Trickle charge while storing

[KCBless]

We have our coach plugged into 15 amp shore power while in storage. I have both inverters turn off on the Vega touch. I have been visiting the coach almost daily and quite frequently the Vega touch indicates that the batteries are not being charged. If I wait there long enough they will eventually show a float charge occurring. They seem to be cycling back-and-forth between no charge occurring and a float charge. So my question is this normal for the power management system to cycle back-and-forth between showing a charge occurring and not showing a charge occurring?

[RubiconTrail]

Yes, I believe this is normal. I do not have the Vegatouch system, but this is how the ME-50 remote acts with the same Magnum inverter/charger you have. The Magnum is designed to stay on but stop charging when the batteries are at full charge and restart at float charge when the voltage dips below threshold. This indicates that your batteries are healthy and there are almost no draws on them.

[Woodchopper]

Originally Posted by KCBless

We have our coach plugged into 15 amp shore power while in storage. I have both inverters turn off on the Vega touch. I have been visiting the coach almost daily and quite frequently the Vega touch indicates that the batteries are not being charged. If I wait there long enough they will eventually show a float charge occurring. They seem to be cycling back-and-forth between no charge occurring and a float charge. So my question is this normal for the power management system to cycle back-and-forth between showing a charge occurring and not showing a charge occurring?

KCBless
On my coach that cycling is normal when the batteries are fully charged.

[buddy110]

This is a normal occurrence under any trickle charging environment

[757driver]

Yes this is normal for a Vegatouch equipped coach and is not user selectable as it is in coaches with a Magnum remote panel. But, after the first cycle of the chargers turning off your AGM batteries are not fully recharged after that (only back to about 96%).

On a Magnum remote panel this setting is called "Multi" and after the charger has been in Float for 4 hours the charger goes into Full mode (charger shuts off). The charger stays off until such time as the voltage on the Magnum display drops to something less than or equal to 12.6v and then goes through another 4 hour Float charge.

This Multi setting is fine for most flooded batteries where a complete charge is about 12.7v so as soon as the battery discharges a small amount the Float charge cycle will kick in for a 4 hour period and bring them back up to 100%.

For the Discover AGM batteries Entegra uses a complete charge is 12.9v so by the time the voltage display drops to 12.6v the batteries have dropped to about 88% SOC (State of Charge). When the charger kicks back in with a Float charge for 4 hours the batteries only come back up to about 96% SOC and the cycle repeats.

It would help if this trigger voltage was user programmable but unfortunately Magnum has not programmed this in. The other option is to set Final Charge to Float instead of Multi to 100% recharge your Discover AGM batteries especially if there is no other charge source such as solar panels. On Vegatouch equipped coaches you do not have the option of selecting Final Charge to Float.

[KCBless]

Originally Posted by 757driver

Yes this is normal for a Vegatouch equipped coach and is not user selectable as it is in coaches with a Magnum remote panel. But, after the first cycle of the chargers turning off your AGM batteries are not fully recharged after that (only back to about 96%).

On a Magnum remote panel this setting is called "Multi" and after the charger has been in Float for 4 hours the charger goes into Full mode (charger shuts off). The charger stays off until such time as the voltage on the Magnum display drops to something less than or equal to 12.6v and then goes through another 4 hour Float charge.

This Multi setting is fine for most flooded batteries where a complete charge is about 12.7v so as soon as the battery discharges a small amount the Float charge cycle will kick in for a 4 hour period and bring them back up to 100%.

For the Discover AGM batteries Entegra uses a complete charge is 12.9v so by the time the voltage display drops to 12.6v the batteries have dropped to about 88% SOC (State of Charge). When the charger kicks back in with a Float charge for 4 hours the batteries only come back up to about 96% SOC and the cycle repeats.

It would help if this trigger voltage was user programmable but unfortunately Magnum has not programmed this in. The other option is to set Final Charge to Float instead of Multi to 100% recharge your Discover AGM batteries especially if there is no other charge source such as solar panels. On Vegatouch equipped coaches you do not have the option of selecting Final Charge to Float.

As a matter of fact, it looks like my Float process is kicking in at 12.6. Thank you everyone for your comments on this as we learn more about the operation of our coach.

Merry Christmas to you and your families!