Battery not charging

MadDog2020 · 12-16-2017, 12:54 AM

This may get a little long. So, we’ve had our Mini Lite since July. Have taken it out several times. I charge the battery, through the trailer converter/charger, with a generator or solar panel depending on the place and situation. At home I connect to 120 VAC every one to two weeks. I noticed about a month ago that the battery showed discharged on the status panel after a couple of days being disconnected. I even turned off the disconnect switch on the chassis. I took the battery out and bought a charger/maintainer and things looked good. The battery charged but after a few days the flashing lights on the new charger/maintainer indicated the battery was bad. The battery is only 4 months old. The voltage reading was 10.8 VDC. Seeing how we were in line to potentially get hit with fires in SoCal I bought an AGM battery just in case. I read the manual for the converter/charger in the trailer and tested it according to that manual. It checked OK, with no load. The manual said if the battery is completed discharged the trailer charger should drive the battery with 14.4 VDC until it senses its mostly charged then drop to 13.7 and then trickle charge at 12.8. So after a few days I put the original battery in the trailer assuming it’s completely discharged. The trailer charger never went to 14.4 but did go to 13.7 and appeared to start charging it. Not sure if the battery was bad I took it back out and connected it to the charger/maintainer in my garage. It immediately went to 14.4 VDC, charged the battery and dropped to a trickle charge. It was strange because a few days before this charger indicated this battery was bad. After 3 days of trickle charging the garage charger is now showing the battery is bad again and the battery has dropped to 10.8 VDC again. The charger/maintainer seems to be charging/maintaining my AGM battery just fine. I’m at a loss to understand what’s going on. Anyone out there have a good idea? My next step is to take the original battery to a shop and have it load tested. Ideas are welcome

babock · 12-16-2017, 01:07 AM

Doesn't take more than a couple really deep discharges to wipe out a battery and I suspect that is what may have happened to you.

You are going to find the battery is going to fail the load test. I have one of those inexpensive Harbor Freight load testers. They are nice to have around.

I see you are in Moorpark. I am in Chatsworth so very close to you.

RandK-M · 12-16-2017, 01:45 AM

I had a similar problem with my 2017 mini lite. A little after one full year the battery started going dead while parked at home, even when plugged in. The battery charged fine with a stand alone charger and the converter put out plenty of voltage with the battery disconnected, but the battery would go dead in a couple days after each charge on the stand alone charger/maintainer.

Long story short, it was a converter going bad so I replaced it with one I got on Amazon. It was really weird, because the converter appeared okay with either a fully charged battery or no battery and powered everything as it should. For me the tell tale sign was after 2 weeks of playing around with it, the voltage output of the converter started dropping down to 10 or 11 volts.

Anyway, after replacing the converter, the battery charged right up and is being maintained fine now after a couple months. I did buy a different brand then the original since the original only lasted just over a year. the one I got was a drop in replacement. If yours is bad though, it should be under warranty.

Ray

russhd1997 · 12-16-2017, 06:05 AM

The standing voltage of 10.8 would indicate that the battery has a bad cell. Unfortunately continuing to charge it won't bring it back to life. Maybe someone else will chime in here because I'm not sure if RV batteries have a warranty or not. If so you should be able to get a free replacement or a pro rated replacement.

Quality Guy · 12-16-2017, 04:39 PM

sounds good thanks..since. I have 4 may make it fine to determine. I can may be separate and see which one during the cold weather drops the quickest in voltage. thanks the Lord for the winter. lol

cavie · 12-16-2017, 05:16 PM

Madog2020 The battery has a bad cell bad. New means nothing. Have it load tested. Any parts house will do it.

MadDog2020 · 01-06-2018, 02:56 PM

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this post but have been busy and a little under the weather.

So, the dealer gave me a new battery. It had a bad cell. So I'm wondering if I have a converter/charger problem or if it was just a bad battery. I've tested the charger per the manual and it seems to be operating properly. I haven't put the new battery in for charging in the trailer but have it on my workbench with a charger/tender. However when I had put the discharged battery in I never saw the charger go to 14.4 VDC.

Thanks for all the feedback I received from everyone. I think I'll put the new battery in and monitor it closer than I did before.

Happy New Year

cavie · 01-06-2018, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadDog2020

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this post but have been busy and a little under the weather.

So, the dealer gave me a new battery. It had a bad cell. So I'm wondering if I have a converter/charger problem or if it was just a bad battery. I've tested the charger per the manual and it seems to be operating properly. I haven't put the new battery in for charging in the trailer but have it on my workbench with a charger/tender. However when I had put the discharged battery in I never saw the charger go to 14.4 VDC.

Thanks for all the feedback I received from everyone. I think I'll put the new battery in and monitor it closer than I did before.

Happy New Year

Just a bad battery.

mfMcFroggierPod · 01-06-2018, 09:35 PM

I had the WFCO brand converter and it never went into bulk mode 14.4 only 13.6 when deeply discharge. I replaced the converter with a IOTA works great. I keep the OEM unit as a spare in camper just in case....

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