Noisy battery charger (1 Viewer)

[DaveHobson]

Another motorhome niggle! We have an intermittent noise coming from the fuse box area of our Bailey Advance. It’s a sort of metallic buzz (I’m trying to attach a sound file). It seems to be coming from the battery charger, which is behind the fuse panel. And if we switch the charger off via the blue breaker switch on the panel, the noise stops. So it’s all pointing to the charger itself. Any ideas what we can do about it? Is it dangerous? Should we just replace the charger?
(Note - the recording makes the noise sound MUCH louder than it is!)

 

[Lenny HB]

Can't do much about it, it will be the coils in the switch mode power supply buzzing. It's nothing to worry about just annoying.

 

[DaveHobson]

Thanks. Looks like a replacement charger then.

 

[Headrush]

Try giving it a gentle tap. Sometimes if it's a metal case, vibration gets amplified. Had a similar issue on my satellite TV box recently.

 

[stevewagner]

You could contact Apuljack as they may be able to repair it

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[lunarman]

The charger has a "kettle" plug mains connector these sometimes come lose you could check that this is not the cause in of the buzzing.
Is the mains connection icon showing on the control panel? If not then it is not charging the icon is lit by the charger.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Thanks. Looks like a replacement charger then.

I swapped out my numax battery charger which was noisy for a Victron one which is virtually silent.

 

[starquake]

It's quite common on the 66-2 apparently, we're waiting on ours to go. We plan to replace with the slot in apuljack replacement (with a better fan) which should fix the problem permanently. I'm considering ordering it to keep in van until it happens.

I'll probaby do at same time as Lithhium as can get apuljack to do a lithium profile charger trivially same time for about 10 quid more.

 

[68c]

Due to the alternating magnetuc field in the transformer, sometimes the many thin metal plates can move and vibrate. The supply is at 50Herz (cycles per second), which is very close to the musical note G at 49Herz.

 

[DaveHobson]

Update. We’ve had the charger replaced. The mobile guy who did it says it had been working too hard because of the type of battery we’ve got, and advised us strongly to replace the battery. This all makes us even more confused, as we got the battery a couple of years ago from BBL, who advised me what to get. It’s an Avon L36-100LCMF, ‘heavy duty, dual purpose, engine starting / high cyclic’ battery, which specifically mentions motorhomes on the case sticker. So now I’m really confused!

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[Lenny HB]

Talking out of his uranus it's a standard lead 95 ah battery.

 

[Guigsy]

Update. We’ve had the charger replaced. The mobile guy who did it says it had been working too hard because of the type of battery we’ve got, and advised us strongly to replace the battery. This all makes us even more confused, as we got the battery a couple of years ago from BBL, who advised me what to get. It’s an Avon L36-100LCMF, ‘heavy duty, dual purpose, engine starting / high cyclic’ battery, which specifically mentions motorhomes on the case sticker. So now I’m really confused!

Surely a charger throws out its rated amps when a battery needs charging, regardless? The only difference might be that a heavy duty battery might take the full current charge for longer maybe? But a charger should be able to cope with maximum load for hours anyway.

 

[DaveHobson]

We’ve spoken to BBL, who supplied the battery, and they are adamant that it’s fine for motorhome use, and that they supplied ‘thousands’ of them for that purpose. The very helpful guy there also couldn’t see why the charger should have been incompatible with the battery, so generally confirming what your helpful replies above have already said.

 

[DaveHobson]

Update. Having had our charger replaced, we’re now away on day 1 of a 6 week trip to France, and the charger is making exactly the same noise. This is no ‘hum’, or faint buzz, but a pretty loud buzz, which we’ve never heard in the 2 years that we’ve had the van.

Our concern now is whether this is safe to use. We normally use a hook-up, so a battery charger is not essential. Should we just switch it off, and put up with the noise when we’ve been somewhere without EHU, and therefore need to recharge the battery?

Any advice very welcome!

 

[pappajohn]

Without seeing the charger I would think it's an old type fixed rate with a large transformer.
Change it to a modern solid state charger.
The charger in my RV had been changed for a low output charger and for the sake of checking I reconnected the original charger.
You could hear it OUTSIDE the RV.
The transformer plates were rattling so bad.
Ordered a suitable charger from the USA, No more noise

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[gus-lopez]

My friend has had 3 different autocruises. All the chargers have made excessive noise. All have had to be turned off to sleep.