Yesterday had my dealer install a battery disconnect for the coach battery. Brought the coach home and plugged it into my home's power supply. This morning I discovered a strong sulfur smell and discovered my house batteries were very warm and moist. I unplugged the RV immediately. Cells were virtually all dry.Dealer seems to think installing the battery disconnect has nothing to do with my problem today. I have now added water to all the cells (all were dry) and I am plugging the RV back to my house power. Any suggestions? One other point, last night by accident I hit the inverter power-on button. Turned it right back off a second later when I realized I hit the wrong button. Seems hard to believe this battery problem isn't related to one or the other issue. Any ideas?

Update...I am pretty sure that the levels were not checked prior to the install of the cutoff switch. The coach batter is a gel battery. The house batteries are what I am having problems with and they are not gel batteries.After topping off the fluids, and plugging back in, the problem started back within 30 minutes.So I am back to square one now.

Check your converter output. A bad capacitor in the converter can cook your batteries. Been there done that took 3 repair guys to figure that one out. :(

For the 4 days, the RV stayed hooked up at the dealership.... they were doing other minor things. The last day they hooked up the battery disconnect. So the whole time it was plugged up everything worked fine. Still scratching my head on what to do next.

Was it a reliable dealer? The problem could have just shown up because you haven't checked your batteries often enough. OR, The guy working on your RV pulled out your batteries to mount the switch for safety and intentionally or unintentionally swapped out your batteries with someone elses RV, maybe his own.

I feel good about the integrity of the dealership. I am sure they did take one out to give some working room for the coach battery.I agree I haven't checked the levels in some time. But it still just seems too coincidental that the problem has surfaced now.

Sulfer Smell House Battery | Good Sam Community

navegator
Explorer
Jan 16, 2016
When filling batteries with water.

Use distilled water not tap water or drinking water.

Distilled water has no minerals when you use tap water it has minerals and they short out the plates in the cells eventually shortening the life of the battery.

navegator
gjtrafl
Explorer
Jan 16, 2016
Many thanks for all the contributions so far.

I did get back to the dealer. The dealer put the meter on it and seems to think the converter is charging properly.

One of the cells in the GEL Coach Battery was VERY HOT. So they seem to think that one bad cell started the problem.

The other two liquid house batteries had also swollen out some. But then they resumed their old shape after cooling down. The dealer seems to think those 2 MIGHT be ok. But I expect they will need to be replaced as well.

Monday I will start by checking the charge level again, then replacing the Coach battery, then evaluating the other two.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Jan 15, 2016
12thgenusa wrote:
If they removed a battery to perform the work, did they connect the wires back correctly? A pair of six-volt batteries connected in parallel instead instead of series would have a twelve-volt converter trying to charge a six-volt battery.

You might be on to something here. Problem is that we don't know anything about the batteries or how they were wired.
Putting one switch in one battery cable is way too complicated for some "experts."
12thgenusa
Explorer
Jan 15, 2016
If they removed a battery to perform the work, did they connect the wires back correctly? A pair of six-volt batteries connected in parallel instead instead of series would have a twelve-volt converter trying to charge a six-volt battery.
naturist
Nomad
Jan 15, 2016
Batteries, once boiled dry, are forever ruined. There is no fix for them, you are going to have to replace them. Merely pouring water back in is a waste of perfectly good water.

I concur with the others: it is virtually impossible to cause this issue when installing a cut-off switch, absent outright fraud of the swapped-your-good-ones-for-somebody-else's-bad-ones sort.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Jan 15, 2016
Perhaps you might post a picture of the way the battery bank is wired?
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Jan 15, 2016
When was the last time YOU checked those house battery water levels?

Batteries boiled dry......
Converter (charging section) over charged batteries.....boiled the water/acid out and they are RUINED...DEAD......SHORTED.

You need new house batteries
You need to check the DC output of your converter (13.2 min/14.4 max) and that converter actually comes out of bulk charge mode (14.4)

Battery disconnect switch did not cause batteries to be overcharged and water to boil out.
Hard to install it wrong....it only gets installed on one cable -----positive normally but can be on negative.
Neither would cause your issue

Turning on inverter would have just placed a load on batteries....which were already damaged.

Edited for spelling :S
midnightsadie
Explorer II
Jan 15, 2016
I agree with beem some thing installed wrong.or batteries were dry in the begining.
Snowman9000
Explorer
Jan 15, 2016
OTOH, coincidences do happen.
beemerphile1
Explorer
Jan 15, 2016
A correctly installed disconnect would not cause this issue. On the other hand, you must verify it was correctly installed and the batteries aren't wired wrong.

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