Forum Discussion
landyacht318
Aug 20, 2014Explorer
If there is too much amperage, above the 5 or 6% of capacity, then the batteries were not charged enough before the EQ cycle was initated.
I have a schumacher "automatic" charger which will just blow past the mid to high 14's and pump in 15 amps at 15.8 volts, which is too much. The battery needed time in the high 14s to reach near full charge.
My screwy 31 after ~2 hours at 14.9v, then after 1.5 hours at 15.3v, the amps will have tapered to about 1.8 required to hold 15.3v
Changing the solar setpoints to 16v at this point, and 6.2 amps are required to bring the battery to 16v. By the time SG has maxed out, amps have tapered from the 4.2 to 3.8 range.
I've done this enough I can just end the EQ cycle when I see the amps required to hold 16v drop below 4 without dipping the hydrometer. But this will likely change as the battery ages. Here is a good video that shows the relationship between amps and voltage on a fully charged battery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_T1WhErEew&list=UUoPqTkOluQsuu3RpGnxVwFw&index=26
Lots of his videos are pertinent to the RV world.
So basically, just don't begin an Eq cycle until the battery has sat at the manufacturer recommended absorption voltage for a good while, until the current required to hold absV is a small percentage of the battery capacity. Don't crank it upto 15.5x until it has sat at 14.x for a good while and the amps required to hold 15.5x will not be abusive to the battery. But crank it upto 15.5x well before the battery is in the 95%+ range, and large abusive amp numbers will be required to hold the battery at 15.5x volts
I have a schumacher "automatic" charger which will just blow past the mid to high 14's and pump in 15 amps at 15.8 volts, which is too much. The battery needed time in the high 14s to reach near full charge.
My screwy 31 after ~2 hours at 14.9v, then after 1.5 hours at 15.3v, the amps will have tapered to about 1.8 required to hold 15.3v
Changing the solar setpoints to 16v at this point, and 6.2 amps are required to bring the battery to 16v. By the time SG has maxed out, amps have tapered from the 4.2 to 3.8 range.
I've done this enough I can just end the EQ cycle when I see the amps required to hold 16v drop below 4 without dipping the hydrometer. But this will likely change as the battery ages. Here is a good video that shows the relationship between amps and voltage on a fully charged battery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_T1WhErEew&list=UUoPqTkOluQsuu3RpGnxVwFw&index=26
Lots of his videos are pertinent to the RV world.
So basically, just don't begin an Eq cycle until the battery has sat at the manufacturer recommended absorption voltage for a good while, until the current required to hold absV is a small percentage of the battery capacity. Don't crank it upto 15.5x until it has sat at 14.x for a good while and the amps required to hold 15.5x will not be abusive to the battery. But crank it upto 15.5x well before the battery is in the 95%+ range, and large abusive amp numbers will be required to hold the battery at 15.5x volts
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