Hey Mike, I’ve used the Flow rite system on both a bank of four 6volt for six years, and now two years on a bank of two 12 volt batteries. I have had no issues with either. Makes it so easy to perform monthly maintenance. Before installing this system, in order to get the caps off, I would have to actually disconnect some of the cables. This would tend to make me procrastinate this dreaded task. I would highly recommend this system to anyone that has batteries in a difficult to fill or access situation.
Mike - Great Stuff. I had two 12V Deep Cycle maintenance-free batteries connected in parallel to my 2022 5th wheel.
However, one of the batteries got hot and boiled off some of the water. Good thing my son caught it.
I was looking at the batteries, and I would have to really work at checking the fluid in the batteries as they are "sealed".
Could you address what battery manufactures have RV deep cycle batteries we can view and top off the electrolyte solution and what exactly you mean by "old school two-stage RV Converter/chargers" and provide examples of "good converter/chargers".
I hope that my 2022 coach's charger is not in the old school category.
Regarding lithium batteries, my understanding is that they should NOT be stored at 100% charge, as doing so can damage them. The recommendations I've seen from manufacturers is that they should be discharged to ~50% before storage and preferably be kept between 20% and 50% SOC. Have you heard something different?
Most manufactures I’ve contacted recommend storing Lithium batteries at 100% SoC, but a few recommend 50% SoC. I’ll try to pull a chart together and post later. What brand battery do you have?
I had flow rite on our SuperC - IMO its and absolutely horrible system, and very pricey! Its a crutch for maintenance that needs visual / hands on inspection.
I've been using the Flow-Rite watering system for over 12 years & 200K miles in our 54th wheel with four 6volt batteries. We now have the 5er parked on the Gulf Coast & travel for 6 months at a time in our new triple slide truck camper. I have a very elderly woman on a nearby lot who goes over & checks on our 5er each month while we're gone. She says she loves topping off our batteries because squeezing the bulb is so easy, even she can do it. All she does is stick the tube in a jug of distilled water kept next to the batteries & then squeezes the bulb until it won't depress any more. It literally takes her no more than 20 seconds to fill all four batteries. She doesn't even have to lift the battery compartment cover to look at the batteries. The Flow-Rite system is the greatest system since sliced bread. Because of this easy watering system, my 7 year old batteries still test over .1275 hydrometer readings & all cells are showing very similar numbers. This shows that even after 12 years, the Flow-Rite system is still properly toppinng off each of the 12 cells in the four batteries.
The other common cause of this is a bad cell in one of your batteries. This causes a low voltage condition which causes the charger to "think" the batteries need more charge.
Hey Mike, I’ve used the Flow rite system on both a bank of four 6volt for six years, and now two years on a bank of two 12 volt batteries. I have had no issues with either. Makes it so easy to perform monthly maintenance. Before installing this system, in order to get the caps off, I would have to actually disconnect some of the cables. This would tend to make me procrastinate this dreaded task. I would highly recommend this system to anyone that has batteries in a difficult to fill or access situation.
Mike - Great Stuff. I had two 12V Deep Cycle maintenance-free batteries connected in parallel to my 2022 5th wheel.
However, one of the batteries got hot and boiled off some of the water. Good thing my son caught it.
I was looking at the batteries, and I would have to really work at checking the fluid in the batteries as they are "sealed".
Could you address what battery manufactures have RV deep cycle batteries we can view and top off the electrolyte solution and what exactly you mean by "old school two-stage RV Converter/chargers" and provide examples of "good converter/chargers".
I hope that my 2022 coach's charger is not in the old school category.
Thanks for all the great articles.
Sounds like an idea for a future article…
HI Mike,
Regarding lithium batteries, my understanding is that they should NOT be stored at 100% charge, as doing so can damage them. The recommendations I've seen from manufacturers is that they should be discharged to ~50% before storage and preferably be kept between 20% and 50% SOC. Have you heard something different?
Most manufactures I’ve contacted recommend storing Lithium batteries at 100% SoC, but a few recommend 50% SoC. I’ll try to pull a chart together and post later. What brand battery do you have?
You had a chance to say "stoichiometric ratio" and missed it!
I had flow rite on our SuperC - IMO its and absolutely horrible system, and very pricey! Its a crutch for maintenance that needs visual / hands on inspection.
I've been using the Flow-Rite watering system for over 12 years & 200K miles in our 54th wheel with four 6volt batteries. We now have the 5er parked on the Gulf Coast & travel for 6 months at a time in our new triple slide truck camper. I have a very elderly woman on a nearby lot who goes over & checks on our 5er each month while we're gone. She says she loves topping off our batteries because squeezing the bulb is so easy, even she can do it. All she does is stick the tube in a jug of distilled water kept next to the batteries & then squeezes the bulb until it won't depress any more. It literally takes her no more than 20 seconds to fill all four batteries. She doesn't even have to lift the battery compartment cover to look at the batteries. The Flow-Rite system is the greatest system since sliced bread. Because of this easy watering system, my 7 year old batteries still test over .1275 hydrometer readings & all cells are showing very similar numbers. This shows that even after 12 years, the Flow-Rite system is still properly toppinng off each of the 12 cells in the four batteries.
The other common cause of this is a bad cell in one of your batteries. This causes a low voltage condition which causes the charger to "think" the batteries need more charge.
Yes, I’ve seen this as well. And a conventional charger will overcharge the remaining battery cells with predictably bad results.