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Uneven battery bank charging
Been dry camping the last few days. Both banks of battery’s go down equally to 24.8 (Approx 75%) overnight, BUT when recharging the next morning with generator both banks start off around 68% bulk charge. With in 2 hours the #2 bank is at 2-4% absorption charge, but the #1 bank is still around 28-30% absorption charge.
Why is my #1 bank taking longer to charge than my #2 bank when both have discharged equally overnight?
Chuck
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
4 Replies
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If you have two inverter/chargers check to see if both are set to apply the same amperage to both banks. Many coach set ups lets the user determine how many amps of shore/gen power the inverter/charger can devote to battery charging as a way of keeping the charge circuits from overwhelming a less than 50 amp service (ie: you are plugged into a friend’s 15 or 20 amp house outlet). On Magnum inverter/chargers that setting is under setup>charger setup>max amps.
Jerry
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You could be using some of your charging amps for house loads.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
Jerry:
Checked the settings, they are all correct. I do have the magnum chargers
Threegreens. Will monitor your suggestion.
Chuck
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Are the two battery banks really separate from one another or are they just called two banks but really wired in parallel? Same question for the two inverter/chargers. On my CC the diagrams and user manual talk of them as two banks because there are two wires coming off the B+ post on the alternator. They both go to the same lead acid bank. One goes to battery B+ on #1 and the other to battery B+ on #6 – or they did before I migrated to LiFePO4 as described over the last two years in Bus Conversion magazine. The final two parts of this series of articles will appear in the next couple of issues of the magazine.
If your bus is wired like mine was with two wires coming off the alternator, you may find one has more corrosion in the terminal ends than the other. That will cause more resistance and hence less charge amps going along that leg to the batteries.
Also, look at all the battery minus chassis grounds. One of those may have more corrosion/resistance than the other. Finally, swap the monitor lines going into your panel displays to see if you get the same differential in readings off of both panels. Easiest to do by just moving the monitor lines at the inverter/chargers themselves.
Jerry
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