rkortes
Citrus Heighs, CA
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Joined: 08/15/2006
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Great info on RV batteries: Battery Report
Truck - 2005 GMC 3500 SRW Duramax/Ali
Camper - 2006 Arctic Fox 990
The Journey Is The Destination!
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Reddog1
El Dorado, CA
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Joined: 03/09/2004
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A good report, and well written. I suggest using care when using this information for non-flooded wet cell batteries. The author's bias for the flooded wet cells is obvious to me, then maybe his research and experience is different from mine.
Wayne
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Matthew_B
The boonies near Dallas, Oregon
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Joined: 08/18/2005
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The information on converters is out of date. Any of the good three stage converters, namely WFCO, Iota/Progressive Dynamics and Xantrax, do better than a three stage battery charger.
The three stage battery charger algorithms do not include the consideration that there is a house load on the battery too. The battery chargers are design for charging a battery and that's it. They won't float unless there is no house load. They also tend to "pulse," charging the battery up then letting the load bring it down again, and then repeat.
The converters are designed for both charging and supplying the house load. They will all float at 13.2V once the battery is charged even with heavy house loads on.
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bigfootford
Fair Oaks, California
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Joined: 12/03/2002
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Am I missing something here???? That link goes to the 12 volt side of life....Is that what you guys are talking about???
The article was last updated in 2002...Lot's of things have changed since then. The AGM's were just coming into the RV world, many in the RV world were very Leary of them especially with the up and coming multi-stage converters PD WFCO etc.
There is lots of up dated info regarding battery maintenance and converters out there now.
The following is at the bottom of page 1. of the 12 volt side of life.
This page last updated on March 3, 2002
© 1999 Mark S. Nemeth
Jim
94 F-250 ex cab,460, E40D tranny,airbags w/pump,bilstein shocks, 2000 Bigfoot 9.6 2500 camper, Progressive Dynamics 9260, Trimetric monitor and an eu2000i honda genny.
Wife and Molly- Ausie,Queensland healer
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jimh425
Western WA
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Joined: 06/11/2006
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The page says last updated 2002...I'd call that out of date! 
'06 F350 Lariat Supercab SRW, 6.0 PSD 4x4 Long Bed, Intake Elbow, Walker Big Truck Muffler. '06 Host Rainer 950 Double Slide, Fastguns. Firestone Air Bags, Rancho 9000s, Vision 19.5s with Hankook DH-01 245s, Energy Suspension bump stops.
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MNtundraRet
Bloomington, MN
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Joined: 12/06/2007
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The article does refer to 3-stage chargers being the built-in coverter/3-stage charger or a portable 3-stage charger. There is a better portable multistage speed charger on the market since the article was written. It will vary charging voltage, and amperage-rate, up or down based on battery needs, along with desulfation mode when needed, and equalization mode. It ultimately will charge batteries faster, without chance of overcharging the batteries. The 3-stage charger would go into bulk-mode (14.6 volts & 45 amps or more, dependant on model) until about 90% charge, the normal mode (13.6 volts & around 10 to 15 amps), until equalization near 100%. They then go into float mode (13.2 volts) until battery voltage drops enough to start the process again.
There may well be a built-in converter/multistage charger doing the same thing on the market by now. I have not been looking for one. I am happy with my WFCO converter/45-amp 3-stage charger, and my Schumacher #SC-12000A Speed Charger. I believe the author's bias on flooded wet cells was mainly for the lower price.
Mark
Mark & Jan "Old age & treachery win over youth & enthusiasm"
2003 Fleetwood Jamboree 29
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Lots of Stuff
WA. USA
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Joined: 10/18/2003
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The 12 side of life is good over all but I have to disigree with this statement:
"You may also see batteries rated with a Reserve Capacity. RC is the number of minutes a new, fully charged battery at 80 degrees F. will sustain a discharge load of 25 amps to a cut-off voltage of 1.75 volts per cell (10.5V on 12V battery). This battery rating measures more of a continuous load on the battery. For RV use, this rating is a little less useful, as the common loads that RV use puts on a battery are a lot less than that 25 amp load used to determine RC."
In my view RC is the most important rating to look for when selecting a Camper house battery. A higher RC rating is the best way to tell if the battery your looking at is better for running your camper than another one.
Drawing a low amperage load over time is what house batteries are all about.
This link has a better explanation of Reserve Capacity
battery university
DG
03 Chevy Silverado Regular Cab 2500HD 4X4 Duramax
04 Lance Lite 915
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bigfootford
Fair Oaks, California
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MNtundraRet wrote: I believe the author's bias on flooded wet cells was mainly for the lower price.
Mark
The author had no experience with AGM's....Nor had many other RV'ers at that time.
Even now, most Converter Mfg's have not fully lassoed the differences.
Jim
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sleepy
Oak Ridge,Tennessee
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Joined: 04/07/2003
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I try to get the latest info... I now have aquired a pretty good background... with Bigfootford, Reddog1, and others from the forum helping me... and I am still searching all of the time for the latest and best information.
What would I have learned for my latest project from a 2002 report that would help me on my current project?
I just installed two 100W solar Panels from AMSolar.com and a Hilotrope controller.
I wrote to AMSolar on Nov 2, 2009 and asked:
I have optima AGM batteries... do I need to observe any special settings with them... can I charge them to 14.8 volts? or should I even want to?
Note... Optima says that the upper range for charging my Group 31 Yellow Top batteries is 14.8 Volts.
Their answer:
Chet,
You can dial up the set point voltage to 14.8. That would also bring the "shore power" or float voltage up to 13.6. The charging spec's for the Optima batteries have a very wide range. We have the set point voltage set for what the Lifeline designer recommends for their batteries. We started seeing higher voltages listed in their manual and when we brought this to the attention of the designer he was very concerned and said that he would have corrected right away. We set our HPV-22B to 14.4V bulk/taper and 13.2V float. Life line now recommends 14.2-14.4 bulk/taper and 13.2-13.4 float and no equalization charge.
Dave Reuter
dave@amsolar.com
2003 Lance 1161 Camione Chateau,/slideout/solar cells/propane generator/Sat dish/2 Fantastic Fans model 6150/AC/winter package
AirFoil, Trimetric, LED lights
2003GMC K3500 LT/Crewcab/duramax diesel/allison/dually/4x4/OnStar/front reciever mounted spare
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rkortes
Citrus Heighs, CA
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Joined: 08/15/2006
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Man, is everyone driving a truck camper an electrical engineer?!
You guys are right... the article is outdated. I think I learned more from your responses than the article itself.... Thanks!!
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