Continued battery issue

[Nrgtic4]

Hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas filled with warmth and love.

Pete and I are leaving Oakland, CA this morning with our 2017 Escape 21 after having a wonderful visit with kids and grandkids dry camping on a flat driveway near them since Thanksgiving.

We are heading first to Quartzite, AZ to check on our still under their year warranty, two Trojan T105 6VOLT, 225 AH batteries that we purchased at Solar Bill’s there last February that don’t seem to hold their charge. (denigrating from 90% at 1:00 pm ish to 72% 9:00 PM ish with no switched on loads (nothing on in trailer or charging in trailer besides fridge control board on propane and stuff running in background)

When I posted this here a few weeks ago, we got some great and helpful advice (most of which though unfortunately we didn’t have the tools for or were not “techy” enough to implement)

The general consensus was that this is a very tough thing to figure out…That either our batteries are damaged or our solar charging isn't fully operational, and functioning as it should, or there's a mysterious, yet to be determined, load drawing them down…

We will be in Quartzite this Wednesday and Thursday. Any additional advice for helping Solar Bill’s there perhaps find the issue ? We have a 2pm appointment, but they seem to have already come to the conclusion that it is not the batteries and we lack the confidence that they can find and resolve our problem without them costing us unnecessary dollars spent.

Ad always, Pete and I really appreciate all the help of this great community. We couldn’t do it without you.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Nrgtic4

We will be in Quartzite this Wednesday and Thursday. Any additional advice for helping Solar Bill’s there perhaps find the issue ? We have a 2pm appointment, but they seem to have already come to the conclusion that it is not the batteries and we lack the confidence that they can find and resolve our problem without them costing us unnecessary dollars spent.

I don't know anything about Solar Bill or how ethical they are but I see a potential problem with their already stated view that it's not likely a battery problem.

In this case it seems like there might be a slight conflict of interest with them
testing the batteries. Any battery shop can load test the batteries. I'd have one test the batteries before you get to Solar Bill's and then you'd know for sure that the batteries are OK and the problem is elsewhere.

Good luck

Ron

[Perry Butler]

Do you have a decent shunt that counts the amps going in and going out? After our 1st battery failure I realized how valuable a Victron BMV-712 shut that keeps history as well would be for the next battery problem.

A year later a second battery failure was confirmed the second I saw the in the history our WFCO decided to charge our batteries at 20.3 volts. The WFCO was faulty.

If you don't have a shunt I advise getting one, and spend the money for more than a glorified meter. My friend has a Ali shunt and compared to my Victron is a joke, but better than nothing.

We easily would have fried a second battery at 20.3 volts by not having a shunt.

Food for thought,

Perry

[Randy in Maine]

When Solar Bill gets there, watch how he troubleshoots your system (even if it costs more) and take notes what kind of testing he does and what the results are.

While he is there, ask him what else you should have in your bag of tricks to keep you in service if you have a problem somewhere. Multi-meter? Smart charger? Electrical connectors? A shunt gizmo? A reference book? Lots of times there are people in the campground who know how to fix stuff if you have some things on hand to help them figure out what the problem is and come up with the good fix.