Battery won't charge
Hi I have a Chateau Citation Class C motorhome My house battery will not take a charge?? I had the battery tested and they said it was good. Had the charger on for 24 hours no charging happened. Why i...
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X2 on the voltmeter (multimeter set on a 20 volt DC range). As described, measure the voltage red lead to positive battery Post and black to negative post. When a battery charger is connected and turned on or the motorhome is plugged in to AC power, the voltage on the battery should rise to 13.5 volts at least to do any charging at all. Overnight charging will need more like 14 volts.
The same applies to engine charging. Disconnected from AC shore power with engine running battery voltage should go well over 13 volts. Engines try to be smart chargers but they adjust their voltage mostly based on the charge the engine battery has. In many cases poor connections, too small wires to the house batteries or relay trouble reduce the voltage, slowing the rate of charging.
The per cent of full charge can be estimated from a voltage reading a few hours after all charging has stopped. 12 volts means half charged (as low as you can go without battery damage). 12.6 volts indicates fully charged.
Old RVs have converters that charge the batteries at about 13.5 volts which probably takes forever to fully charge so you end up with a chronically undercharged battery that doesn't work very well. The solution is to have a modern converter installed or use a separate battery charger, preferably a smart one that provides well over 14 volts for some time, then stops or drops to around 13.5 volts to avoid overcharging when it deduces that the charge is nearly 100%.
Sorry to complicate this even more but I want to give you the whole story. Rather than spending money on a converter or charger you might be better off buying a solar panel or two. We are modest users of electricity so one 100 watt solar panel easily provides all our 12 volt power; we never use a charger or shore power.
The same applies to engine charging. Disconnected from AC shore power with engine running battery voltage should go well over 13 volts. Engines try to be smart chargers but they adjust their voltage mostly based on the charge the engine battery has. In many cases poor connections, too small wires to the house batteries or relay trouble reduce the voltage, slowing the rate of charging.
The per cent of full charge can be estimated from a voltage reading a few hours after all charging has stopped. 12 volts means half charged (as low as you can go without battery damage). 12.6 volts indicates fully charged.
Old RVs have converters that charge the batteries at about 13.5 volts which probably takes forever to fully charge so you end up with a chronically undercharged battery that doesn't work very well. The solution is to have a modern converter installed or use a separate battery charger, preferably a smart one that provides well over 14 volts for some time, then stops or drops to around 13.5 volts to avoid overcharging when it deduces that the charge is nearly 100%.
Sorry to complicate this even more but I want to give you the whole story. Rather than spending money on a converter or charger you might be better off buying a solar panel or two. We are modest users of electricity so one 100 watt solar panel easily provides all our 12 volt power; we never use a charger or shore power.
