Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: House batteries and charger  (Read 4834 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #20 –
I bought (3) 8D AGM Lifelines directly from Lifeline in person in 2016.  I just happened to be driving past their facility on my way home from a job site and figured I would stop in and chat about batteries, this was right after buying my coach. I talked with the owner and he took 30 mins of the end of his day to show me their warehouse and talk batteries and inverter/charger settings.  I walked out of there with three new batteries, and I haven't touched them since I installed them.  I've had zero issues with them.  I have 4 roof top solar panels that keep them topped off during the day while dry camping (I have a 120v fridge).  I run my generator for 30-40 mins to cook breakfast and dinner daily and that is all that is needed along with the solar during the day.  The batteries will last all night in 40 degree outside temps running the Aqua hot for coach heating.  I do not use AC or roof air units while dry camping.  I don't see any reason why I won't get 10 years use out of them, seeing as I am approaching 8 years now without a hiccup. 

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #21 –
Quote from: evantwheeler –
  I don't see any reason why I won't get 10 years use out of them, seeing as I am approaching 8 years now without a hiccup.
I also had an excellent experience dealing with Lfelines over the phone.  My Lifelines worked flawlessly for a little over 12 years.  I would highly endorse them if you are going with AGM type batteries.  However, after my Lifelines, I have switched to LiFePO4 type house batteries. 

Richard

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #22 –
Lots of li iron hospital take outs , on eBay . Great value imho .

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #23 –
Well I purchased the Victron multi plus LL 2X. Its too tall to install were my prosine was. It is acceptable to mount horizontally but not my first choice. Also mounted horizontally puts the cooling inlet and exhaust at the same level in the bay. No thermal cooling and you loose on cooling capacity unless you install a duct to pick up the cooler air near the floor. Would put a couple box fans in the exhaust but no room. Only have 19" from the door hinges to the aqua hot access door. Need 23". Will offset from bulkhead to accommodate AH door, but this interferes with the Joey slide even more. Pulled 6-4 cable from bed to inverter and back. Installed through floor using conduit and will seal inside and out before finish. At this point im second guessing what in the world am I trying to do. Really like the voltage and power management but had lived without it well. Anyway being extremely exhausted I took some more time looking at the inverter. The AC connectors are push in connectors? This is for a 50 amp legs L1, L2. This is not what Im used to. Again 50 amps? This is rubbish IMO. Also the inverter access for the power conductors are real small like they were sized for #10 and in same installation one could be using 4-4 wire. This is not a fun project with continuous  issues. 20-20 hindsite I should of not got fancy with the inverter. And just replace with the single phase inverter. Im too far along to go back, but im considering it. Also got the 12v 300AH LiTimes

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #24 –
Scott I also got the multiplus, did wind up mounting where the old inverter was have not noticed a a lot of issues with heat, top can get warm to the touch but not bad,if was to do it again think I would mount on an angle for a little convection, I ran the 6/4 wire into a junction box then ran SO wire to the inverter, I think I had read that Victron does not recommend solid wire in the connection

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #25 –
Quote from: fatheeler –
Scott I also got the multiplus, did wind up mounting where the old inverter was have not noticed a a lot of issues with heat, top can get warm to the touch but not bad,if was to do it again think I would mount on an angle for a little convection, I ran the 6/4 wire into a junction box then ran SO wire to the inverter, I think I had read that Victron does not recommend solid wire in the connection
Multi plus II ? Or II X2 the X2 is a different beast altogether for the installation.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #26 –
Quote from: dsd –
Multi plus II ? Or II X2 the X2 is a different beast altogether for the installation.
i

It's the Multi-Plus 2 12v 3000 watt 2x 120 has a fair amount of room

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #27 –
Wire I'm using

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #28 –
Must have been a real joy to run

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #29 –
Well a couple of beers and a good night sleep seemed to help my sniffling attitude. Made up the mount brackets to give room for the aqua hot door. This will also add additional ventilation. The main lower mount is in a rib and the top mount on the right side picks up a rib in the center hole and i added riv nuts to the two locations. I had installed a length of 2" 90 deg aluminum angle to hep support during installation. Put a couple of 1/2 inch block to lift and will remove once mounted to accommodate ventilation. No possible way to use 4-4 wire. If you must have 4-4 wire this unit will not work. Also noticed that the primary positive post cant have a 300 amp connector installed. To close to another connector. With my fine wire 6-3 it is a pain to install wires . Ended up reading directions and see note that a release 2.5 mm tool must be used during installation. No other explanation. I ended up doubling the pig tail length to accommodate installation and bunching it up after to attach strain relief. Power IN  strain clamp too small. Power out is 50% bigger? Will power up tomorrow hopefully  Upper mount just pathetic and does very little interlocking. Would be fine for vertical mount but lacking for horizontal. Will leave one of the blocks in I guess

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #30 –
I pulled the main cover off and those holes with the rubber gromets in the corners go straight through. I used those for mounting.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #31 –
They recommend ferrules on the stranded wires that go into the input and output.  Makes insertion very easy. You don't need to release the tab to insert(with a ferrule), only on removal.  A small flat blade screwdriver works well for removing the wires.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #32 –
Once they are released they accept the wire easily. They should have made the designing engineer install one in a 30 inch tall box. They would have made some changes.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #33 –
Oh what fun. Inverter is installed. Cables have been run. Still need to secure cables in under storage compartment. Powered up Battery monitor system and fired up the inverter.
First thing I realized was inverter must be on to pass thru AC power. It also shuts down AC power by the accessory control panel I purchased. I think I actually like that. Hooked up Victron interface module that also is an accessory and was pleased to find it relatively easy to program with the help of a utube video for it. Set the voltage set points for everything and let it go to work. Seems to be acceptably quiet even with Hi charge demands. Charger nicely smoothly started at 115 amps and progressed down to zero at end of charge. Very nice. So the end I think has Justified the system. Still have a lot to put back together, like the entire kitchen and bathroom wall on the passenger side. Also had both vents off the roof and found that the air vent for the microwave was misaligned by an inch at the factory. It's long enough to resolve and properly install.  I really like the amperage adjustment in the inside panel. You can dial in anything between 50 to .1 amp supply. Really a nice feature IMO.  So if your mooch docking at a freinds house with a long cheap cord you can set it to the desired amperage maximum while watching the voltage drop. Also hooking up to a 30 amp is without a thought now and if the power drops the inverter will automatically assist during a ac starting.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #34 –
Been thinking of the DC/DC charger to prevent overloading the alternator. Think I want to see how it works once.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #35 –
The Balmar Voltage Regulator can be set for Lithium Batteries.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #36 –
So to follow up I did install the 40 amp DC to DC charger to protect the coach alternator. I had checked every thing and thought it was working correct. Couple days before our departure date I double, triple checked that it was working correct. On ground power 220 volt working correct. On battery working correct. On generator I came across an issue. It was creating the L2 output by consuming L1 power. It was not passing power from the generator L2 to output of Inverter L2. Rechecked everything and put a service call into Victron. At this point I was wondering if I had programed the inverter wrong? Double checked programming and saw nothing about inverter input, although the manual shows the different internal switching for different configurations. Next day still no call back and we are getting close top a hard departure time. Being that the inverter will not manage the L2 leg I decided to do a work around by disconnecting the L2 output from the inverter and jumper int L2 from my surge protector back to the L2 in the circuit breaker panel. I would now manage L1 and saw no load for L2 because it was disconnected and worked okay. BUT I now was only using half of what I wanted and lost all the reasons to purchase and install this thing. Well we get to North Carolina and plug the coach into a 20 110=v circuit that we never had issues with before and it trips the GFI as soon as the load control is set above one amp.  :headwall: So as a workarounds to that we went to a non GFI and it worked normally. In looking in the logic it grounds the neutral during DC battery inverter use. This explains the GFI issue. I personally really like what a GFI provides. So a couple days go by running the one AC on the L1 leg without issue. I noticed a HI battery warning and a SOC was down to 65% coach was running off inverter and battery. 20 amp breaker had tripped with Victron set to 18amps. Cord and connections all room tempiture at this time. Reset and all was good but noticed as you increased the permissible power load rate to about 18 amps AC that suddenly without adding any addional DC loads thre discharge would jump up to 63 amps DC. Shut the inverter off and load would disappear. SOC 100%. No clue what is going on now. So Ive been running with the inverter  off and the battery charger on to manage the batteries. I will be removing when we get home.        Oh and about the service tech call back.      They did inquire if I was happy with ther prompt call back and if our issues were resolve. shame they Never called!!!I will say that the Victron smart shunt is at the other end of the spectrum. It works perfect and is a pleasure to use. I highly reccomend it. So far not at all for the inverter.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #37 –
Glad you got some use out of the mk gels.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #38 –
Quote from: dsd –
Shut the inverter off and load would disappear. SOC 100%. No clue what is going on now. So Ive been running with the inverter  off and the battery charger on to manage the batteries. I will be removing when we get home.        Oh and about the service tech call back.      They did inquire if I was happy with their prompt call back and if our issues were resolve. shame they Never called!!!I will say that the Victron smart shunt is at the other end of the spectrum. It works perfect and is a pleasure to use. I highly reccomend it. So far not at all for the inverter.

So... it's been 2 months since this post and we were reading the saga because we're getting ready to order something replace our old Prosine.  Any updates on this?

We've pretty much ruled out the 120x2 version, so it would be MultiPlus original or MultiPlus II 3000/120/50 installed essentially in place of the Prosine.

Re: House batteries and charger

Reply #39 –
Why not the 120x2 version?