crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 My MH has two leisure batteries. I noticed that, after a period of sitting idle with periodic mains hook up, the Contol Pane showed 13.6v and 10% Capacity. After a 60 mile drive, it showed 30% Capacity. Is that normal and will it improve after a longer run? Or will hooking up to the mains for a few days sort it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 In our experience the Control Panels 'Battery capacity' tends to be accurate, providing they have not been bypassed by 'add-on wiring'. In your example I might question this if the battery was showing a realistic resting voltage, but it isn't, your quoted battery 'resting' voltage is abnormally high. 13.6v suggests that the battery is being charged, maybe by a Solar Panel?, or something is wrong as a resting VRLA battery will be about 13.0v and a conventional Antimony based battery about 12.7v. I suggest you disconnect the batteries and leave them isolated for at least 7 days and then run a load test similar to that they will experience in the vehicle. For example no point running a 3amp load test if your normal daily usage is several hours TV + Alde heating + Halogen bulbs + Inverter, etc each night. If the batteries pass the load test then the next most likely issue is with the way the vehicle has been wired for Solar? If the Solar is going direct to the batteries, the Control panel will be unaware of the charge being put into the batteries so it won't feature in any calculations. For example the Control display will be unaware that lots of amps have been put into the battery. 'Thinking' the battery is less charged than it actually is. Obviously it all depends on what Power Unit/Controller is fitted and what electrics have been added, if any? Based on the vehicle having been idle, the abnormally high resting voltage and the fact it rises to 30% when it charged on Alternator, then my guess would be the 'Capacity meter' is accurate. That the batteries are discharged for some reason which I would also hazard a guess at as being self discharged? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Thanks for that. The 13.6v was after the 60 mile run. Unfortunately, I didn't notice what it was before. The van is a AT Frontier so does have a solar panel and the only extra fitted is habitation aircon (not in use at the moment B-)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Does the Solar pass it's charge through the Sargent Power unit or go straight to the battery? If it goes straight to the battery the Sargent power unit may be unaware of all the power that Solar is putting in to the battery. If it was done at the AT factory it will probably use the Sargent recommended solution. If it was done at the Dealers it is often subcontracted out and unlikely to be as Sargent recommend. The control panel is telling you your battery is past it. The actual battery voltage may be much lower than the 13.6v you see on the panel. The display is probably showing the Solar charge voltage, not the battery voltage. Suggest you isolate the Solar Panel from the regulator, disconnect the battery, wait a week and then retest the voltage. If it is still showing 'full', then perform a load test. If the battery tests as good then get an Auto sparky to check how things have been wired up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Thanks. I'll get it checked out. The solar panel was fitted by Autotrail and the aircon by dealer (although that should involve only the mains circuit). Van is only 7 months old, so if batteries at fault, should be covered under warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 If it is that new, is there any chance it has shut down or power been disconnected so it has lost the values and it just needs to relearn them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Ah! Thanks for being so persistent. In January, I found that the vehicle battery had fully discharged. I managed to recharge, jump start and all has been OK since with it showing good readings. Do you think that would have had an impact? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Yes that may have set things back to zero, so I would guess it will just be a question of using the vehicle to give it time. However, be very cautious of the batteries that went flat, they rarely recover fully, if at all. So maybe the above applies anyway? If the batteries went flat is your Solar as efficient as it might be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 When the vehicle battery was flat, the leisure ones were not. I think something was draining the vehicle battery. Not sure if solar panel is very much use up here in winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Hello, I would guess you would be lucky to see much more than 0.5a between 10:30 and 14:30 during mid winter where you are, and that is talking about a sunny day!!! What we usually see is a situation with a good Solar setup is that the habitation batteries take what little there is and the Starter battery gets nothing, yet it is the Starter that usually has the bigger drain because of the Alarm, etc. On the poor Solar systems that have a battery theft device feeding the Starter battery, it goes the other way around with the Starter battery ok but the Habitation batteries discharged often to a damaging level. For next year you might be able to use the Power control unit (Sargent?) to change the priority for Solar to give its all to the Starter battery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Yes, and we don't get that many sunny days! 8-) That's a good idea about next winter which I'll try. But I'll maybe also just hook the electric cable up as it sits at home :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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