Batteries Will Not Take Charge
I have a friend that has a Chinook Class B with two 12v batteries that will not take a charge over 13.4v even with a 40 amp battery charger attached. Needless to say they wake up in the morning to low...
Forum Discussion
A typical good working order deep cycle 12VDC battery will DEMAND 17-20AMPS of DC CURRENT when first hit with 14.4VDC Charging Voltage.
You will want to use a multimeter across the battery battery terminals and see if the charging DC Voltage is present.
i.e. a fully charged deep cycle battery will read 12.6-7VDC at the terminals without shore power connected.
When you turn on SHORE POWER then the DC VOLTAGE at the Battery Terminal should jump to 13.6VDC or 14.4VDC depending what the charge mode of the CONVERTER is in.
The DC Current is determined by the BATTERY. Does not matter how much capacity the CHARGER has available to use. The BATTERY will DEMAND how much DC CURRENT is being drawn from the charging source.
This is why it is important to see the DC CHARGING VOLTAGE present at the battery terminals. It could be you have a blown fuse or bad connection between the Battery and the Converter/Charger. If you are reading DC CHARGING voltage at the battery terminals and it still is not charging then you may have a open circuit inside the battery that may have occurred by a shorted cell until it burned the path open. Checking the battery fluids is also a quick test. It a shorted cell has occurred the battery will get very hot and boil out the battery fluids. The outside case will also be warm to hot to touch when this happens as well. Some batteries may even explode on you when this happens.
Simple battery maintenance inspections is easy to do with the batteries.
Using the HYDROMETER is the best solution to determine the charge status but just having a multimeter can also lead you to make good diagnostics as well.
It behooves one to learn simple battery maintenance procedures especially when one depends on the batteries like when camping off the power grid. Sort of hard to deal with the Momabear when it goes dark on you real quick.
Roy Ken
You will want to use a multimeter across the battery battery terminals and see if the charging DC Voltage is present.
i.e. a fully charged deep cycle battery will read 12.6-7VDC at the terminals without shore power connected.
When you turn on SHORE POWER then the DC VOLTAGE at the Battery Terminal should jump to 13.6VDC or 14.4VDC depending what the charge mode of the CONVERTER is in.
The DC Current is determined by the BATTERY. Does not matter how much capacity the CHARGER has available to use. The BATTERY will DEMAND how much DC CURRENT is being drawn from the charging source.
This is why it is important to see the DC CHARGING VOLTAGE present at the battery terminals. It could be you have a blown fuse or bad connection between the Battery and the Converter/Charger. If you are reading DC CHARGING voltage at the battery terminals and it still is not charging then you may have a open circuit inside the battery that may have occurred by a shorted cell until it burned the path open. Checking the battery fluids is also a quick test. It a shorted cell has occurred the battery will get very hot and boil out the battery fluids. The outside case will also be warm to hot to touch when this happens as well. Some batteries may even explode on you when this happens.
Simple battery maintenance inspections is easy to do with the batteries.
Using the HYDROMETER is the best solution to determine the charge status but just having a multimeter can also lead you to make good diagnostics as well.
It behooves one to learn simple battery maintenance procedures especially when one depends on the batteries like when camping off the power grid. Sort of hard to deal with the Momabear when it goes dark on you real quick.
Roy Ken
