Battery Maintenance

[Illini Trekker]

Looking at the battery's today I did a voltage check one was at 11.8 volts the other at 12.3 volts.
1. At what point do you charge your battery's that are in storage, do you look at volt or a periodic time schedule. My tester has a load test that show I'm guessing, the condition of the battery, or it's charge state?
2. There are different amounts you can charge your battery's at, my charger as a 2 amp, 10 amp, or 15 amp setting.
What is a good practice to charge your battery's while in storage for the 4 or 5 months.
I do have the the IOTA IQ Smart Controller in the camper. What do you guys do in practice in the real world.

My 12 volts battery's are for boat use. I now have two 6 volts Battery's in the camper.

On edit the two 6 volts are (in series).

[Art-n-Marge]

Per your signature, do you have only two 6v batteries (in series) or do you have dual 6v batteries in series? I'm not quite following where you are reading the two different voltages.

However, you bring up an outstanding point. Measure the batteries separately when not connected to each other to get the true reading of any battery voltage.

I recently started having a problem my batteries holding a charge and realized I needed to isolate them to get accurate readings of each voltage. I would always isolate the battery from the rig using a blade disconnect, then measure each battery but while they were still connected to each other! For the longest time I was always measuring about 12.1 to 12.2v and thinking they both always needed a charge (norm is about 12.7 or 12.8). When connected to a charger I would read almost 13v (not 13.8 to 14v).

FINALLY, I got smart and disconnected one of the battery to battery cables. I found one battery at about 11v and the other at 12.8. TADAAA! One of the batteries was bad and probably had been for some time (it always needed water and recharging worse than the other). I removed the bad one and the other battery is now doing great. I will stay with one battery until it finally dies, then convert to dual 6v maintenance-free.

This is testimony that a bad battery can bring the other battery down. If I had thought better I would have also put a disconnect between the two batteries so I could measure them separately.

Back to your original questions. I have a (2/10/15amp) battery charger, too but cannot leave it connected to a battery because it will overcharge because it is not very "smart". I store my rig at the house and connected to the garage. From this 110v power source I am able to permanently connect a smart charger (Battery Minder, but there are better ones out there) which keeps the battery at its best charge for when I need it.

I don't have a smart charger in my converter and didn't bother getting one since I had the Battery Minder from another rig and can use that for keeping the batteries charged. A smart charger for your converter would be the best bet for keeping your batteries at their best but you'll need shore power at the storage unit to provide power to the converter. Remember that the Propane detector is always ON and doing its job so the batteries are always being used and will run down faster than just sitting there with nothing connected. If the batteries are not maintenance free, then you'll need to worry about water.

If you don't have shore power, using solar panels and the other proper electronics is a great way to keep the batteries charged and conditioned. Hopefully other members will comment on that since I can't. You'll still need to worry about water if they are not maintenance free.

For long term storage some members remove the batteries altogether and keep them under proper charge and storage at the stickhouse. On another rig, I used to keep the battery on the rig for long term storage (voltage could drop to about 5 volts) but then they would take TOO long to recharge back up to the 12v and I would have to connect to shore power or the TV to operate the 12v stuff and that was no fun. My method now is to keep them charged to have the batteries ready to go. After the initial investment of the equipment to do this, you can't beat the convenience.

[Illini Trekker]

Art being from Illinois I bring the battery's in with our "cold" weather we have. The two 12 volt battery's are for the boat and I use to 6 volt battery's in the camper in series.

[awaywego]

Dennis,
See if this will help or confuse you.

http://autorepair.about.com/library/.../aa101604b.htm

[Rondo]

I trickle charge mine here in Nebraska all winter long! Never have had a problem with that.

[deadeye]

I have my 2 - 12 volt AGM Maintenance Free Gels on a Battery Minder Plus all winter in the camper. Never worry till spring here in Northeast Iowa. No fumes, no water to add. Oh ya, that Spring is just around the corner, isn't it???

[Rondo]

We can only hope Jack!!

[racerjoe]

I agree with deadeye, I also use battery tenders for all my stored vehicles, They only trickle charge when nessasary. Do not overcharge, worth the investment.
The good thing is you can leave the batts in all year if you are hooked up to electric and they will keep them from freezing

[Illini Trekker]

Battery Minder Plus looks like a I set and forget charger. But do our battery's need a float charge from time to time?

[racerjoe]

That charger is made to keep the batts from sulfating and keep them fully charged. I have been using them for 3-4 years now with no battery problems