Battery stink

[hbrady]

My Coachmen Freedom express has been plugged in since I de-winterized it in April, the battery (new in 2014) was stored in the garage (heated) over the winter. Over the last week I've noticed a sulfur smell coming from the front of the camper and last night I discovered it was coming from the battery. I remember from my EMS days the ambulance battery trays always stunk when the ambulance was plugged in but I never knew the cause. I've read this can be a sign of a bad battery or a battery being overcharged but how would one narrow the cause? I did have the battery drain fully a couple weeks ago when I had unplugged it for a few days (I had left a light on). Would that ruined the battery?

[captainkirk1856]

I am thinking that the blown fuse caused the "loop" to be broken. Maybe the charger didn't know that the battery was fully charged, and kept pushing juice without slowing down. And maybe if the fuse wasn't blown, it would have figured out it could have stopped pushing a charge.

Kinda like a breaker pops off when something grounds out or the circuit is overloaded. Maybe that fuse would normally prevent too much juice from going to the battery. After I installed a new battery, I then replaced the fuse. If it popped again, then I would have known the problem was somewhere back up the line. But thankfully it didn't.

[hohenwald48]

rockhillmanor wrote:
Why do you leave the TT plugged in all winter when not in use?

So I can run heat and not winterize or have to unload all the freezable's in the TT. Let's me hit the road whenever I want.

[GrandpaKip]

I replaced a cooked converter on our previous camper with Progressive Dynamics and will replace the WFCO we now have in the near future.

[hbrady]

Excellent westend, thank you!

[westend]

hbrady wrote:
Since I don't have time to deal with changing the distribution center out before we go camping this weekend I am going to disconnect the battery while on shore power. I was looking at ordering this as a replacement, anyone have any feedback or suggestions on a better product?

Progressive Dynamics (PD4045KV)

If you choose one of PD's Upgrade kits, you won't have to pull the distro boards.

Since I have a PD converter that is still working after 45 years, I would choose no other.

[hbrady]

Since I don't have time to deal with changing the distribution center out before we go camping this weekend I am going to disconnect the battery while on shore power. I was looking at ordering this as a replacement, anyone have any feedback or suggestions on a better product?

Progressive Dynamics (PD4045KV)

[hbrady]

rockhillmanor wrote:
Why do you leave the TT plugged in all winter when not in use?

Not sure if you are asking me or someone else. I don't, battery gets pulled in late October when we winterize and stored in a heated garage.

[rockhillmanor]

Why do you leave the TT plugged in all winter when not in use?

[CavemanCharlie]

You would think that a camper that new would have a better charger that does not boil the battery to death.

Some people mentioned "poor maintenance" if you have a good charger there would be no maintenance required. Sure doing good maintenance might make the difference between a battery lasting 5 years or 7. But, not 3. Something is wrong if you need a new battery every 3 years.

We have dozens of battery's on the farm and we never check the water on them in this day and age. They last for years. Sometimes even a decade.

It could be that RV manufactures are not putting that good of chargers in their RV's yet though.

[rockhillmanor]

check your converter. Mine was a bad converter boiling the batteries = sulfur smell.

One capacitor was shot, literally. It looked like someone shot it with a 22! So the remaining one could not regulate itself and boiled out the battery.

[hohenwald48]

captainkirk1856 wrote:
I had similar smell coming from my camper about 3 years ago. We were doing work on it next to my garage and plugged it in for power to tools and such. When I tracked down the smell, I took the cover off the battery box, and the battery was swelled out some and was hot to the touch. I unplugged the camper and unhooked the battery and set it aside. I replaced the battery, but I checked other stuff also, and all seemed fine.

Turns out that on the hot wire near the battery box is 2 fuses. One of them had blown, and was causing the battery to be overcharged. That was it, a blown fuse. Haven't had a problem since then, but that is something else I check periodically when I mess around with the camper.

I hope this advice helps anyone along the way and maybe save a potential mess or injury from an exploding battery.

Good to know but I wonder how a blown fuse could cause a battery to over charge? Maybe someone can explain it.

[captainkirk1856]

I had similar smell coming from my camper about 3 years ago. We were doing work on it next to my garage and plugged it in for power to tools and such. When I tracked down the smell, I took the cover off the battery box, and the battery was swelled out some and was hot to the touch. I unplugged the camper and unhooked the battery and set it aside. I replaced the battery, but I checked other stuff also, and all seemed fine.

Turns out that on the hot wire near the battery box is 2 fuses. One of them had blown, and was causing the battery to be overcharged. That was it, a blown fuse. Haven't had a problem since then, but that is something else I check periodically when I mess around with the camper.

I hope this advice helps anyone along the way and maybe save a potential mess or injury from an exploding battery.

[hbrady]

Good to know, I'll keep an eye on it.

[westend]

My power center / charger is a WFCO WF-8955-PEC.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the Forum "Tech Issues" section is the recipient of frequent complaints and questions about WFCO converters and battery problems. You can do a search to find them.

You can monitor converter--battery voltage and see if yours is working adequately but I'd suggest to replace it if you don't want to be buying batteries every three years.

12.2V is not a charging voltage. The converter should be multistage--14.5 V or so for bulk and absorb, 13.5 V or so for float.