1976 Travel Queen (since retired) batteries would boil down below top of plates in 3 days. Current MH is 1992 Rockwood 32ft. Batteries charge well, never boil down and last for many years. Converter Charger is MagneTek Series 900 Model 940-2
I use a Samlex 2000w inverter/charger in my RV with 4 Rolls 240amp 6volt Flood cell batteries. I have experienced over charging before with this setup if I do not set the charger correctly to charge the batteries I have in the rig. In the off season I use a Norco four battery charger/conditioner. I have never had any issues with this charger over charging any of the batteries I have used over the years.
I had a 1970 Meetoo with an old charge controller. Left it plugged into a shore power and it fried the battery. After that the battery was unhooked when using shore power. Probably wasn’t a good charge controller.
Any idea how old the batteries were? Since the trailer was recently acquired there's no telling how the batteries were maintained by the previous owner. Probably just a bad battery and nothing to do with the converter.
Using the battery disconnect switch is a simple solution during storage as long as the battery is recharged before it gets to 50% for lead acid and 0% for LFP. I have also used a smart outlet to dramatically reduce the duty cycle by only charging for an hour a day. Battery tenders are great too but require permanent or temporary installation.
Not that hard to explain. When you get a bad cell in one battery it's voltage goes low. This causes the charger to kick in. Since the battery with the dead cell never makes float voltage the charger just keeps charging and it doesnt end well.. I also worked on a large class A that was set up wrong. The regulator sense wire was hooked to the house batteries but the main hot from the alternator (300 amp) was connected to the chassis batteries. It worked OK until the combiner went bad and then Chassis batteries got fried once a month. Multiple new alternators and regulators. 5 min fix once I found it.
Actually wasn't a meltdown as such, more like an explosion. Camper was stored off site and plugged in. The box and top of the battery had blown apart.
I’ll take that as a meltdown…
Why limit the survey to "during storage"?
The electrical circuits (converter/charger and batteries) do not know if the RV is in storage or being used by full-timers.
Does the old adage "a watched pot never boils" apply?
I’ll do another survey on battery meltdowns while camping.
1976 Travel Queen (since retired) batteries would boil down below top of plates in 3 days. Current MH is 1992 Rockwood 32ft. Batteries charge well, never boil down and last for many years. Converter Charger is MagneTek Series 900 Model 940-2
I use a Samlex 2000w inverter/charger in my RV with 4 Rolls 240amp 6volt Flood cell batteries. I have experienced over charging before with this setup if I do not set the charger correctly to charge the batteries I have in the rig. In the off season I use a Norco four battery charger/conditioner. I have never had any issues with this charger over charging any of the batteries I have used over the years.
I had a 1970 Meetoo with an old charge controller. Left it plugged into a shore power and it fried the battery. After that the battery was unhooked when using shore power. Probably wasn’t a good charge controller.
Any idea how old the batteries were? Since the trailer was recently acquired there's no telling how the batteries were maintained by the previous owner. Probably just a bad battery and nothing to do with the converter.
That’s always the question…
Using the battery disconnect switch is a simple solution during storage as long as the battery is recharged before it gets to 50% for lead acid and 0% for LFP. I have also used a smart outlet to dramatically reduce the duty cycle by only charging for an hour a day. Battery tenders are great too but require permanent or temporary installation.
Not that hard to explain. When you get a bad cell in one battery it's voltage goes low. This causes the charger to kick in. Since the battery with the dead cell never makes float voltage the charger just keeps charging and it doesnt end well.. I also worked on a large class A that was set up wrong. The regulator sense wire was hooked to the house batteries but the main hot from the alternator (300 amp) was connected to the chassis batteries. It worked OK until the combiner went bad and then Chassis batteries got fried once a month. Multiple new alternators and regulators. 5 min fix once I found it.
Yup, it’s always amazing how obvious the problem is once you find it! 🤣🤣🤣