Batteries boiling off water July 14, 2017, 06:42:54 pm SITUATION: · HPV 22B solar charger· 3 – 85 w solar panels, 1 of which gets about 4 hours of morning sun· I always plug in to shore power at my storage unit and set the charger on “shore power” as opposed to “dry camp”· I picked up the LD yesterday and noticed on the LinkLite that the bats were down to 74% of charge. At home I plugged in and charging began.· Checking the bats, they took about 1/3 gal. of distilled water. Normally, I only have to add a small amt of water· Returning to storage and after plugging in I noticed there was no power. I assume the breaker was tripped and reported so to mgr. Don’t know how long power had been off, but long enough for the bats to get pretty low. I had not checked the LD for 3-4 weeks. QUESTIONS: · Could the batteries have been damaged considering how low the water got? Should I check with a hydrometer?· What caused so much water to “boil off” so fast over the last few weeks? This has never happened before. Power is still off so I switched to “dry camp” to see if the exposed panel will charge the batteries.Chris
Re: Batteries boiling off water Reply #1 – July 15, 2017, 12:06:20 am Chris, unfortunately that charge controller is not automatic, so determining if the batteries are properly charging up and maintaining a charge without excessive loss of electrolyte will require some one-on-one attention to the process. If you can park it at home so you can monitor it frequently over several hours and a couple of days, it will be easier to diagnose if your batteries are failing, or if it some other issue. If your Link-Lite says you have reached 100%, you should at that time switch to 'shore power' mode to see if charge holds up. Check the Link-Lite at night to see if there are any phantom loads that could be an issue.Steve
Re: Batteries boiling off water Reply #2 – July 15, 2017, 12:23:54 pm Quote from: Steve - July 15, 2017, 12:06:20 amChris, unfortunately that charge controller is not automatic, so determining if the batteries are properly charging up and maintaining a charge without excessive loss of electrolyte will require some one-on-one attention to the process. If you can park it at home so you can monitor it frequently over several hours and a couple of days, it will be easier to diagnose if your batteries are failing, or if it some other issue. If your Link-Lite says you have reached 100%, you should at that time switch to 'shore power' mode to see if charge holds up. Check the Link-Lite at night to see if there are any phantom loads that could be an issue.SteveThanks, Steve. I just found the tripped breaker and got power going. Seems the facility's manager could not find it. It's charging and I will check levels tomorrow. I'm still curious as to what caused the battery water loss when the power was off. Any thoughts?Chris