Tops of batteries are wet
Hi folks - I've got a question on how to troubleshoot my battery problem.
I've got 2 6 volt batteries wired correctly and a Progressive Dynamics 4600 series converter with charge wizard. The batteries live in a galvanized box with a tray that slides in and out (from the factory).
While checking the water level before our last trip I saw that there was a little wetness on the tops of both batteries and there was evidence that it had trickled down the sides and made rust colored spots on the bottom of my battery box. I cleaned up those spots and dried the tops of the batteries and we went on our trip. No water was needed.
While camping I checked the batteries again and found wetness. Dried it up and turned off the converter for most of the trip and just ran off the batteries (which powered things fine for our week long trip) and just turned on the converter for a few hours at a time to keep the batteries charged up. That worked fine.
We got home and I didn't plug the camper in for a week or so and the batteries were still powering things fine - really have only used the lights. Last night I checked the batteries - the water level was fine and there was wetness on the tops and rusty spots on the bottom of the box again. So I cleaned everything up and plugged it in around 5 pm last night and by 8 there was a little bit of wetness around the front cell holes on the tops of both batteries (it could be that I didn't dry them up perfectly and I am now seeing wetness because of using my LED headlight which is really bright). The batteries did not feel warm to the touch and when I pushed them back into their box by pushing on the side of one there was a gurgling noise as the side pushed in a little.
I've got a remote display for the converter. Just before I unplugged last night the display said 13.7 volts which looks correct per the manual for normal mode and the green led on the converter is blinking fast (my manual says that means the battery has reached 90% of full charge)
This morning after 11 hours unplugged and zero load on the batteries the remote display says 12.96 and the green led on the converter is still blinking fast.
The batteries were new in 3/2009, the converter 11/2010. Before the new converter I had a Magnetek which I religiously turned off and on as needed to not over-boil the batteries or allow them to freeze.
Did I give enough information? :W
Anyway - what I'm hoping to get from you gurus is how to find out what is going on. Could both batteries be bad or is my converter not charging correctly? My other idea is that the water (acid) is spilling out from the top holes because of bad seals on the caps while bouncing over rough roads - possible? How should I go about tracking down the problem?
I've got 2 6 volt batteries wired correctly and a Progressive Dynamics 4600 series converter with charge wizard. The batteries live in a galvanized box with a tray that slides in and out (from the factory).
While checking the water level before our last trip I saw that there was a little wetness on the tops of both batteries and there was evidence that it had trickled down the sides and made rust colored spots on the bottom of my battery box. I cleaned up those spots and dried the tops of the batteries and we went on our trip. No water was needed.
While camping I checked the batteries again and found wetness. Dried it up and turned off the converter for most of the trip and just ran off the batteries (which powered things fine for our week long trip) and just turned on the converter for a few hours at a time to keep the batteries charged up. That worked fine.
We got home and I didn't plug the camper in for a week or so and the batteries were still powering things fine - really have only used the lights. Last night I checked the batteries - the water level was fine and there was wetness on the tops and rusty spots on the bottom of the box again. So I cleaned everything up and plugged it in around 5 pm last night and by 8 there was a little bit of wetness around the front cell holes on the tops of both batteries (it could be that I didn't dry them up perfectly and I am now seeing wetness because of using my LED headlight which is really bright). The batteries did not feel warm to the touch and when I pushed them back into their box by pushing on the side of one there was a gurgling noise as the side pushed in a little.
I've got a remote display for the converter. Just before I unplugged last night the display said 13.7 volts which looks correct per the manual for normal mode and the green led on the converter is blinking fast (my manual says that means the battery has reached 90% of full charge)
This morning after 11 hours unplugged and zero load on the batteries the remote display says 12.96 and the green led on the converter is still blinking fast.
The batteries were new in 3/2009, the converter 11/2010. Before the new converter I had a Magnetek which I religiously turned off and on as needed to not over-boil the batteries or allow them to freeze.
Did I give enough information? :W
Anyway - what I'm hoping to get from you gurus is how to find out what is going on. Could both batteries be bad or is my converter not charging correctly? My other idea is that the water (acid) is spilling out from the top holes because of bad seals on the caps while bouncing over rough roads - possible? How should I go about tracking down the problem?
