Twin Battery Charging from a Electrobloc EBL99? (1 Viewer)

[Vansflyer]

Hi All.
Recently purchased a Geist Touring after a lot of hunting. Looks like it will suit us just fine ;-)
Lots of jobs done and more to follow, including a Solar panel addition. Lots of roof space, be a shame to waste it.
Anyway... in the van is a new 90ah battery and a not new 90ah battery, both work OK but only one is connected to the "van electrics".
Is the Electrobloc capable of charging 2 x 90ah batteries or do I need to get a different charger to charge the second battery. Sorry if it seems a dumb question but having read lots it seems some of these van "smart chargers" aren't as smart as they could be and I don't want to cook it.
Many thanks.
Vans

 

[Xabia]

My Electroblok charges two x 110 AH batteries quite happily.

 

[Boringfrog]

My ELB 99 charges 3 x 100ah batteries no problem.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[JeanLuc]

Yes, 2 x 90 ah batteries will be no problem for the EBL 99. I have 2 x Varta LFD90 and before that I had 2 x 110 Elecsol and my Hymer has an EBL 99 too. You only need to consider the additional LA 1218 Schaudt charger if you want to go much above 200 ah of habitation batteries. Even if fitted, it only has any effect when on mains hook up of course, the additional charger has no effect when relying on the alternator or solar panels.

 

[Neckender]

Our Globecar has 2 95AH batteries connected to electroblock, and the built in charger is 18 amp.

John.

 

[Vansflyer]

Brill!
Many thanks people, second battery will be connected soon.
Cheers

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Pausim]

I am sure all the above advice is good and valid. However I would like to raise a point about capacity. Having doubled up the batteries you will have doubled up your stored electricity but not the capacity to replace it. If you use this extra capacity it will take longer to recharge the batteries and the existing kit is going to have to work harder for longer. Not something that has stopped me from adding extra batteries to my set up but perhaps worth bearing in mind, particularly when going off grid.

 

[Vansflyer]

Supply, demand and restocking is always an issue, with the fridge, the wine cellar and soon to be the batteries
On a serious note...The solar panels are next on the list to assist with the battery "top up" so hopefully they will give a little recharge during most days even in the grim Midlands when the van is sat doing nothing and have a good top up during our travels.
I was concerned about the ability of the charger, hence the question.
Off into the van to connect the batteries now.
Thanks again.

 

[JeanLuc]

A couple of areas of thought to bear in mind.
Firstly, I would not worry too much about the time needed to recharge 2 x 90 Ah batteries. If you have discharged them both to, say, 50% the EBL should be able to bring them back to 100% with 24 hours on hook-up in my experience. If you have gel batteries they take longer to recharge than flooded lead-acid but they can be discharged safely to 20% rather than 50% so you get more usable capacity but the absorption charge stage takes around 8 hours on an EBL99 rather than around 1 hour for flooded lead-acid. When you are 'off-grid' the EBL has no effect on recharging anyway of course and you are reliant on solar or driving (alternator) - until you plug in to mains again. (Don't forget to ensure that the EBL battery selector switch is set to the correct setting for the type of batteries you have and that all changes and connections are made with the EBL switched off and the 50 amp fuse next to the batteries pulled out.)
Secondly, your first post refers to one new and one not new 90 Ah battery. Ideally when fitting two batteries in parallel they should be the same age (or nearly so) and they must be the same type (gel / flooded lead-acid). Just check yours meet these criteria.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Vansflyer]

I appreciate the info, thank you.
The new one is a Varta LFD90 recently fitted by me. The second one (can't remember the brand but "branded") came with the van as a "spare". From memory it is dated 2015 so relatively young, both are lead acid. I have left a load on the older battery (200w inverter with a TV load) for a few hours and the voltage held up just fine. I have also chucked a Ctek charger on it (on charge and winter mode) and it charges up jfast enough. So hopefully it has a bit of life left in it, any problems and I will get another Varta unit, what's another £100 in the motorhome "pot" LOL
Also on the list is a battery monitor, the one in the van is poor with just a traffic light system. Being the control freak that I am I really want to know current drain and battery state before the lights start dimming!

 

[Lenny HB]

I would run a controlled discharge test on each battery individually. Fully charge the battery and then let it settle for an hour record the voltage then apply a 5 amp load for five hours, remove load let it settle for 30-60 min then record the voltage, repeat the test. Do the same with the other battery and compare the two. I would also monitor the on load voltage.
If the old battery much lower than the new one on the off load results or the on load voltage drops off faster I would ditch it. No point in having a new battery dragged down by the old one.

I agree with what others have said about charging from the EBL but the offical stance from the manufacturer is that the battery capacity should not exceed 10x the charger output and you should take the engine battery into account. If you have a manufaturer fitted 2nd battery they nearly always fit the additional charger, in practice rarely necessary. The engine battery only receives a trickle charge at 2 amps, the only time you could overload the EBL is if all 3 batteries were flat.

I have 3 x 80 a/h Gels for my leisure batteries, don't have the additional charger as we hardly ever use EHU and 95% of the time the batteries are charged by solar.

 

[Vansflyer]

Not sure the whole van can pull 5 amps unless the dish is spinning, heater fan on and the water pump is on!
The Avtex only pulls 22w and the second sat receiver (for the radio) less.. all lights are Led so I will get my clamp meter out and get the loads measured. I guess if I do the same test with the same load it will give me the comparison you suggest even if not quite 5 amps? Is the 5 amps a specific test figure or an average use on a van? I am not an electrician but I do understand p over I / r etc.
Good call in a test though...ta

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Lenny HB]

Not sure the whole van can pull 5 amps unless the dish is spinning, heater fan on and the water pump is on!
The Avtex only pulls 22w and the second sat receiver (for the radio) less.. all lights are Led so I will get my clamp meter out and get the loads measured. I guess if I do the same test with the same load it will give me the comparison you suggest even if not quite 5 amps? Is the 5 amps a specific test figure or an average use on a van? I am not an electrician but I do understand p over I / r etc.
Good call in a test though...ta

That was just a suggestion i.e. 5 amps for 5 hours = 25a/H, so does 2.5 amps for 10 hours. I used 5 amps as that is a typical load in most vans.
Our van is all LED lighting draws about 5 -6 amps but we have got an alfull lot of lighting.

 

[Vansflyer]

Blackpool? ;-)

 

[Floydster]

Our ELB 99 charges 3 x 120ah gel batteries.
Also have solar and a 60A B2B.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Vansflyer]

Quick update.
Following the advice on here I decided to put the batteries under a real world "load test"
First up was the new fully charged Varta battery. 24 hours of heating set to around 16c, 2 x 4 hours of DVD playback on repeat on the Axtex 19" jobbie. 4 led lights on, 2 x led striplights. (bedroom and lounge) and the Teleco auto sat dish feeding a second sat rec with a Bluetooth transmitter linked to a charging Bose Soundlink Mini playing a radio channel. All of these units were on for the same period, approx 8 hours of lights, Tv and sound. But 24 hours of blown heating.
After the 24 hours I let the battery rest for 10 mins then took a reading on my multimeter. This indicated approx 65% of charge left, not too bad I thought given in real life I wouldn't have the heating on 24/7 that high and that we would be either watching TV or listening to the radio.
Maybe the battery would have come up a little more with a longer rest but my guess is in the real world we would get 3 days if we were careful off hook up.
With this in mind I swoped to the second battery I had when I got the van and the same loads were switched on.
Four hours later I went back to turn the TV etc off... and it was very dark.... battery was as flat as my singing and the edl had cut the power.
New Varta ordered to go with the first one
Lesson learned, despite the "old battery" indicating good power reserve it was knackered and only 2 and a bit years old.
Many thanks for the advice on here, it has stopped me sitting in a field somewhere in the dark and in the poop with the Mrs.
Happy 2018 without EHU.
Cheers
Vans

 

[GMLS]

Just resurrecting this tread as I have a similar set up i.e Schaudt EBL99K with 2x 95 Varta FLD95's and a 100w solar panel with a Steca Solsum 10.10fF solar regulator.

While touring we will be using aires so won't have the benefit of using hook up to recharge the batteries or long distances to charge from the alternator. With the solar capacity fairly limited (and no room on the roof for more);

1) Do I need to fit a B2B charger to ensure I get maximum charging from the alternator in between stops? Any recommendations only I think I read somewhere that a B2B should not be fitted to the EBL

2) Is the solar regulator I'm using giving me the best solution or am I better off looking at using something else?

Thanks

 

[Pausim]

The Votronic VCC1212-45 has specific settings to make it compatible with an EBL and instructions on how to wire it correctly. I will let others answer the solar question.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Manic]

I think your regulator is a PWM type and you would maybe better this MPPT version, I fitted a Votronic duo250 which charges both batteries only small amount goes to the engine battery but I’m pleased with its performance.