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TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
A post made about a recent battery replacement because of what appears to be a premature battery failure has prompted this thread. I would hope that everyone that wants to share something they have learned that is of general interest will post it here along with a little information to support the post. I will start with a tip regarding batteries that might not be common knowledge.
We all think a long day of driving will charge our house and chassis batteries. While our alternator voltage settings might fully charge our chassis batteries because hot ambient conditions will not require a higher voltage charge, our house batteries may not be getting a full charge at their ambient conditions.
House battery manufacturers specify the needed voltages and charging protocols to properly maintain the batteries. Our inverters, if properly set will meet those requirements. Our alternator will put a charge into our house batteries but it WILL NOT meet the requirements specified by the battery manufacturer in almost every instance.
If you have several long days of driving with dry camping in between those driving days you can properly charge the house batteries by running the generator and powering the inverters until the inverter charging voltage goes into float. I am in the habit of pulling into my night time parking spot such as a rest area or parking lot and immediately firing up the generator. Apart from having the luxury of being able to use as much electric as I want the added benefit is my house batteries are having their charge topped off.
If batteries are not fully charged the plates get a sulfate coating and if the coating remains on the plates for any length of time such as a few days that affects the ability of the battery to hold a full charge. I will not call this information a secret, but I do not recall any discussions about the topic.
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1 Reply
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Jon is right about the batteries needing temp compensation for proper charging.
I have heard him talk about this many times so this is what I did in July.
On my CC when I installed new LifeLine (a plug for Tom) house batteries in July I installed a new Balmar MC-614 regulator on the new Elreg 330 amp air cooled alternator.
This regulator has a programmable charging protocol specifically for the LifeLine batteries and also has the ability to us battery temp sensor input to make the charging protocol correct for the ambient temperature.
I did not buy the battery temp sensor accessory option so I can’t attest to the usefulness of the option but I can see the regulator display the charge rates as I used the batteries a little and then start the engine and watch the display go through the different charging voltages.
http://www.balmar.net/balmar-technology/multi-stage-regulation/
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