on LP
The terminals all appear well maintained, and have not been touched by me. (Yearly maintenance will be in June.)

One overnight usage of above, got the charge down to 79%.
??? Does this sound about right? Or, should I look for drains that are unknown (understand that besides the above, other systems are on drawing some power too).

On charging:

-Generator on for a solid hour, and increased charge by 4%. This is with two 110 solar panels, in full sun, helping. (But, the power wires seem undersized at 14awg, and the contoller is reported to be not a good one. So, may not be helping that much. A future project to swap out to a more robust solution.)
?? How many hours should a generator take to charge two AGM 8D's? Some rule of thumb? Any seat of the pants experience by others? 1hr = 4% or 6% or 10% increase - any thoughts for a setup as I described?
Should be the standard xanatic(SP?) and echo charge unit. I've never played with them, and they are set as the PDI delivered them.
I also did not bring the box of all the manuals (stupid move), as I had the cabinet apart on another project...
Thanks for any input? This may be discharging and charging as it should, or it may be an indication that the batteries may have been abused in the years or two before we got the rig.
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71444
Smitty,

With your usage as described a drop of 20% does not seem too bad. Two 8D AGMs are about 500 Amp Hours so 20 % is 100AH. Your TV is a power hog.
14AWG is inadequate for your 200 watts of solar. I have 240 watts and use 10AWG which is barely adequate.
Generator usage for charging is very inefficient. Especially if you are starting from a high State of Charge. If I started the day at 79% I would not even run the generator when sunny. The charger may take the battery from 90% to 94% in an hour but it will do a great deal more from 50% SOC.
Make sure your charger is set to AGM though that is not the problem for slow charge rates. Also be sure that your RC7GS is set to 500AH for battery capacity.
Your batteries sound as though they are okay but only time will tell. I still have my 7.5 year old AGMs and they remain in excellent health.

Good luck.

George in Birmingham
'04 Allure 31038
George in Birmingham
2003 Magna 6298

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71452
Thanks George. I know I was set for AGM, but do not recall the amp settings. Will check when I get back to the rig later tonight. I have not yet taken the time to read up and learn on all things amps, solar, generator charge, etc. The old Bounder with two new T125 only had two days of boondocking, as the DW enjoys the full hook ups... We're both going to work into more boondocking over the next year. She was a bit disapointed, when I had to explain that a 'Navy Shower', did not include some young men in uniform:)!
One other interesting thing. At two hours, still read 84% charge, 15 mins later, said 100%. So suspect I'll need to take the % charge reading with a grain of salt.
Still learning as I go, figure in two or three more decades - I'll move to the normal group of students!! Best,
Smitty

04 Allure 31017 (sorry I did not sign out that way last time)
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71465
Thanks George. I know I was set for AGM, but do not recall the amp settings. Will check when I get back to the rig later tonight. I have not yet taken the time to read up and learn on all things amps, solar, generator charge, etc. The old Bounder with two new T125 only had two days of boondocking, as the DW enjoys the full hook ups... We're both going to work into more boondocking over the next year. She was a bit disapointed, when I had to explain that a 'Navy Shower', did not include some young men in uniform:)!
One other interesting thing. At two hours, still read 84% charge, 15 mins later, said 100%. So suspect I'll need to take the % charge reading with a grain of salt.
Still learning as I go, figure in two or three more decades - I'll move to the normal group of students!! Best,
Smitty

04 Allure 31017 (sorry I did not sign out that way last time)
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71466
Your usage sounds fine. Your charging rate sounds seriously way slow, even ignoring your panels. I go from 50% to float in a little over 2 hours with same 2 lifelines. Most of that is last 5%. solar is much more efficient for that.

Rich 2002 magna

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71472
I agree, your charge rate seems way too slow. My experience with my Lifeline AGMs is the same as Rich's.

Larry, 03 Allure, 30856

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71477
Thanks Larry/Rich - I'll trouble shoot when I get home. Did confirm I'm set for 500A. Time for yearly maintenance, and hard to see how clean a battery post in where it connects cables to post:)!
May just be needing a good cleaning of the terminals. I'll also have the manuals to read up and validate the settings are accurate.

Appreciate the input from all.
Best,
Smitty

04 Allure 31017
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71496
I did pay a bit more attention this time. Using the panel view of % charge, yesterday I was down to 78%, this was from about 2:30PM the day before, until 10:00AM when I started the generator.
No TV, dash radio, fridge, aquahot(as needed, then off), lights off and on as needed, but usually one or two lights on at a time. I did run the heater portion of the aquahot from between 60-75 mins. (25 degrees at 6:00AM, so fired up the Heat Buddy and both zones of the coach heater, before the DW stumbled out of the covers. Did not expect this cold, Mount Laguna, just outside of San Diego, 5400' elevation. Today is nice, at 36 degrees).

So the big user was the furnace/aquahot fans/pumps.
So, this time after two hours, was up to 83-84% charge reflected. Went outside, for 10-15mins, came in with plans on shutting the generator off after 2 1/2 hours. Dang if the panel did not reflect 100%. This is the second time, it seemed to have jumped from just below 85% to 100% in a very short period of time.
I don't have my manuals to look this up. Is this perhaps some setting I have to consider 85% full charge? Or, is this a normal 'charachter' of what the panel reflects? (Panel is the RC7 GS)
Lots of ramblings, but figured one of you would say "Oh, yeah, it's this setting on the RC7 GS, you just need to..." or "Yep, it jumps from 85% to 100% charge as a normal function.

Best to you all,
Smitty

04 Allure 31017
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71520
Smitty,

There are a couple other RC7/GS settings that affect the charging rate: Set Shore Power (should be "30 amps") and Charge Rate ("100% of max" ?).
--

Tom Harsch 2002 Allure #30791
Rapid City, SD

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71521
Thanks Tom - Know it is set to 30A, but do not recall the '% of Max' setting. Will be heading home today, where I can refer to the manual while checking settings.

Yesterday Charging
-Started at 76%
-30 mins at 79%
-60 mins at 81%
-90 mins at 83%
-120 mins at 85%
-145 mins at 100%

So between 2-3% per 30 mins, and then the jump from 85% to 100%. Must be the setting you mentioned above? I don't have enough experience with this rig yet, to know if those charge rates are good, moderate or bad. Just sharing what I saw. Unless I have a bad setting on the max level, I'm surprised at how fast the % charge drops with what I considered low usage (execept the first nights TV for two hours).

Be good all,
Smitty

04 Allure 31017
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71528
Smitty, being down to 78% over that time, with that usage doesn't seem like a problem to me.
I'll add that you don't seem to be having a problem that you can define. I suggest that for a while you quit focusing on the numbers and get a feel for function. If things work well and you don't run out of battery when you shouldn't you are probably okay. Then go back to the numbers and see if your readings a normal or if there is some kind of equipment problem.
In general, when dry camping, my numbers behave predictably. But, now and then when in storage, I will see a jump like you have described. Or, even a drop of similar proportions. But, in the end, the equipment is working correctly.

Keep us posted.

George in Birmingham
'04 Allure 31038
George in Birmingham
2003 Magna 6298

Re: 04 Allure to AGM house batteries - how long to?

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 71540
Smitty,

Try equalizing your batteries.

Rich 2002 Magna