Batteries Not Achieving Full Charge (1 Viewer)

[sylvester1954]

Hi all, l know this may have been asked before on here but cant always see the wood for the trees! Have solar panel (100), have two leisure batteries (2nd one added in march). In France and non stop brilliant sunshine, don't run TV, fridge on gas, no other superfluous gadgets but charge not holding very well..most days at about 12/12.5 on both leisure and vehicle. Any suggestions why not maintaining higher charge please or am l just flapping?

 

[Jim]

How old is the first battery? Is it in good nick? A bad one could drag your new battery down so it will never perform very well.

 

[JJ]

Maybe your gauge is not giving you accurate readings...

Have you tried a different meter?

JJ

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[sylvester1954]

How old is the first battery? Is it in good nick? A bad one could drag your new battery down so it will never perform very well.

The van is 2012 and very low usage so l assume that it is the original. Had a habitation service weeks ago with a reputable motorhome place and no suggestion made that a battery wasn't up to scratch.

 

[pappajohn]

I would agree with both Jim and JJ.

Old battery and new battery noy good
use a multimeter on the battery posts to check, dont rely on inbuilt meters/gauges.

I just fitted a panel on my caravan.....single 110ah battery 100% charged and both controller display and standalone voltmeter both show 14.6v to 14.8v when panel active and 13.7v off charge.
An hour or so after dark shows 12.6v.

Put a load on (lights/pump etc) during sun hours and both displays drop to around 12.6v.

 

[Don Quixote]

1. What size are the batteries ?

2. Can you see that the solar controller is working ?

3. Is your Veh battery being charged via solar as well ?

12volts is sign battery is flat - 12.5 is very low if solar is working as should read 12.7 + by early afternoon.

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[sylvester1954]

Smart charger from solar picks on leisure battery first. Confident our daily travels keeps vehicle battery sufficiently topped up enough. The solar controller is working, today being slightly cloudy input varies between 1.7 up to 6.2 when sun is out so am confident that is operating

 

[pappajohn]

Smart charger from solar picks on leisure battery first. Confident our daily travels keeps vehicle battery sufficiently topped up enough. The solar controller is working, today being slightly cloudy input varies between 1.7 up to 6.2 when sun is out so am confident that is operating

If the battery is fully charged the contoller should show very low amps if no load is on the battery.

At 1.7 to 6.2amps it shows the battery either isnt charged or not holding a charge...assuming there is nothing turned on.

The amps display on mine shows as milliamps, as low as 50ma, when fully charged with no load.

 

[Don Quixote]

Well I would say that your old battery is dead and has also killed your new one. Why ? well you state "varies between 1.7 up to 6.2 when sun is out" that is more than enough to top up your 2 x batteries and therefore they should read 12.7 + ie: 12.9 or 13.00volts without any load on. In your first post your state "most days at about 12/12.5 on both leisure and vehicle", which points to dead batteries. Without doing a "load" test or using a "drop test meter" I cannot be 100% sure, but I'm 95% sure................

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[sylvester1954]

As always funsters on here have willingly offered useful advice and l thank you all. I still have 3weeks to go before returning and l hope that l can last that out before replenishing batteries. Fortunately the company who fitted the solar panel have offered to take a look when l return, till then will have to use more hook ups l guess. Thanks again