House batteries off gassing with Tripp Lite

Have you measured the charging voltage?

Did your digital multimeter voltage readings on the output of the charger agree with the settings to confirm it was working right?

vacuumbed wrote:
Hi everyone,
I have a 2005 Chinook with a Tripp Lite charger/inverter model 612. Both of my Wal Mart Everstart group 27 batteries have a terrible smell. All the settings on the Tripp Lite are correct, the dip switch is set for a wet cell battery.

These batteries are almost two years old, but have performed poorly since they were new, they never seem to hold a charge.

Although they need to be replaced, could my inverter/charger be having an issue as well?

Thanks in advance.

Simple, the battery is COOKING..

Can't find any details, specs or manuals for this model so I can't say for sure if it is a single, double a three stage charger..

But any way you look at it, the battery is getting TOO MUCH VOLTAGE..

IE it is overcharging.. Boiling the water out.

FIRST thing would be to check the voltage of the charger.. 13.2V is a typical two or three stage "storage" mode voltage, single stage will have ONE voltage only and typically it will be 13.4-13.8V..

If single stage it WILL COOK your single group 27 battery in a short period of time.. Those types of converters will cook the water out of your battery and you MUST check the water level OFTEN.

Single stage can work fine BUT you need to check the battery and add water.. Most times when storing it is better to DISCONNECT the battery, the battery should hold a charge for 3-6 months when disconnected from the RV..

If multi stage then most likely the charger section has failed and is not dropping to storage voltage.. If not too high of voltage, you could treat like a single stage and water the battery often and or disconnect battery while in storage..

Thanks for the replies everyone. My RV has a Mark PV Controller, for the solar panel I believe. It shows the battery voltage at a constant 13.2 volts.

Battery is shot if boiling on 13.2 volts. Disconnect before the water boils out and prevent explosion.

Hi,

Sounds like a shorted cell. Do disconnect the batteries asap.

disconnect the solar panels from the controller
then disconnect the batteries
you want to protect the controller
and you want NO charging going to bad batteries
in fact might be a good idea to separate the batteries
extra precaution against internal short causing overheating

The Walmart batteries you are using ae AUTOMOTIVE design batteries. NOT deep cycle RV batteries. THIS is your problem. Get RV Deep cycle batteries. Doug

Have you called Tripp Lite? They're US based in Chicago . They've always offered good technical support when I've called them.

vacuumbed wrote:
These batteries are almost two years old, but have performed poorly since they were new, they never seem to hold a charge.

This is a separate issue most likely caused by poor maintenance.

Describe more of the details of when they get run down etc.
How much solar do you have? How are the batteries maintained in storage?
Are these batteries rated deep cycle starting or deep cycle trolling?