Habitation Battery failing to charge (1 Viewer)

[Saltings]

Hi,have just joined the forum and am hoping someone has the answer to this prob.

Model is a Chasson C626 Flash '14 Reg.with 110 A Habitation battery. During winter of '15-'16 solar panel kept this fully charged. This last winter there was no charge at all. Ducato motor batt. reads 11.8v, hab. battery 1.88v, solar cells 21 vs.

Took it to our local dealer and they said oold battery had a dead cell (as it is a sealed battery I fail to know how they new). Changed this for new battery (£200) but that is now also reading 1.8v (and I am £200 lighter). Kept old battery and charged it with my Cetek and it has been reading a constant 13.3vs for the last week.So it seems totally healthy.

Firstly has anyone any idea what is causing the problem(s) and secondly how do you remove the front seat in the Chasson to be able to charge the battery! have thought of taking the fuse out from the wire that leads to the +ive terminal and then adding the -ive contact to metal that leads to the -ive terminal.

But the thought of leaving this on when the Cetek becomes warm during the early stages of charging inside such an expensive vehicle makes me shudder!
Help would be appreciated - am sure it is something simple and hundreds have had the same problem no doubt.

Thanks for reading this folks.

 

[glenn2926]

Hi, on my Chausson the batteries are not under the front seats. The vehicle battery is under the floor in front of the left hand front seat and the leisure battery under the seat behind the right hand front seat. I did have the vehicle battery become discharged as I thought it was kept charged whilst on hook up, but it wasn't. I have since fitted a battery master to fix this. Have you tried leaving the van on hook up for a few days? This would charge your leisure battery.

 

[pappajohn]

How are you checking voltages ?
Vans control panel or a multimeter.

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[Saltings]

Multimeter - vans control panel has no charge. Apparently it cuts out when charge is lower than 10 vs.

 

[TerryL]

@Saltings can you confirm both batteries flat, it's not clear in your original post.

The habitation battery is normally charged by the solar panel so it going flat means the panel isn't doing it's job. Assuming it's not covered up, looks like either a break in the supply cable (fuse blown?) from the solar panel to the regulator or from regulator to the battery. As you have a quite new van the solar panel possibly feeds directly into your van's habitation controller rather than to a regulator; sorry not an expert on that. Be careful messing with the unregulated output of the solar panel, it's at a higher voltage and (should be) active all the time the panel is receiving sunlight, even on a dull day.

The vehicle battery is situated under the floor between the front seats, should be easy to get to but Fiat don't recommend charging it directly without disconnecting from the vehicle. From what you say you've got some sort of system that keeps the vehicle battery topped up, either built into the van system or a separate "Battery Master" type gadget, from the excess charge produced by the solar panel once the habitation battery is charged. No charge to hab battery = no charge to vehicle battery and it doesn't take all that long for the batteries to go flat - there's always a small drain of some kind unless the batteries are disconnected.

I know this doesn't solve your problem but hopefully helps you understand how it works and give you some clues. Your "old" battery may well appear to be holding it's charge for now but being fully discharged and left that way for a while usually seriously damages it and it will never perform properly in the future, in case you were thinking of installing it as a second habitation/leisure battery.

 

[TerryL]

See you've got another thread running on this subject.

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[Saltings]

Hi Terry,
Thanks foir your reply.
I have posted the same thread in three places, as I am a new member and thought scattering the seeds would at least mean some falls on fertile soil! I have not been disappointed.
To answer your post, our habitation and Ducato battery are both charged by the solar panel. According to our handbook what happens is the Solar Controller firstly ensures the motor battery is charged to a correct level and then switches to charging both so in effect it will charge the habitation battery. As the voltage from the cells is reading 21 vs it should be charging both.
I will see if by connecting the mains lead it increases the voltage across the Ducato battery terminals. That way we will know if that part of the wiring is functioning correctly.
It is many ways a question of eliminating certain elements.
With regards to Reconing the battery after one has gone totally flat, I understood that the Cetek charger helped to get rid of the sulphate build up on the plates. Perhaps I am wrong?

Thanks for trying to help - it must be difficult trying to image problems by mail!

 

[TerryL]

Probably better to only post on one (relevant) thread, you'll get all the replies you need believe me.

I understand a good Cetek charger can often revive a "dead" battery but never tried it myself. I've got a battery-to-battery charger which looks after everything in a similar way just fine.

 

[Saltings]

Thanks Terry

Will bear that in mind if I have other questions to ask - hopefully not as demanding as this problem!

I used my Cetek charger on our totally dead Volvo battery and that has been great ever since, so am keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers.

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[Saltings]

Hi Terry

To clarify for you the motor battery is fine reading 12.3 vs and 14.4 when running (starts the Ducato 1st time no probs.) The habitation battery is the big problem. At present I have it on ehu as well as in full sun for the cells. It was reading 1.88 yesterday a.m. but is reading 1.83 this morning so the cells are definitely not charging the hab battery.

 

[Freeloader]

Hi Terry

As you have a dual solar charger what is the percentage of charge been sent to the habitation battery. On settings you can set it from 10% to 90%.
That is 10% to chassis battery 90% to habitation battery.

To clarify for you the motor battery is fine reading 12.3 vs and 14.4 when running (starts the Ducato 1st time no probs.) The habitation battery is the big problem. At present I have it on ehu as well as in full sun for the cells. It was reading 1.88 yesterday a.m. but is reading 1.83 this morning so the cells are definitely not charging the hab battery.

 

[denisejoe]

Undo all the wires from the solar reg and reconnect batteries first then the solar last see if the batteries charge then

Joe

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[TerryL]

Hi Terry

It was reading 1.88 yesterday a.m. but is reading 1.83 this morning so the cells are definitely not charging the hab battery.

Sorry but 1.88 what and where are you reading this from? If you're on hookup and it's not charging do you have a changeover switch to select the habitation battery rather than the engine battery? Sorry don't know your particular setup, just what I've learned from elsewhere on the forum. This might also affect the input from the solar panel.

If you've got a multimeter see if there is any voltage across the battery terminals when you're on hookup. If it is charging you should see between 13.7 & 14.4 volts.

 

[denisejoe]

At 1.8 the solar are unlikely to put any charge in to the battery it nac@@@ed

 

[KalaCruise]

Hi there, I know it's a year down the road but being a newbie on here I would be most interested to know how you got on? Reading between the lines I would be guessing that the problem was with your solar charge controller which is the most crucial element of the entire system. That said it could have been something as simple as a fuse or poor battery terminal connections.

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[Saltings]

Well it goes in for a full service tomorrow and we will find out if the charge controller is faulty. Tried all tricks but no charge from the roof panel or the mains supply. In the meantime the hab battery which is inaccessible (under the drivers seat!) is flat. Reading the handbook when the charge drops below 10 vs it stops charging anyway. Motor battery is fine as that is readily accessible and I can top up by using the +/- points under the bonnet. I am going to get the garage who will have to remove the seat to attach a + & - wire that will just sit under the drivers seat should they ever be needed again

 

[Saltings]

Hi KalaCruise
meant to add that the wires referred to came with the Cetek charger so it is just to plug these in to it if necessary
Thanks
Saltings

 

[KalaCruise]

Hi KalaCruise
meant to add that the wires referred to came with the Cetek charger so it is just to plug these in to it if necessary
Thanks
Saltings

Wish you well, it's a niggling problem and I trust you will get it sorted. BTW, as I am sure you already know, a battery showing less than 12v is all but dead, and you mentioned 10v so it looks like you will be needing a new battery too. Should always be showing a minimum of 12.7v with a trickle charge of 13.4 to 13.8v. If you can avoid it, never let your battery capacity deplete below 50% which is 12.06 volts. So with a 110 AmH battery you have approximately 50-55 Amps available to you. Keep to this rule, and your batteries will last for years. All best

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[Saltings]

Hi KalaCruise, has had battery changed and as have had previous one installed that was reading 13.4v. As it was under the driver's seat and therefore not accessible I have had two wires bolted on to the terminals (these came with the Cetek charger) so I can keep an eye on the voltage. Should it happen again can just trickle charge the battery just as I do every 3 weeks with the motor battery. Apparently when the voltage drops below 10v it will automatically cease being charged by either the PV cells or the mains when hooked up. In 2015 we used it in the Spring and Autumn half terms which was probably enough to keep it charged over the winter. So the other tip is to use the m/h more frequently so the alternator can keep it topped up. Many thanks for your reply. Saltings