Confusion on battery charging
I am confused about the best practices for charging batteries. For 7 years I had 300 AH of Lifeline AGM batteries, 270 watts of solar and a simple charging system. My old camper has a 110 volt c...
Forum Discussion
Per Lifeline, full charge for my battery would be 14.3 volts with 0.5 amps per battery or 1 amp for the pair.
Thanks for everyone who commented and tried to help. I think I understand what has happened. I have probably been charging up to only about 90% or so. The undercharge has been maybe 20 or 30 AH and really does not show up easily in my resting or am voltage readings. I am more than a little surprised to be coming up short since my utilization has been low. However, it is getting late in the season, I am pretty far north (Glacier NP) and have encountered quite a few cloudy days plus smoke from forest fires. Anyway once I reach 14.3 volts I expect to be fully charged within a couple hours. Instead I probably need 4 to 6 hours to full charge at that voltage. I just have not been getting that amount of solar input. I think I came pretty close the other day but was still at 4 amps. Today is sunny so I think I will see a full charge or close to it.
I suspect the 7 years I had my old batteries I must have been undercharged a great deal of the time. I had my old fixed 13.6 volt solar charge controller and when I hit 13.6 I thought I was charged or close to it. No way. Anyway there is no way I can achieve full charge on a daily basis. I hope to do that at least every couple of weeks. When I return from this trip I need to upgrade my RV charge controller. That story is even worse. My generator stops doing any good once the controller hits 13.3 v. That leaves me a long, long way from full charge unless that voltage is maintained for hours and hours. That is only feasible the few times I am hooked to shore power.
Thanks for everyone who commented and tried to help. I think I understand what has happened. I have probably been charging up to only about 90% or so. The undercharge has been maybe 20 or 30 AH and really does not show up easily in my resting or am voltage readings. I am more than a little surprised to be coming up short since my utilization has been low. However, it is getting late in the season, I am pretty far north (Glacier NP) and have encountered quite a few cloudy days plus smoke from forest fires. Anyway once I reach 14.3 volts I expect to be fully charged within a couple hours. Instead I probably need 4 to 6 hours to full charge at that voltage. I just have not been getting that amount of solar input. I think I came pretty close the other day but was still at 4 amps. Today is sunny so I think I will see a full charge or close to it.
I suspect the 7 years I had my old batteries I must have been undercharged a great deal of the time. I had my old fixed 13.6 volt solar charge controller and when I hit 13.6 I thought I was charged or close to it. No way. Anyway there is no way I can achieve full charge on a daily basis. I hope to do that at least every couple of weeks. When I return from this trip I need to upgrade my RV charge controller. That story is even worse. My generator stops doing any good once the controller hits 13.3 v. That leaves me a long, long way from full charge unless that voltage is maintained for hours and hours. That is only feasible the few times I am hooked to shore power.
