battery question

[booster]

Originally Posted by peteco

Booster, a while ago we had talked about using our Ctek 7002 chargers on a regular basis (every 1-2 months) to fully charge our car batteries. Before the Ctek I used a Battery minder regularly. I got 10 years out of the original battery in my Camry
I think this goes a long way to minimizing sulfation.

I would certainly think you are correct. IIRC, the battery minder has a bit of profile to it with higher voltage when current has been maxed do to low battery, so that is good.


What it is likely addressing is that most vehicles used for basic transportation never really get the batteries near full. I have monitored ours and they are consistently at 12.4-12.5v except in the winter when may be even lower by a bit.


Even a float charge for long periods is going to help prevent sulffation, so that is probably what goes on in your case. Any lead sulfate that isn't converted to lead and sulpheric acid will eventually turn to hardened built up sulfate and flake off, from all I have seen reading about it all. Even at float, some charging is usually going on if the batteries aren't full.

[Deano]

FWIW, I had a Walmart Max made by Johnson Controls that I kept a Battery Tender Jr. hooked to when the car was not being driven. It was 11 1/2 years old when it started to fail to take a charge.

Also, a friend who works at Auto Zone told me they no longer sell Interstate batteries because of the failure rate.

[booster]

I did some quick searching on the Interstate quality issues and it appears that it likely a big problem. They are roundly blasted as being going downhill in quality since 2019 when they started phasing in Exide made batteries to replace the Johnson Controls made batteries. The places I saw were vehicle based forums mostly and also Bob is the Oil Guy, so shouldn't have any sales bias or such I would think.


I think Walmart still has Johnson Control make their batteries. NAPA is said to be East Penn and good.

[Deano]

Originally Posted by Deano

FWIW, I had a Walmart Max made by Johnson Controls that I kept a Battery Tender Jr. hooked to when the car was not being driven. It was 11 1/2 years old when it started to fail to take a charge.

Also, a friend who works at Auto Zone told me they no longer sell Interstate batteries because of the failure rate.

I'm sorry, I misstated, my friend who works for Auto Zone said the main battery warehouse in his town are the ones who have stopped carrying the Interstate Batteries because of quality issues.

[RossWilliams]

When it comes to batteries I would be skeptical of any anecdotal claims about poor quality. Batteries are easy to abuse and blaming the manufacturer when one fails is an easy explanation. People will repeatedly draw a battery bank down to 80% based on crude measurements of charge level and then complain when it fails early.

Given how stuff is sourced these days, its hard to really know who the manufacturer is. The same battery can be branded under different names and the same brand can include batteries from different actual manufacturers.

[gpdc]

please put me in with the willing to learning crowd.....
that said, I just put a Leoch grp27 size battery (XP-12-350FR) in my '98 RoadTrek...Versitile 200 (stock house battery is group 24)...that battery has the internally threaded (6mm x 1) "posts" (no standing posts) that I wanted to get some additional vertical clearance.....
SO.....it's an AGM battery & I want to treat it kindly.....
existing converters' charger is a Magnatek 6345 with the battery charger optional circuitry....it's probably more than 20 years old.......
how do I take care of this new battery?

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by gpdc

please put me in with the willing to learning crowd.....
that said, I just put a Leoch grp27 size battery (XP-12-350FR) in my '98 RoadTrek...Versitile 200 (stock house battery is group 24)...that battery has the internally threaded (6mm x 1) "posts" (no standing posts) that I wanted to get some additional vertical clearance.....
SO.....it's an AGM battery & I want to treat it kindly.....
existing converters' charger is a Magnatek 6345 with the battery charger optional circuitry....it's probably more than 20 years old.......
how do I take care of this new battery?

I replaced the converter charger with a Progressive Dynamics 4645, available from Best Converters. They have/had them on Amazon but there were reports of some from there with no serial numbers, likely counterfeit so no warranty.

While not necessarily the very best unit out there it installs easily in the same case, provides decent multi stage charging, has filtering for all 12 volt circuits, and a reasonable cost.

I installed one and used it for over six years before selling our RT. Our last battery was a cheapo group 27 "deep cycle" Maxx from Wally World that was still performing well after ten months of boondocking spread over 2.5 years.

https://www.bestconverter.com/Upgrad...llax_c_64.html

Enjoy your '98 Versatile, we put over 100k miles on our 2000 200 Versatile and sold it at 221k miles, still performing well.

[gpdc]

Steve....so I'll take your comments as an atta-boy for both best converter & the PD units they sell....did you upgrade or install a new unit?.....I sent them a RFI (request for information) & they must be very busy.......
Over the years (17 & counting) we've had this RV, mysterious battery demises have occured...that said, this past winter I READ THE BOOK (!) & found RTs' instruction to switch the cabin master switch on BEFORE adding shore power when I put it up for the winter....that & a battery minder/cigarette light adapter for maintaining the vehicles' starting battery will be used this fall....we'll see how that goes.... VOM testing last night seems to bear all that out
Does anybody can a correlation between % of battery power and actual voltage observed on a digital VOM?....& further....when someone uses that % figure, are they talkng about power used or power remaining left in the battery?...thanks in advance for any replies.....

[mloganusda]

Speaking of battery charging, I have a 2018 Ridgeline and use a scan gauge to monitor several options. One is the charging system. While driving on the highway for a period of time I notice that the voltage shows 14.3v for a period of time and then drops to 12.5v for some time. Had Honda check alternator and it was fine. I guess when the battery is fully charged the alternator is disconnected from charging for better mileage?

[Bud]

Originally Posted by gpdc

please put me in with the willing to learning crowd.....
that said, I just put a Leoch grp27 size battery (XP-12-350FR) in my '98 RoadTrek...Versitile 200 (stock house battery is group 24)...that battery has the internally threaded (6mm x 1) "posts" (no standing posts) that I wanted to get some additional vertical clearance.....
SO.....it's an AGM battery & I want to treat it kindly.....
existing converters' charger is a Magnatek 6345 with the battery charger optional circuitry....it's probably more than 20 years old.......
how do I take care of this new battery?

I think that most will say you Must do something about that AGM vs wet cell battery charging. You have various options, from simplest to lots of $'s.

Simple, you can simply change out the charger only yourself. The End, good value maybe. Or both Converter and Charger, interter/charger, or...... Enjoy deciding.

A guess concerning booster's question my only be on the applicance itself.

Bud

[gpdc]

Bud...thank you for the input....leaning toward changing out the complete unit....gotta take it out to see the burn spot bestconverter has mentioned...I've heard that fan running...& If I take that unit out, I'm putting in a new one, period....
Mr Mloganusda.....I installed a (in the bedroom) digital volt meter in our RV & along with the (dash mount) AutoScan unit & I get it that anything above 12.9 0r 13.0 volts represents a charge coming from somewhere......AND the NON charging voltage is gonna be more like 12.7...AFTER the battery "rests" after charging.........
FWIW.....I've a HF battery load tester that accepts a 100 amp (so they say) load across an internal resistor bank.....the test is where the analog meter needle sits after 10 seconds....and I just happened to have several batteries on the bench at the same time, all intermittently connected to some various chargers/maintainers that I have... & you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear.....
'

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by gpdc

Steve....so I'll take your comments as an atta-boy for both best converter & the PD units they sell....did you upgrade or install a new unit?.....I sent them a RFI (request for information) & they must be very busy.......
Over the years (17 & counting) we've had this RV, mysterious battery demises have occured...that said, this past winter I READ THE BOOK (!) & found RTs' instruction to switch the cabin master switch on BEFORE adding shore power when I put it up for the winter....that & a battery minder/cigarette light adapter for maintaining the vehicles' starting battery will be used this fall....we'll see how that goes.... VOM testing last night seems to bear all that out
Does anybody can a correlation between % of battery power and actual voltage observed on a digital VOM?....& further....when someone uses that % figure, are they talkng about power used or power remaining left in the battery?...thanks in advance for any replies.....

The 4600 series replaces the 12 volt fuse panel and the charger inside the original housing. No need to remove the housing.

Chart for battery condition adjusting for temperature. I believe it is for flooded lead acid batteries.

[booster]

Figuring SOC based on voltage van be done, but not very accurate even in the best case. It varies by brand, model, style, and age so lots of variables there, plus it is only correct when there is no load on them and they are rested for a couple of hours. You have to learn your batteries by doing a repeated rested test or check specific gravity.


Others here and always in the days before monitors, campers got to be able to tell by voltage and what is on for loads about where they are at for battery capacity left. Not precise for sure, but with practice can make for a usable method. Some people will be good at it and others not so much, so pretty variable between users. The learning curve will likely include a few times of running low on capacity but that is about the only way to know when voltage relates to that point.

[gpdc]

Thank you!

[booster]

Update on 24DC Costco Interstate we have in the van. Even though kept full over the winter, mostly floated and then sometimes charged. It failed my "check out the van for use" test. Charged it to max, let it sit for 5 days with just chassis loads on it which are quite low and should run 3+ weeks. After 5 days just a starter click, so junk already after only a few years of very good care.


I will need to keep an eye on the two in our drivers as if this is an indicator, we will be having issues.


Starting to look like the new Interstate batteries may have the issues that the reviewers were talking about and very short life.

[gpdc]

Booster....that's a crazy bad experience....I've blamed some of my "over the winter, and parked" house battery demises on my misuse of the master panel
'master " switch....ref: "I read the book" in an above post....now...I'm not so sure....keep thinking of the grp 25 Trojan gell I lost in maybe a year, year & a half which included a winter overlay......when I took that battery back to where I bought it their response was kinda nonchalant....." ya...twice the money, they expect to warranty 2 in a year" is what I got......the trip we were on allowed a stop at Trojan mission control in St Petes above Tampa....who tried to be helpful honoring my warranty....and failed miserably, "there's a pallet of 24GEL batteries , but you can't have one'.....makes me think they had a bad batch of them.....& I'd really looked forward to having that battery for its' life.....bummer.....
SO...Mr Booster,sir....I parked it for the year right after our return to home Thanksgiving week after our Texas trip (assuming fully charged) & inadvertently NOT had the charger on all winter....(maybe right at "0"F was the coldest it got).....could/would I have destroyed that poor battery ?.....which MIGHT assume it went from a fully charge state to something that might freeze in about , maybe 5 months?

[booster]

Originally Posted by gpdc

Booster....that's a crazy bad experience....I've blamed some of my "over the winter, and parked" house battery demises on my misuse of the master panel
'master " switch....ref: "I read the book" in an above post....now...I'm not so sure....keep thinking of the grp 25 Trojan gell I lost in maybe a year, year & a half which included a winter overlay......when I took that battery back to where I bought it their response was kinda nonchalant....." ya...twice the money, they expect to warranty 2 in a year" is what I got......the trip we were on allowed a stop at Trojan mission control in St Petes above Tampa....who tried to be helpful honoring my warranty....and failed miserably, "there's a pallet of 24GEL batteries , but you can't have one'.....makes me think they had a bad batch of them.....& I'd really looked forward to having that battery for its' life.....bummer.....
SO...Mr Booster,sir....I parked it for the year right after our return to home Thanksgiving week after our Texas trip (assuming fully charged) & inadvertently NOT had the charger on all winter....(maybe right at "0"F was the coldest it got).....could/would I have destroyed that poor battery ?.....which MIGHT assume it went from a fully charge state to something that might freeze in about , maybe 5 months?

I am also starting to wonder about the benefit of full time floating of the calcium lead, low water use, type batteries, but I am not sure that was the main issue with this battery as so many people are having trouble with the recent Interstate batteries.



I will be picking up an NAPA gp24 starting battery tomorrow, which is probably a similar chemistry as the DC24 Interstate as that is what all are using now in those types of batteries. This NAPA is made by East Penn and the Penn batteries made in the U.S. have stellar reviews compared to other batteries. Even the Johnson Controls models have been sliding in quality, it appears.


We will see how well this one holds up.

[gpdc]

time will tell....same for my new house bat......we'll see....