Surfndav's Battery/Inverter charging question

February 28, 2012, 09:28:45 pm

I have a quick question about my gel batteries. I don't mean to hyjack this thread but it's about batteries. What level/percentage should I be charging? I think I heard not to set the charger to 100%, so I have it set at 95%. Is that okay?

Re: Surfndav's Battery/Inverter charging question

Reply #1 – February 28, 2012, 10:41:23 pm

David,

Please detail exactly what you are setting.

Most "smart" inverter/chargers allow you to program the following:

Battery type (i.e. wet cell, AGM or gel).
Battery capacity total (in amp-hrs)
Temperature (ambient temperature)

From which they will determine the correct charging voltages for bulk, absorption and float as well as charge rate.

Some also allow power share features to limit the amps of 120 VAC used to power the charger.

Those DO need to be set so that your smart charger is indeed, smart.

Re: Surfndav's Battery/Inverter charging question

Reply #2 – February 29, 2012, 10:56:31 am

Quote from: wolfe10 – February 28, 2012, 10:41:23 pm

David,

Please detail exactly what you are setting.

Most "smart" inverter/chargers allow you to program the following:

Battery type (i.e. wet cell, AGM or gel).
Battery capacity total (in amp-hrs)
Temperature (ambient temperature)

From which they will determine the correct charging voltages for bulk, absorption and float as well as charge rate.

Some also allow power share features to limit the amps of 120 VAC used to power the charger.

Those DO need to be set so that your smart charger is indeed, smart.

My inverter/charger is a Xantrex SW3000 XANTREX SW3000 12 VOLT 3000 WATT PURE SINE INVERTER CHARGER ( 815-3000 ), with a Xantrex system control panel INVERTER CHARGER:XANTREX SYSTEM CONTROL PANEL FOR THE MS AND RS SERIES INVERTER. I have the battery type set to "gel", they are 200amp-hr's each so I have the controller set for 600amp-hr's, and I have a temperature sensor. But in the control panel settings I also have a setting for charge percentage which I have set to 95%. As far as I can tell the default setting was 100%, so I adjusted it to 95%.

A little back story on the inverter. On our way home form Nac last November we discovered that the old inverter was not working. When we would switch from shore or generator power the inverter had to be manually switched off and back on or it would not work. So Foretravel sent me the new inverter and I had it installed by a guy that was recommended by a friend "Jerry's Mobil RV service". This turned out to be not such a good thing. Within 30 minutes of working on the coach he told me in a deep southern drawl "Ya know, you got yourself a big gadget machine here". He was very confused by the dual Transfer Switches, and it took him several trips to the coach, and calls to Nac to get it done. Weeks after and I find that he did not set it up properly, I think he had the amp-hr's set to 150 total. So now I'm wondering if my new batteries have been damaged (we were told by FT that they had replaced the batteries, and they look new). They seem to drop quickly form 12.6 to 12.0. I'd say I get about 3 to 4 hours of watching TV and having the lights on, if I use the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes it will cut that time in half. I know there are other things going on at the same time, but that seems too short to me.

I guess I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about the batteries and inverter set up for dry camping, which I do often. The good thing is I'm not shy about using the generator. Advice or suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks, David

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