Cheap maintainer destroyed my battery

[cyberiankhatru]

Put a HF "Automatic" charger on my TT battery. After 3 months it has destroyed my battery. All the water boiled out due the charger putting out 20v. Is there any way to save it? Should I have just left it on the TT and let the house panel charge it? I am soooo frustrated!

[kevden]

I had a schumacher charger/jump starter that fried the engine computer on my jeep. The jeep was out of service for 2 weeks and I lost my snowplowing customers. I use a vector smart charger/jump starter now.
I leave the camper shore power plugged in all the time at home and let the wfco keep the batteries charged. No problems doing it this way so far.

[hohenwald48]

pianotuna wrote:
In point of fact, "converter" is "rv speak" for inverter. But most of us think of an inverter as something that turns xx volts of DC into 120 volts AC.

Actually, in any speak, an inverter changes DC voltage to AC voltage. It the very definition of an inverter.

The precise definition of a "converter" is a device that converts one voltage of DC to another voltage of DC.

All that aside, I assumed since this is an RV (specifically TT) forum that most folks would be using the terms as they apply to RVs. :S

[dodge_guy]

My small HF maintainer is a 750mA charger. It is the style that the entire black box plugs into the wall. I think I paid $19 for it. They had smaller, but they looked even cheaper and I wanted more charging power. I looked at the Battery Tender brand and for the same mA rating it was around $50. Looking closely and doing some research I found that the 2 are basically the same with different stickers on them.

I also have a Stanley brand 1.5mA maintainer for my Excursion. It has worked flawlessly also. I tried one of the Schumacher ones and it kept resetting to a bad battery after a couple days. Turns out that is a huge complaint from anyone that bought one of those! I returned the Schumacher for the Stanley and have no issues.

[colliehauler]

I have used SCHUMACHER battery maintainers for years without a problem. They are around 29 dollars but have been trouble free.

I would get a new battery and a new quality maintainer and have a fresh start. Batteries don't seem to last as long in a RV. I usually replace at 5 years.

[RBPerry]

I quality battery "maintainer" will not boil a battery. They constantly monitor the battery state of charge, when it drops it will bring the battery back to a full state of charge. A battery charger on the other hand will cook a battery in no time at all.

Napa sells a very good battery maintainer for about 40 dollars, I have used them for years on my tractors and motorcycles with no problem at all. However I"m also a big fan of AGM batteries over lead acid. Most quality auto supplies will also carry them.

[pianotuna]

In point of fact, "converter" is "rv speak" for inverter. But most of us think of an inverter as something that turns xx volts of DC into 120 volts AC.

hohenwald48 wrote:

dcg9381 wrote:
I had the same thing happen in a Jayco. It charged and held to 14.7. If you didn't stay on the battery water, it'd make a mess.

Find the inverter - on mine, all I had to do was add a "smart" module to get it to do a better job.

Not to be snarky but the battery charging device is a "converter" not an "inverter".

Converter - changes AC current to DC current
Inverter - changes DC current to AC current

There are combination inverter/converters but they are not common on travel trailers.

[TurnThePage]

I lost two ATV batteries to those little HF maintainers. I've learned my lesson.

[hohenwald48]

dcg9381 wrote:
I had the same thing happen in a Jayco. It charged and held to 14.7. If you didn't stay on the battery water, it'd make a mess.

Find the inverter - on mine, all I had to do was add a "smart" module to get it to do a better job.

Not to be snarky but the battery charging device is a "converter" not an "inverter".

Converter - changes AC current to DC current
Inverter - changes DC current to AC current

There are combination inverter/converters but they are not common on travel trailers.

[dcg9381]

I had the same thing happen in a Jayco. It charged and held to 14.7. If you didn't stay on the battery water, it'd make a mess.

Find the inverter - on mine, all I had to do was add a "smart" module to get it to do a better job.

[Sam_Spade]

dodge guy wrote:
I'm using a HF tender on my snowmobile battery and it has been perfect now for 4 months! I think your battery was done before you out the tender on it.

HF sells (at least) two cheap little chargers.
The one for $1.98 is just a trickle charger.
The one for $4.98 has two inline plastic boxes of parts and claims to be an automatic float charger. I don't know if it really is or not but a really LOT of people swear by them. Not me.

Note: Prices are approx. as they vary a bit from week to week.

[cyberiankhatru]

Battery about 3 yrs old. I installed the disc switch when I replaced the battery. It is a deep cycle battery. Never been dead. Read 12.0 volts when I took off the treater. Did not check it this morning.

[colliehauler]

How old is your battery? Do you have a battery disconnect switch? Are you using a deep cycle battery? Have you ran the battery dead before? Need a lot more information to even make a guess.

[dodge_guy]

I'm using a HF tender on my snowmobile battery and it has been perfect now for 4 months! I think your battery was done before you out the tender on it.

[Gdetrailer]

cyberiankhatru wrote:
Put a HF "Automatic" charger on my TT battery. After 3 months it has destroyed my battery. All the water boiled out due the charger putting out 20v. Is there any way to save it? Should I have just left it on the TT and let the house panel charge it? I am soooo frustrated!

Your battery was "toast" before you ever put that little "maintainer" on.

20V is the no load voltage, put a load on it and you will find that it drops to 13.2V. It is unregulated and is nothing more than a simple transformer and diode.

It is nothing more than a trickle charger at a 1/2A or so of current, not enough voltage or current to boil a GOOD battery of a decent size (group 24 or larger).

Get a new battery and unless you have a trailer from early 1990s or before you will have at least a two or three stage converter/charger which will have a "storage mode" of about 13.2V which will not boil the water as fast.