Battery Question??

Submitted: Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 at 17:37

ThreadID: 19436 Views:2703 Replies:7 FollowUps:4

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Member - Nobby

I have two 105a Deep Cycle Trojans in the Camper Trailer hooked in parallel. Because I haven't used it for a while I give them a charge on the first of every month with a 12Amp charger. Question is "Why is the water level always low"? All that is being used is the LED readout for Battery Capacity.When I charge I leave them on for a couple of days and they accept the charge on demand from the charger. The reading goes up to about 13.6a and then drops back to 12.9 after a few hours. All seems OK excepy this water usage.

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Reply By: Noosa Bushtrackers - Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 at 17:50

Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 at 17:50

I am no expert, but we had a 25 amp charger for 3 deep cycle batteries in our caravan and had a similar problem. We were told that because the 25 amp charger had to run for such a long time to charge the batteries up that the electrolite was being boiled off, and we should up grade our charger. We eventually stuffed the batteries due to fluid level boiling down with regular charger use.

We now have 4 fully sealed AC Delco deep cycle batteries in the van being charged mainly off solar, but have a 50 amp charger that gets them up quickly.
They have been in for over 3 years and are working fine now.

We also put in a Megapulse unit last May and the indicator on that was between orange and red when we put it in, and now it is always on green so that must have improved the batteries also.

Brian
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AnswerID: 93419

Follow Up By: Member - Nobby - Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 at 18:12

Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 at 18:12

Yeah thanks for that. Just a bit of a nuisance having to put 1.5 l in each battery every time I want to charge them.

FollowupID: 352421

Follow Up By: Mainey... - Monday, Jan 17, 2005 at 01:45

Monday, Jan 17, 2005 at 01:45

Noosa Bushtrackers
(Quote) " We were told that because the 25 amp charger had to run for such a long time to charge the batteries up that the electrolite was being boiled off, and we should up grade our charger. We eventually stuffed the batteries due to fluid level boiling down with regular charger use.
We now have 4 fully sealed AC Delco deep cycle batteries in the van being charged mainly off solar, but have a 50 amp charger that gets them up quickly.
They have been in for over 3 years and are working fine now.
We also put in a Megapulse unit last May and the indicator on that was between orange and red when we put it in, and now it is always on green so that must have improved the batteries also. " (end quote)

I will not tell you anything that you can't read on various websites, IE;
Deep Cycle batteries should be charged slowly, the original battery charger should have worked better than the second charger if you believe the relevant experts, I use a 10 amp charger with a charge controller for 2 x 80A/H battery with no hassles.
The loosing of electrolite may be heat related or too fast a charge going into the batteries as you say? but what would I know, my 4 & 1/2 yo batteries have been on the charger for 14 months now and are still holding their charge when tested??