Community Forums

nuckels11 · 08-04-2012, 12:44 PM

Can anyone give some insight as to why water would form on the top of the house batteries? This has happened twice. The first time when we were traveling. We dried them off and aired out the bay, but noticed that there was some rust forming in the battery tray. When we returned home we removed the battery tray and had it re-coated and the bay cleaned. The batteries were out of the coach for about 2 weeks while we were waiting for the re-coat to be done. After replacing the battery tray and reinstalling the batteries we did an equalization process on the batteries. A few days later we noticed that an excessive amount of water puddles had again formed on the top of the batteries. Neither incident is related to weather or road conditions. The first time we had been parked for more than a week in the SoCal desert and the second we were home where the coach is stored in a covered area. The only common element is that we had done the 'equalization' process on the batteries a few days prior and then placed the inverter in the float mode. The batteries haven't been utilized as the sole power source since we have always been connected to a 120 V land line source. Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks for your help.

RickO · 08-04-2012, 01:13 PM

What invetere/charger do you have. The Dimensions units are infamous for over charging if their current limit is left at the 25 amp factory default. Mine cooked two sets of batteries before my dealer figured this out.

Many folks have had good luck adding mineral oil to each cell to minimize the boiling and out gassing.

Rick

HeapBigEngin · 08-04-2012, 01:24 PM

A couple thoughts. First, are you over-filling the batteries? Charging produces both normal heat and "bubbles". The heated electrolyte needs some room for expansion, and the bubling sometimes can force that fluid up and past the caps if the cells are too full. Second, an overcharging condition in your battery charger/inverter system could easily produce excessive heat, bubbling and resultant fluid loss. You need to check that out if you don't have an over-fill condition. Third, extended charging periods can sometimes produce this same situation, although this usually long-term results in eventually "drying out" the cells.

If you are generating rust/corrosion in your bay, you might want to do a forum search here re adding mineral oil to your batteries, as RickO mentioned. Yes, mineral oil. I have done so, as others, and have absolutely eliminated corrosion within our coach battery bay. Electrolyte loss is also minimal, and all 6 (4 house/2 chassis) batteries perform great. Just my experience...

Hopefully some other folks much more knowledgeable than I will chime in. PLEASE let us know what you find out....thanks!

nuckels11 · 08-04-2012, 03:56 PM

Ricko, Thanks for the quick response. Our inverter/converter is a Magnum Energy ME2012.

nuckels11 · 08-04-2012, 04:01 PM

HeapBigEngin, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll continue my search, but haven't seen anything yet that mimmics our situation. When you say 'mineral oil' is is just the stuff you get at the drug store or is there a specific product? I'll look for the mineral oil solution to the rust issue, do you know how much mineral oil is used - a drop or teaspoon, etc.?

RickO · 08-04-2012, 04:25 PM

I just looked over the manual for your inverter and I'm left with just two thoughts:

1) the unit is working properly but your charge rate (factory set at 100%) is too high for your set up and should be cranked down a bit.

2) the equalization process over heats your batteries a bit and boiled the water that you're seeing on top of the batteries.

Have you seen any faults displayed on your inverter LED?

If it were me, I would lower the charge rate to about 90%, add a couple of ounces of mineral oil to each cell... without over filling... and just keep an eye on the batteries to make sure you're getting a sufficient charge but not over cooking them during normal charging cycle.

Best of luck.

Rick

justaroamer · 08-04-2012, 04:40 PM

What are the age of the batteries? Are they all of the same age?
Never mix old and new batteries. Replace the group as they are a group.
When you had them out of the coach, did you have them checked with load or battery condition test?
Is your battery isolator working properly? Be sure to test not only coach batteries, but also chassis batteries.
One bad or near dead battery in the charging system will cause charge to all causing excess charge to the good batteries, thus boil them trying to charge the crippled one in the group/bank.
Just some thoughts!

HeapBigEngin · 08-04-2012, 09:32 PM

Nuckels11....justaroamer makes excellent points re mixing old & new batts and having a near dead battery in your bank, causing an overcharging condition.

Re the mineral oil, I bought mine at Walmart. Make sure it's natural mineral oil, not baby oil. Re amount, I have the info that I used in the coach....and the coach is some distance away at our storage facility right now. Suggest you do a forum search here....there is much info on quantity, procedure, oil type, etc. Not everybody believes in it, but it definitely works for me. Corrosion has virtually been eliminated in our battery bay, and electrolyte loss in minimal. Hope this helps....

powerboatr · 08-04-2012, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuckels11

Ricko, Thanks for the quick response. Our inverter/converter is a Magnum Energy ME2012.

i will add my magnum set up during equalization SCARES the you know what out of me
volts climb to 16 and the batteries get to warm for my comfort.
magnum does not really have a set guide for when they need to be equalized, sort of shooting in the dark regarding the process
last time i to had a large build up of liquid and wet stuff
i have since resided to not equalize them ever again while we are in the rv "living"
i have to add water about every 8 weeks, not alot mind you, about 2 oz per cell
i think the charger still is over charging

Mr_D · 08-04-2012, 11:34 PM

I put 4 oz of mineral oil in each cell of our OEM Interstate U-2200's in 2004. They came in the rig in 2002. I ran them for just a few months short of 10 years. I NEVER ran an equalizing charge on them in the entire time I had them. I did put some chemical equalizer that I got at Harbor Freight in them. No idea if that was why they lasted so long though.

nuckels11 · 08-11-2012, 11:09 AM

First, thanks to all of you with the great suggestions and the information on our problem with excessive water forming on the top of our house batteries. We tried many of your suggestions. We checked the water level in each battery cell and tested the contents - the water level and the electrolyte measurements were fairly consistent. There were a couple of cells which were on the edge between the 'green' and 'white' indicators, but none in the 'red'. We ran the equalization process and then checked the cells again - the inverter/converter was set at the factory default of 100%. The readings didn't change much, but there was moisture on the top of the batteries. We dropped the charging rate down to 70% and ran the equalization process, but still had some boilover. We checked the battery caps and found some seapage around the rubber washers. We, unsuccessfully, tried to find replacement caps and washers. We checked with a battery place and they said that the batteries were old and getting weak - 7 years. We soaked the existing battery caps in baking soda solution to get rid of any hidden blockages and lowered the charge setting on the converter/inverter to 50% and ran the equalization process again. The readings on the cells all look boarderline 'good' and so far we haven't seen any water puddling on the top of the batteries. We didn't add any water at this time or use mineral oil. Our conclusion is that the equalization process with the converter/inverter charge setting at 100% was over-charging the batteries and causing the boilover, especially, since we did find a couple of cells that were just outside the norm. We will continue to monitor them closely and hope to get another year or so on the existing batteries before we have to replace them. Thanks again for all your help, and we hope this may be of use to someone else.

NeilV · 08-14-2012, 08:03 AM

Seven years old and they are starting to give you over boiling issues then it may just be time to replace them. The couple of boderline cells especially if they are in just one battery can cause the charger to over cook all the other batteries as those two cells never come to 100%.

Just had to replace both house batteries as I had one go bad and the warranty would only replace one in the set. Unfortunately that caused the charger to overcharge the new battery while waiting for the older one to come to full charge. The new one failed in short time which now caused the old one to overcook and fail also. Out of warranty for the old one so I went with another brand to see if I can get more than 2 years in from a set in semi-tropical Florida.

I have the 60 amp Progessive Dimensions IntellPower with the Charge Wizard which I installed last year so it should not be due to old charger technology. Before I had the infamous Magnatech.

justaroamer · 08-14-2012, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilV

Seven years old and they are starting to give you over boiling issues then it may just be time to replace them. The couple of boderline cells especially if they are in just one battery can cause the charger to over cook all the other batteries as those two cells never come to 100%.

Just had to replace both house batteries as I had one go bad and the warranty would only replace one in the set. Unfortunately that caused the charger to overcharge the new battery while waiting for the older one to come to full charge. The new one failed in short time which now caused the old one to overcook and fail also. Out of warranty for the old one so I went with another brand to see if I can get more than 2 years in from a set in semi-tropical Florida.

I have the 60 amp Progessive Dimensions IntellPower with the Charge Wizard which I installed last year so it should not be due to old charger technology. Before I had the infamous Magnatech.

Just what I said, thanks for the support!
Get AGMs and loose the maintenance and replace any RV Battery in 5 years, so you have worry free trips and good batteries.