Xantrex Truecharge2 Reliability?
Hello all, New member here with a 2015 Rockwood 2306 that we picked up June of 2018. We're upgrading from the terrible group 24 battery to a set of two Trojan T-105 batteries. I'm looking for a sui...
Forum Discussion
Yeah they were both at 6.11 volts, which is just a tad under 60% SOC (6.12 is 60% according to the datasheet). Manufacturing date was January 2019. Got them from a small battery company, clearly they had not been watching/charging them enough. According to Trojan, they should be charged in storage upon dropping to 70% SOC. $300 for the pair before tax, core charge included, so hopefully I didn't get a bad deal.
Right now I'm charging them with my RC hobby charger. Like most chargers, it goes to 14.7 volts, and is not adjustable. 10 A max charge current. It ends the charge at 10% of charge current setpoint. So if I charge at 10 A as I am now, it ends absorption at 1 A. If I set it to 5 A, it would end at 0.5 A and so forth.
I haven't yet bought a hydrometer or a power supply/charger that can do full charge voltage or equalization, so it's just the hobby charger for now. That should get them fairly close to full. After I let it sit a day or two after charging the voltage should tell me, though it won't tell me if I need an equalization. Full charge is 6.37 volts or 1.277 SG (T-105 datasheet).
I will use a hydrometer to check for full charge and the potential need of equalization as soon as I get one. I found one of the good ones today at the local hardware store, the floating tube with a built-in thermometer, but unfortunately the thermometer was clearly broken as it was reading 40 °F in room temp or I'd have bought it. It was the only one with the floating tube scale they had. My guess is battery hydrometers don't exactly fly off the shelves. :D
Right now I'm charging them with my RC hobby charger. Like most chargers, it goes to 14.7 volts, and is not adjustable. 10 A max charge current. It ends the charge at 10% of charge current setpoint. So if I charge at 10 A as I am now, it ends absorption at 1 A. If I set it to 5 A, it would end at 0.5 A and so forth.
I haven't yet bought a hydrometer or a power supply/charger that can do full charge voltage or equalization, so it's just the hobby charger for now. That should get them fairly close to full. After I let it sit a day or two after charging the voltage should tell me, though it won't tell me if I need an equalization. Full charge is 6.37 volts or 1.277 SG (T-105 datasheet).
I will use a hydrometer to check for full charge and the potential need of equalization as soon as I get one. I found one of the good ones today at the local hardware store, the floating tube with a built-in thermometer, but unfortunately the thermometer was clearly broken as it was reading 40 °F in room temp or I'd have bought it. It was the only one with the floating tube scale they had. My guess is battery hydrometers don't exactly fly off the shelves. :D
