house battery problem

[zman62]

My house batteries in my 07 Camelot are 1 year old. They seem to be over charging is my thought. They continue to push water out the top. The sides are now bulging. It sits in my shop plugged in when not in use. After being plugged in for a couple of hours it shows that its not charging as though its fully charged. I take that to mean the charger is shutting off as it should when fully charged??
Ideas????

[deandec]

Check the voltage at the batteries while being charged by putting a voltmeter on the battery main terminals.

Bulk and Absorbtion charging is done at about 14.4 to 14.6 volts. Float charging should be around 13.6 volts and is the final stage in a multi-stage inverter/charger which you likely have on board.

It does seem that something is wrong with your batteries, whether caused by overcharging or dead cells or something because they are bulging. Water coming out of the caps on a wet cell may mean that there has been too much water added or the battery is defective or the charger is overcharging the batteries.

Experts will be along later to add more to the above.

[zman62]

No one else has any input on this?? Someone out there must have delt with this in the past..Where are all those geniuses that have all the answers...LOL

[Dave78Chief]

To start, Dean gave you the basics of what you need to look at. It sounds as if your charging system is staying at greater than 14.1 volts and overcharging your battery bank. At this point your batteries may no longer be good. A shorted cell in one battery can cause this and if the bad battery is not removed from the system it results in overcharging the remaining batteries. A defective charger (stays in bulk charge mode) can also cause this. First step is to get your batteries checked. However, if they are bulging then you can pretty well but they are no longer any good. Once you have a known good battery system, then you can determine if the charging system is working correctly.

Dave

[Diplomat Don]

zman62.....I had similar issues for several years. I was always boiling off water. When I replaced the batteries last year, I called Magnum (your inverter/charger manufacturer) and asked them to give me the correct settings. My charger was way off and was trying to charge the batteries too qickly. The settings are adjusted on your wall panel. Call Magnum and tell them what batteries you have, including the amp hour ratings and they'll tell you what you need to do to make the adjustments.

[HeapBigEngin]

I agree with Don. You really need to verify that your remote control panel (assuming you have one) for your inverter/charger is "set up" correctly for the number and type of batteries you have and how they are connected. According to the manual for my Freedom inverter/charger system, battery type and battery bank capacity (Amp-Hours) are very critical charging parameter and charging value settings. Incorrect settings on either may damage the batteries. Been my experience that bulging batteries usually result from too much internal pressure or from excessive heat.... the former oftentimes found in frozen, undercharged/dead batteries and the latter in over-charged batteries. Yours sounds to me to be the latter.

Last Fall, I had need for a local travelling RV "guru" to come out and reprogram our coach's satellite system from Dish to DirecTV. During her stay, she mentioned that one of the most common electrical concerns she sees in RV's is overcharged batteries and the electrical gremlins that can result. She also said that most of the time, the remotes are not adjusted correctly for the batteries installed in the coach. After she left, I immediately double-checked our settings...all OK. Something you might want to check. Please let us know what you find out...Thanks!

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

All good information mentioned. One more thing though when you say your batteries are only 1 year old, did you check the manufacture date to determine this or is it based on when you purchased them. When purchasing batteries only go by the date stamped or printed on the batteries. Many times you'll find batteries on the shelf that are 2 to 3 years old already. Also, if you haven't done so be sure and check the batteries properly by load testing them.

[Dunner]

I got a year old Diehard from Sears once. I didn't know it when I bought it and after it failed within a year, I took it back. They tried to pro-rate it and I said: "It was a year old when you sold it to me." They tried to say that they periodically put them on their charger. I looked and all that was on their charger were old, corroded batteries. I got a full refund.

[moisheh]

A battery with a dead short will give the same symptoms.

[wa8yxm]

If all cells are boiling, then odds are you have a converter issue: Put a digital volt meter on the line and give us the voltage, to the nearest 10th of if the meter does it hundreth of a volt.. IE: 14.9 (Which by the way is too high)

If there is ONE cell not boiling, you have a shorted cell. (or 2 or 3)

[zman62]

Thanks guys! I will get some voltage readings and double check the setting on the control panel. I honestly didn't know that those setting could be changed. Should be interesting to see where they are set. Thanks again!!

[Dave78Chief]

Diplomat Don indicated you should have a Magnum Inverter/Charger. Their website is at Mobile Power Inverter/Chargers and has links to the manuals and such for their products. If you do not have the manual for your unit then download it from there. You would need to know which one you have. From first glance, they seem to have fairly decent manuals.

Dave

[zman62]

I noticed that what appears to have been the temp sensor is broken and not connected. From what I read that will cause the batteries to overcharge (or could).

[pipedream2]

The temperature senser is for sure the problem that would boil batteries ...the times for your charging stages is controlled partially by temperature of the batteries.On my Magnum. the sensor is a ring teminal on one of the positive battery terminal (my old xantrac had a 3 inch square pad that was between two batteries)and can be read inside on the panel under the Tech menu button.if they where boiled out a few times and are bulging they are either toast or very limited capacity now.