I am running 2 6VDC deep cycle batteries in series on my travel trailer. I recently bought a 120W solar panel that is for a 12V circuit.
I hooked up the solar panel using the charge regulator that came with it. I connected the +VE to the first battery +VE and the -VE to second battery -VE (leaving the interconnecting cable in place). The charge regulator indicated that the batteries were charged and displayed a green light.
I turned on all the lights in the RV and the charge regulator indicated that that the batteries required charging and displayed a yellow light.
A short time later I put my ear to the batteries and I could hear then kind of sizzling. The charge regulator said the batteries still needed charging at this time. I immediately disconnected the solar panel.
The charge regulator has a cutin of 13V and a cutout of 14.2.
My question is why did the batteries start to make a sizzling sound?? When using a solar panel to charge batteries should everything in the RV be turned off? Please help me by sharing your knowledge.
You are running two 6 volt batteries. They should be wired in series to get 12 volts. So the +VE should go to the positive terminal of the first battery and the -VE should go to the negative terminal of the other battery. There should not be a second +VE connection to the second battery.
Thank you for your replies. I did forget me mention that the batteries are the flooded type. I had a look at the water level and the plates are all covered. Could maybe use a little top off but currently the plates are not exposed.
The charge controller is not a very good one (came with the solar panel). I decided to order a Renology Voyager 10A PWM controller just to be on the safe side and it looks to be a much better unit (bonus that its waterproof). When I get it I will try the setup again and see if the batteries still make the noises.
Before hooking up the solar panel I had the RV on shore power so the batteries were fully charged. The only thing that was depleting them were the lights that I turned on but those are LED so minimal draw. It does almost seem like the batteries were being overcharged as the charge controller kicked into charging very quickly when I turned the lights on or there was what seemed like a very quick voltage drop. Does that seem normal?
Flooded batteries will bubble when being charged. A little bubbling is fine. Too much may indicate they are being over charged. There us no reason to turn off loads while charging. You need to make sure your charge controller's settings are cirrect for your batteries. If you only ever charged them with a sub-standard converter that sat at 13.X volts then they never really got fully charged and wouldn't have bubbled. I suspect all is pribably fine. Just keep an eye in water levels. Refill with distilled water only.
Panels just produce raw DC power. The controller is the brain that regulates the voltage and current to perform battery charging. A good one is money well spent.
Yours may be defective.
The Yost Outpost Gilbert, AZ 2007 GMC Sierra Classic 2500HD, Duramax LBZ 2019 Nash 23D
