Connecting an inverter to a battery, right or wrong way? (2 Viewers)

Welsh girl

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Following on from the battery thread reminded me to ask this instead of hi jacking their thread.
I connect the red one first then the black one to our battery, I always get a spark when connecting the black one that way especially when it's fully charged.
We use a 300w inverter occasionally which we connect to a battery in the rear of the van we have specifically for the electric beds that are in our van.
That one is only charged by the engine battery.
The 2 leisure batteries under the driver seat are charged up by solar and are in a seperate system.
Am I doing it wrong?
 
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JJ

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I believe you are doing it correctly and may I suggest that I think the spark is because the inverter immediately "grabs" some electricity on connection...

No doubt cleverer Funsters will be along later.


Why are you using the engine battery for the inverter rather than the leisure ones or is the battery in the rear only for lifting the bed?


JJ :Cool:
 
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scotjimland

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Whether you connect pos. or neg. first will make no odds.. you will get a spark ..

this is not only bad practice but also dangerous.. there is a risk of explosion if the battery is or has just stopped gassing..

I would advise to have it installed permanently to your leisure batteries, with an inline fuse next to the battery .. if unsure seek advice or have it done by a qualified electrician.

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Welsh girl

Welsh girl

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I believe you are doing it correctly and may I suggest that I think the spark is because the inverter immediately "grabs" some electricity on connection...

No doubt cleverer Funsters will be along later.


Why are you using the engine battery for the inverter rather than the leisure ones or is the battery in the rear only for lifting the bed?


Yes the battery in the rear is solely for the lifting of the bed. We don't touch the starter battery.
 

JJ

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Remember inverters draw current all the time when connected whether they are supplying A/C or not... keeping one connected permantly might mean you get stuck in bed...:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

JJ :Cool:
 
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Welsh girl

Welsh girl

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Whether you connect pos. or neg. first will make no odds.. you will get a spark ..

this is not only bad practice but also dangerous.. there is a risk of explosion if the battery is or has just stopped gassing..

I would advise to have it installed permanently to your leisure batteries, with an inline fuse next to the battery .. if unsure seek advice or have it done by a qualified electrician.

Thanks for that Jim, I didn't realise that could happen.
We have 2 lots of connections for this inverter.
One which an auto electrician installed for us to enable us to use the 2 leisure batteries with an inline fuse.
Crocodile clips which we use ourselves to clip to the rear battery as mentioned.
Using the both we are able to manage longer without ehu.
We haven't enough solar to keep the 2 leisure batteries topped up.

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Welsh girl

Welsh girl

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Remember inverters draw current all the time when connected whether they are supplying A/C or not... keeping one connected permantly might mean you get stuck in bed...:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

JJ :Cool:

We only connect in the evening to watch the humax freesat recordings.
The tv is connected via 12v sockets.
We disconnect otherwise.
We sometimes use it to charge our electric bike batteries when we can't get ehu.
We realise that once depleted we have to wait till our next run out to charge it, or run the engine but that's not always possible.

ps. We never use the electric beds, only the battery.
 
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scotjimland

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Thanks for that Jim, I didn't realise that could happen.
We have 2 lots of connections for this inverter.
One which an auto electrician installed for us to enable us to use the 2 leisure batteries with an inline fuse.
Crocodile clips which we use ourselves to clip to the rear battery as mentioned.
Using the both we are able to manage longer without ehu.
We haven't enough solar to keep the 2 leisure batteries topped up.

Yes.. batteries give off Hydrogen gas when charging .. there have been many accidents with exploding batteries.. as you can appreciate.. .very dangerous, you don't want burning acid flying into your face ..

Without looking it's hard to suggest the best way forward.. perhaps the easiest way is to have another inverter connected to rear battery just for the bed.. and as JJ mentioned.. when not in use have it switched off or pull the fuse.
 

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