Download the FREE Lifeline battery manual
Turn to page 21 Conditioning
You need to disconnect batteries being conditioned from the coach as conditioning voltage is damaging to RV components.
Can whatever you are using for a charger regulate voltage to 15.5 volts and stay there hour after hour?
The hassles of where in the system the coach converter hooks to and then directing it to a single series pair is just awful. Not feasible.
Connecting a 36-amp MEGAWATT to an isolated from the coach series pair is feasible. And the Megawatt has an EASY TO GET TO voltage adjustment screw - wide open to the outside world.
And turned up, it can reach high conditioning voltages and stay there, hours, days weeks. Constant
And adjusted to 14.4 volts, it charges the batteries correctly. To 14.4 volts. For hours and hours if necessary. One pair of L16's 400 amp hours, one half of which is 20 amperes charge current. Until amperage falls to 2.0 amps then the battery is charged like Lifeline insists on.
I like the Meanwell RSP 1000-15 Because it has enough amperage to take the entire bank to 14.40 volts AUTOMATICALLY even when the batteries are in service.
Just flip a switch
you can leave it on for a hundred hours and it can not hurt the batteries. Forget theoretical float voltages -- what I am talking about here is at 14.40 volts turn it on and then shut it off when you remember to, or the rain stops or in the morning or when you find your slippers. You MUST SEE less than 8.0 charge at 14.40 volts MINIMAL HOTEL LOADS then the batteries are charged. This is a NORMAL EVERYDAY RECHARGE for Lifeline batteries.
Anything less, kills the batteries. And Platinum Plated Plutonium batteries require the same care. Prove it to me that Lithium battery lifespan does not suffer if CONSTANTLY undercharged...
For the price of a power supply, hundreds and hundreds of dollars of damage is done because of incorrect charging. Given enough AGM batteries the damage amounts to thousands of dollars and every cent wasted is utterly needless.
The Lifespan of a Lifeline is one thousand cycles at 50% depth of discharge. It raises to three thousand cycles at a shallower depth.
I purchased a group 31 Lifeline in 2012. In October it's capacity test was 99.1%
In 1991 I purchased 2-volt flooded batteries -- they are still in service.
And I am lazy as hell. I do not play manservant to my batteries.
SCREW amp hour meters for battery management. No meter on earth equals a human brain and a little knowledge. You can disbullshit an amp hour meter by terminating a charge when the amp hour meter says the batteries are full then connect a power supply set to 14.40 volts and have your hair stand on end when you see black & white proof just how much WRONG your amp hour meter is.
An amp hour meter gives a reasonable reflection of how much power was used. But for recharging only the straight old fashioned AMPS will give an idea of when the batteries are charged.
ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT ... PERIOD
Salesmen touting the ability of their amp hour meter to accurately determine a battery's correct fill, need a converter's positive cable stuck up their *** and the "Equalize" button pushed again and again until the salesman changes his mind
Care to see an amp hour meter control charge voltage to 14.40 volts and then switch to float when amperage reaches .5% of set amp hour capacity?
It does not exist.
Press THIS button again and again or THAT button again and again is stupid. Flipping a switch then returning when convenient and switch a power supply off is less stupid.
And it does not have to be done every charge. Try every seven days.
If it takes four hours or four days to reach .5% it does not matter. Try that with a converter / inverter / perverter.
If I was forced to deal with short battery life and Alice In Wonderland hookah smoking caterpillar calisthenics with converters like I read on this forum I would junk the batteries and move to a hotel and ring down for room service.
The definition of LAZY
I have a UPS system sitting next to my bed. For lights and a BiPAP.
A Lifeline AGM. With twin meters. Amps and volts. A voltage adjustment knob.
Floating? Glance at the voltage and room thermometer.
No longer cold at night? Tweak the potentiometer. Maybe once a MONTH
Power outage? When power is restored I tweak the voltage knob. Elapsed time 3 seconds to set to 14.4. I arise and have coffee. Ooooooooooops the battery has been at 14.40 volts for 8-hours. I plumb forgot. Oooooooo the amperage is at .48 amps. Guaranteed full battery. Tweak voltage to 13.4. Elapsed time four seconds.
Yeah the meters and the knob is mounted on a bedside table. Yawn, reach over and tweak, swivel neck and read meters.
This is the epitome of lazy. Disgusting.
For an AGM that has outlived 99% of the automatic mismanaged AGMs.
Using a Meanwell or Megawatt as a de-B.S.'er is even easier.
Just make sure the monitor is connected correctly showing amperage flowing into the battery. When it reaches .5% of amp hour capacity amperage, shut off the charger or not. Sometime reasonably soon, like maybe tonight, shut off the power supply.
Once a week or 10 days.
I simply do not have the money or low intelligence to believe plug and play. The premise is absurd and I have better things to do and purchase than fighting BS battery management. I can reasonably expect 12 years of service out of my Lifeline.
And my 2-volt cells are of an age where they can legally purchase alcohol and inhale destructive distillates of burning vegetation...
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Read the Lifeline manual about conditioning. And try to survive the needless replacement of battery replacement twice as often as need be...