Xantrex AC to DC #XADC-60 Converter Issue!

[dad4papa2]

1996 Damon Intruder, 460 Engine-ford Chassis -34.5 ft

My Converter fan seems to have started running all the time and won't shut off. It was installed 5/12/09.
What I have found up to now.
When I plug into shore power it comes on and puts 14.26 volt to the batteries. It seems to continue at 14.26 volts while plugged in.
When I unplug the shore power and leave the house batteries connected it will slowly drain the batteries down until they are dead.
Now I have plugged back in to shore power and the batteries start charging again at around 14.26 v.
Now as a test I unplug the shore power and remove the positive and negative battery cable and the batteries will drop to around 12.7v and stay there.
I think this is indicating a short somewhere but not sure.
Where do I start with this project of getting it going again???
Thanks so much in advance for any help. Dennis

[dad4papa2]

PS it is a 60 amp converter/charger

[dad4papa2]

When I bought the Motorhome It came with a converter/charger. I was a 6300 Magnetek or Parallax. It was pretty nice but it would overcharge the batteries and boil them dry. Being new I just filled them often and used it for a couple years. I replaced at least 2 sets of batteries and said no more.
From excellent suggestions on here I ended up ordering a Xantrex True Charge XADC Converter Charger. This was in October of 2008. It has done a 110% performance for my Mh and I am looking for one that will be an easy replacement.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Xantrex suggests IOTA DLS Series or Dynamics 9200 series. I really just want to remove this one and replace it in a simple replacement.
Suggestios please!!!
Thanks Dad

[CA_Traveler]

Not familiar with this product but you don't need high quality for a RV. Try HF also.

https://www.amazon.com/Proster-Auto-Ranging-Capacitance-Temperature-Non-Contact/dp/B075Z1GH5L/ref=sr...

[dad4papa2]

Sorry I have been slow getting back to this problem. Life gets in the way and so I am now back. I will start some of the tips made here to check this thing out.
I have been looking for a decent clamp on amp meter but wow those babies cost more than the birth of my fist child. More to come soon.
Thanks again for all the tips. New chassis batts and new house batts and it still pulls the batteries down. Doesn't bother the chassis battery now so I have a feeling my converter is bad!

[StirCrazy]

dad4papa2 wrote:
Today I purchased new house batteries. so now I hve new House and new chassis batteries so I should be good to go!
However my converter is still running most of the time only it is on a lower speed. Not humming near as fast and hard.
Not sure what to do now but I will try to get the tool to check amp draw (I think is what was stated. Will check back in when I get this done! Thanks everyone for the help!
Dennis

did it stop after a while? I wonder if it was just topping up the new batteries.

The next step is to start turning off 12V loads one by one by pulling the fuses to see what makes the fan stop. do you happen to have your fridge running on 12V or even a lot of lights on?

[dad4papa2]

Today I purchased new house batteries. so now I hve new House and new chassis batteries so I should be good to go!
However my converter is still running most of the time only it is on a lower speed. Not humming near as fast and hard.
Not sure what to do now but I will try to get the tool to check amp draw (I think is what was stated. Will check back in when I get this done! Thanks everyone for the help!
Dennis

[dad4papa2]

Thanks again for the info. I just finished charging bot batteries up over night. I then unhooked them and only put the cable with the charger on it and am testing to see if it goes down. Then I will get voltage after and hour and do the same on the other battery. More info soon!!! thanks much Dennis

[dougrainer]

1. Your chassis battery will not affect your problem. It is separate from your coach batteries and coach charging system.
2. It make NO DIFFERENCE if you have 1 bad battery. You ALWAYS replace all batteries even if 1 is defective.
3. Your testing shows that it takes 120 voltage to make the fans run.
4. It is EXTREMELY rare for a Power Converter to draw the batteries down. I doubt in 44 years if I have seen one.
5. ARE your coach batteries SEALED? If so, odds are you do have bad batteries. I would NEVER have a sealed battery on the coach side. They are problems waiting to happen. Doug

PS, SHORTS do not cause drain problems. DRAWS do:B

[opnspaces]

If you have two 12 volt batteries most likely only one is bad and dragging the second one down. Just disconnect them and run your test on a single battery. You should be able to isolate the bad battery from the good pretty quickly.

In fact you can probably just charge them both up full. Then wait until they drop to 12.5 volts so you know that the drain is happening. At 12.5v disconnect the ground terminal of each battery. Come back in an hour and do another voltage check at the batteries. At that point it should be very obvious which battery is having a problem.

[dad4papa2]

Well I have pulled most of the tests mentioned here.
Charged the batteries about 2 hours and then unplugged shore power. Batteries went to 13.03 v and slowly drop to 12.76 in about 10 minutes. then it dropped to 12.67 after another 30 minutes. It hung around 12.67 for around 45 minutes and I decided to just time it and see how low it would go. All cables and lines were hooked up as should be! After 4 hours it dropped to 10.66v. I hooked shore power back up and started recharging the batteries.
about an hour and thirty minutes I left everything going and pulled all of the fuses out that was mentioned above. The fan continued to run and charge the batteries. I then disconnected the shore power and it went over to house batteries but I didn't have any power inside sense the fuses were out. I started adding fuse at a time and noticed no add drop to the meter. it was dropping about 1/10th volt every minute or so. I added all fuses back in one at a time and continued until I had them all replaced.
Seen no difference in voltage drop in batteries but again they has gotten down to 12.66 bolt during my fuse installs.
So I left it as it was with no shore power and in about 3 1/2 hours it went back to 10.67v. I plugged it back in to recharge batteries.
I will probably get them out tomorrow and have them tested again. I have a feeling some of you are right that one or both of the batteries are bad!! I hope to find out tomorrow or Monday!!
I post as soon as I get info.
Dennis
Thanks for all the input!

[opnspaces]

That's a huge load as in I would think the positive and negative wires would be red hot.

It really sounds like a battery with a dead cell. I know you had them tested as good but battery cells are about 2.1 volts each. So a dead cell will bring a battery down to 10 volts.

Assuming the batteries are good try this. Plug the shore power in and charge the batteries up. Then take a picture of the fuse block on the converter and pull all the fuses out. Check battery voltage after 10 minutes. If it's still around 12.7 (fully charged is 12.65 to 12.7) start adding fuses back into the system and checking the voltage after 10 minutes. Eventually you should find the fuse that is causing the drop.

[time2roll]

12.8 to 10.6 in 5 minutes is close to 50+ amp load. This not a small load if the batteries are actually in good shape.

A DC clamp-on ammeter would tell the story immediately.

[dad4papa2]

Well so sorry this has taken this much time. I had a little illness and had to set this aside. Took the house batteries down and had them tested. They both show good strong batteries. I will do the test by pulling fuses to see if I can find the issue. When I pull the shore power off it goes from 12.8v to 10.6v within the first five minutes so I think it is a bad short for sure. Everything in the motorhome seems to be working fine but I haven't tried the furnace yet.(to to hot to get it to turn on) More to come later as I do the fuse test! Thanks Dennis

[dad4papa2]

Well I am still testing but I think I have found the culprit. My Chassis battery is 4 years old and doesn't seem to want to take a charge. Been on charger for about 3 hours and on at 9.65 Volts. Will know more soon!!! Good part is that they are 5 year free replacement!!!!!
Dad