My Trimetric TM2030 & SC2030 maybe cooking battery

[elkski]

Ok so I suspect I have been cooking my batteries.
22 months ago I installed a 100 watt panel and the SC2030 and TM 2030 in my lance camper.. unfortunately I can only hold one 115 AHr battery.
I also installed a 1000 W Kasai crappy inverter converter but that is a different story . Lets just say the important fact is my converter portion failed so now I am charging only via solar. The converter seemed to fail last Dec. I'm not sure exactly when.

My problem is all of a sudden I get low voltage alarm and my battery is at 10.7 volts roughly. This first occurred This April in Zion NP. It was a chilly night and we ran the heater fan. I was happy to see we only took the capacity to 90%.. about normal for this much heater use.
Something happened during Breakfast.
All of the sudden the LED lights sorta blinked and then went dim.
all of sudden we get low battery alarm at 10.7 volts or so.
I think some short or something so I investigate but see nothing hot or melting in the battery compartment. I hit the disconnect on the positive side anyway. We drove on into the park and went on our angle landing hike. when back at lunch the battery seemed to recover some to low 12's V
I engaged breaker and we were getting a bit of a charge.
I wanted to drive to town then for new battery but I saw some chance it would work Anyway that night we are low in voltage again so no using heater. We did drive into the nearest Walmart. My 15 month Crown was a bit low on fluid... I have to pull out this heavy batter to check fluid levels so I dont .

fast forward to a few nights ago. and I hear beeping... the new Co/LP detector is beeping for low battery or maybe it was the trimetric but its alarm is set at 10 v. SO I look and decide to try some new settings.. but same thing the next night.. We did have some cloudy days prior to first alarm. Anyway I spend like 5 hours yesterday reading all the new bogart manuals and I am confused about all these setting as well as my problem. I sent a email to bogart yesterday fri noon but no reply.
I did do a history log and a the interesting things jump out. my H9 numbers were 199 for 4 previous cycles. Days % amp-hr charge... is this based on my input setting of battery size ? 120 Amp hr
Anyway I kept changing numbers and re powering on the unit yesterday and probably input 20-30 AMp hrs.. but right at sunset the low battery is beeping again... I go check and 10.7 volts..

The only parasitic amp draw is the .3 for CO/LP detector.. that is its spec and what I see on trimetric.

I am going to pull out the battery as it must be cooked.. it was a tad warm at sundown.. I did hear bubbling all day anytime it was charging... my maxx charge current from my 100 watt panel is 4.5 amps mostly 2.5 . but that is sometimes controlled by TM 2030.

I just don't understand all these settings... Maybe I don't know the best settings for bulk absorb and float for this walmart Everstart MAXX Premium.

I can get a replacement from Walmart but I must have some setting or other issue causing this.

Any ideas??
I will send a picture of my history log.

[elkski]

Oh I should add that my camper is separate from truck this past 3 weeks.
I see where 176 hours ago something changed. A few cloudy days???

I should post my initial settings. I do worry about being in L4 with p8 set at 15.

[elkski]

I have read so much from the Bogart support pages. I have down loaded the new manuals. You can definitely tell these were written by an engineer.
Like me. But I would suggest when they make revisions that they outline the changes that were made so it's easy to tell what's important to read again.
Would also be nice if they did some research on 20 or 30 batteries that we can buy at Costco and Walmart and Interstate and tested the proper settings for on the grid and boondocking.

I did read one place that if you're using mostly solar you should decrease your amp hour capacity of your battery by 50 - 75%. But they neglected to say if you needed to change your percent setting p2.

If you are in level 3 the battery will go into float if two conditions are met both your voltage as well as current dropping below 2% of your amp hour capacity for 20 seconds.
What happens if a cloud goes over your solar array?
Before I really start ripping this thing to shreds I will wait for a response from Bogart.

[BillJinOR]

Contact Bogart ( the maker of both) via email and they should provide the answer you need .. I have both emailed and called and got very knowledgeable help I don't think many use this setup but I've found it priced right and very good I have 2 sets of 400 watt panels (800 watts total) controlled by 2 sc controllers linked to the tm monitor that coordinates them both.

[cruzbill]

1x 100w solar panel = 5a x 5 hrs/day = 25 amp hours per day max. that's a small trickle charge at best and only as you are aware during full sun. That's enough to MAINTAIN your battery but doesn't really allow you to use any loads' the furnace is a battery killer. Also, turn off your OTA TV antenna amplifier, its a silent battery killer. You need to fix your converter.

Mighty Mini Compact AC/DC Power Distribution Panel

[1bigmess]

For the problem you are experiencing, I have no help for you. I can only share my experience regarding solar energy use.

When I was staying in the desert one winter outside of Tucson AZ, I had 200 watts of solar for the house batteries. I could recharge the house batteries, two GC-2s, from around 12.1 volts back to fully charged again if all of the following were in place:

• No clouds, or very clear skies
• I moved the panel set so that it was pointed mostly right at the sun as the sun moved through the sky
• I was very careful with energy use during the day so the batteries could have all or most of the solar energy to recharge

I have a small travel trailer, and have a separate battery and solar panel to run things like my laptop, charge my cell phone, etc. If the furnace came on at night, then the batteries could easily get drawn down to around 50% SoC, maybe a little less, and then it was very important to make sure they had the chance to recharge.

Does your 100 watts of solar tilt up, or are they mounted flat? Flat mounted is still useful, but they won't ever be able to collect all the energy they could capture if tilted and aimed properly for the location and time of year.

Maybe consider that a higher quality battery would perform better not only from a deep discharge standpoint, but also a recharging standpoint? Sure, lead acid batteries aren't rocket science any more, but starting out with higher quality might get better results. Until it's ruled out, the battery is either the problem, or a large part of it IMO aside from the low charging current.

[elkski]

I think I get about 10 hours of sun.. but it seems like the TM 2030 is limiting the current from max I ever think my panels produce of 4 a to 2 mostly.

I did pull the battery.. no plates showing.. SG 1.275 or more? But this is before I added a liter to top off the cells I will recheck SG in all the cells in a few hours. but V only 11.7 v??
Before removing the heavy battery from its tight box at should height I checked and current is .1A with my fluke in line with the negative terminal.

I know such low amperage is not optimal to charge a battery... but is it enough to burn one up?

beside not wanting to keep having to change batteries I want a dependable system.

[elkski]

I go check all cells.. I suck and pump back in 4-5 times to mix more.. 5 cells read 1.225+ and one is a dog.. at lower than 1.1 .
WHat are the chances of 2 batteries of different brands losing a cell in 2 months?
Does this lessen the chance that my solar charging circuit is damaging the cell or batteries? Does it matter if it is the cell nearest the + post?

Happy fathers day to everyone.

[1bigmess]

Walmart battery? Sure the charge controller is the problem?

[elkski]

I'm not sure how much difference there is in batteries from crown or Walmart? Do you? I did use AutoZone batteries for years on trolling motors and they usually have me 3-4 seasons and it's nice to have many stores and warranty.

[BillJinOR]

Truthfully, the charging parameters that your controller designed to be working on are deep cycle , think ...golf cart, batteries. Not the Walmart "trolling/ marine " batteries that I think you have. That's why you can't find them on the controllers settings list ! True deep cycles work much better in the deep charge / drain cycles
Marine batteries aren't up to the task as well they are only modified starting battery
I would Read up on deep cycle batteries buy some good mid range ones and go from there
Batteries are the heart of the system

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by elkski

I'm not sure how much difference there is in batteries from crown or Walmart? Do you?

If you think you can get Crown branded quality at Walmart branded prices, then by all means continue to do as you have been. It's all your money, and now, frustration, and yours alone.

[elkski]

I did realize that the walmart battery wasn't a true deep cycle. I guess they dont sell just deep cycle without starting.

They did put it on the charger tester for an hour and gave me a free battery.

the overall battery may be the problem.?? When I fist installed my solar system I did go an hour out of my way to get what I was told was a crown battery but it didn't say crown on it? But I choose a Korean or Chinese made inverter so It appears I may have made several mistakes all of which has led me to quite a bit of frustration and poor performance.
But its not like Crown batteries are easy to find.. I called my Norther Utah crown place and they said since it was 15 months old to bad.. Then the stupid crown website makes you send in an Email to find a distributor I just made the decision to buy a battery and get back to camping with my Lady guest.

I'm not as learned as some of you old farts.

I just cant believe both batteries seemed to fail in the same manor but just going to 10.5 volts so fast under any type of load. I still worry some setting is not correct.

Is there some website where they took any batteries apart to see the difference or tested several types.

[BillJinOR]

Rather than solar it could also be your 12 volt charger that's not right.
As far as batteries you don't need crown batteries .. Trojan , Interstate and several others make good true deep cell batteries
Batteries are like ford and Chevy .. You'll find hard core fans and detractors Trojan has the reputation of being very good ... Also expensive and until you get it figured out what killed your other ones you might be cost conscious about trashing another set. Taking batteries esp those walmarts below about 60 % overnight will kill them ... Anything below 12 volts is not good .also overcharging ( boiling although they aren't really boiling) and losing the fluid to below the plates and not filling in time with distilled water can also but you didn't have that?
Since they gave you replacement heck , I'd use that and keep a better eye on maint and charge level .. Don't go below 12 volts on the trimetric and see what happens normally one battery will be depleted esp with furnace use as you describe