[DON]

The gauge is small 1 3/16″ diameter. There are three places on my dash. Then there’s space in the electrical cabinet next to the frig where all the switches and remotes are, or in the audio/video etc overhead cabinet, or in the bay with the chassis batts and equalizer, on/in the bay wall where the house battesies a buried, or somewhere in electric bay, etc

[Fred F.]

Jon is right (and he hasn’t even seen my dash), there is little to no room left for another gauge; and I need to install an engine oil gauge.

I do like Don’s gauge. Small, digital, easy to read. But can a $9 digital gauge be expected to be accurate?

I’m not eager to crawl into my electrical bay and expose the 24volt terminals everytime I want to know what voltage my house batteries are at. So hopefully I can figure out a good solution.

I’ve pulled and replaced my chassis batteries, removed the Liberty installed chassis battery charger (aka boat anchor) … shorting the mounting bracklet against the 24 volt terminal on the Vanner Equalizer welding the bracket to something, and replaced my burnt up Vanner Monitor. So I kinda know what I’m doing … but don’t like futzing around with that stuff if I don’t have to. Which is why I’m looking for an easy way to check the voltages.

[Harry]

For checking voltages the inverter bar graphs are adequate. You will get to learn how many lights will be lit when on bulk charge, float or not connected to a power source.

Adding a guage such as the one shown just makes the information more precise, and that is good unless you tend to fret over a 1/10 of a volt and then you just drive yourself nuts.

[Andy]

Four 5 year old Lifelines going through two Freedom 458 inverter/chargers. Gave them a good charge with the generator in the evening. Used them on invert to watch a 2hr movie (flat panel and DVD the only load) and went to bed. Next morning not enough juice to run the coffee maker. Two questions:

Is it a consensus that 5 years is end-of-life for Lifelines?

I want to try a couple equalization cycles to see if that helps at all. Will flipping the DC disconnect switch on my console isolate enough stuff to protect bus electronics from the higher voltage or is it best to do a cable disconnect at the panel in the battery/Inverter bay?

Thanks!

[Tim]

The question is what was the voltage in the morning?

At 5 years, it’s time for batteries, the equalization won’t do didly, but may make you feel good.:)

[Archived]

12V but immediately dove down in the red when I turned the coffee maker on.

[Liam]

So the batteries were already discharged in excess of 50% before you tried the coffee pot.

[Harry]

I know this has been said before, but as batteries age they lose capacity and will require recharging sooner than when they were new even with identical loads for the same time period. But there is a second possibility as batteries age and that is one or more go bad, as in even with a full charge and no load the battery will go dead in a relatively short period of time.

There is no magic life span or way to predict when they should be replaced, but as they age it will really pay to pay close attention to them for signs they are at the end of life or worse, one is bad and killing the others. Look for clues such as inverters staying in bulk charge much longer than they used to. Look for indications that with no loads of consequence they need to be charged. Look at the cases and if they are swelled that is a bad sign. If you have ever smelled a rotten egg odor near the batteries they are in need of immediate replacement and in fact should be shut down.

For how we have used our coach we can get 5 years and at the end of five years it is clear they are not what they used to be. We do not dry camp much and we always try to never drop below 50% ROC. We do not use our batteries in unusually warm conditions. Batteries that are used with some auto-start systems are deeply discharged and they are going to have fewer cycles in their lifespan. If your batteries are used a lot in high ambient temps they are going to be affected. Especially important is that the inverters get set to the exact voltages specified by the battery manufacturer for each phase of the charging cycle and if the inverters have temperature sensors make sure they are used.