BillyW
North ID
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Joined: 10/08/2003
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I've been happily weekend boondocking in my current trailer (equipped with a WFCO converter) for over 4 years now, thinking I had the battery charging thing down pat. I even had the audacity to offer advice here a few times.
One of the comments that comes up here often about the WFCO is that it won't go into bulk mode easily. I was always of the opinion that the cable between the converter and the battery(s) was probably undersized, thus contributing to this condition. I know mine was almost always at 13.6V. But I also was careful to never drain the batteries very far, so I figured it must not need bulk mode charging.
Last week I finally got around to installing two 75 watt solar panels with a low cost MPPT charge controller. I connected the charge controller directly to the power distribution panel instead of running cable all the way to the batteries. Even though it's not wired ideally, I'm already seeing much better charging characteristics.
My Trimetric 2020 is reporting charge voltages from 15.4 to 14.1, with the charge light blinking, which I believe means that the batteries are fully charged. The TM2020 never did this blinking thing before. At night, or when it's not charging, the standing voltage is 12.8. It was 12.7 before solar. And yes, I unplugged the trailer so all charging is from the sun.
So... Does this appear to be a good thing? Are these charge voltages too high if they happen every sunny day? Any other thoughts?
'97 F150 4X4
'04 Pioneer 18T6
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wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
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Well they are in the range of proper charge voltages, depending on the battery brand for BULK mode, They are rather high for FLOAT mode however.
On the other hand 12.anything is rather LOW for float mode
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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Joined: 02/15/2006
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15.4v is the upper limit for the Norcold fridge controls according to the manual. The high voltages even with low amps once the batteries are charged will cause water loss. Is the solar controller working right?
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BillyW
North ID
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I assume it's working correctly. I have virtually no experience to pull from here. I haven't seen what I would call float mode yet. The problem is this time of year I'm lucky to get very many long sunny days to verify data. The panels probably get no more than 4 or 5 hours of sun even on cloudless days due shade from trees, etc. Next Summer, with the sun swinging much more over head will make a tremendous difference. I guess I need to do some more reading before I ask the manufacturer.
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kcabpilot
CA
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I recently installed a WFCO converter in our Lance and have done some monitoring of it to see how it performs. It does go into float mode but it takes a certain period of inactivity. I'm not sure you are going to see it ever go to float mode if you are using the rig daily. I'm not sure it would even hit that mode if the refrigerator were left on - haven't tried that to see.
For bulk mode, 15.4 sounds pretty high, you are definitely going to be boiling the electrolyte at that level so best to keep an eye on it.
1994 Lance 990 on 1997 F350 PSD Dually
We also have a 'truck' that FLYS
Our 2008 trip to The Canadian Rockies
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BillyW
North ID
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Yeah, I'll have to check into this more.
I've unplugged the trailer from shore power, so all it's getting is solar. This effectively takes the WFCO converter out of the equation. I'm hoping the solar charge controller figures out pretty soon that the batteries are in fact charged.
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wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
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Kcab.. I recently double checked and for at least one battery,, Xantrex recommends a bulk mode of sixteen volts (Sears Canada, but I'm not sure which battery) At least SOME johnson controls take 15.x (forget the x)
So it may be right.. Most flooded wet use a bulk of around 14.6 and absorption is about the same.
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smkettner
Southern California
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Low cost MPPT?? What is the make and model? Is the charge profile programmable? IMO 15.0+ volts is too high for an RV. 14.4 is plenty and 14.8 is a practical maximum IMO. What is the charge profile to kick it down to float? Many will hold the bulk voltage from 0 to 60 minutes before switching to float.
Now the WFCO. If you have the typical two batteries and a 55+ amp WFCO it will be difficult to get into bulk mode. With two batteries you need a 35 amp WFCO. With oversize wire (#2 or #4) a 45 amp might do OK.
2001 F150 SuperCrew 5.4 Lariat Offroad 4x4 Tow Package 4.10 Truetrac
2006 Keystone Springdale 249FWBHLS
12K SuperGlide, KGE3000Ti 2.3kw rated 2.6kw max
Frank's voltage booster, Prosine 1800 powered by 4 GC2 batteries
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DDkwac
around
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Joined: 07/28/2008
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BillyW wrote:
My Trimetric 2020 is reporting charge voltages from 15.4 to 14.1, with the charge light blinking, which I believe means that the batteries are fully charged. The TM2020 never did this blinking thing before. At night, or when it's not charging, the standing voltage is 12.8. It was 12.7 before solar. And yes, I unplugged the trailer so all charging is from the sun.
So... Does this appear to be a good thing? Are these charge voltages too high if they happen every sunny day? Any other thoughts?
I have a solar system and likely the same mppt charger. I have 3 switched banks of dual 6v batteries.
One of the banks has costco batteries that shows charge voltages close to what yours do.
The sam's club batteries show a more normal charging voltage.
note- a very good reason to not mix different battery manufacturers within the same bank.
I'd would hazard a guess that everything is fine, as these banks have been operating without problems for a couple of years now.
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BillyW
North ID
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smkettner wrote:Low cost MPPT?? What is the make and model? Is the charge profile programmable? IMO 15.0+ volts is too high for an RV. 14.4 is plenty and 14.8 is a practical maximum IMO. What is the charge profile to kick it down to float? Many will hold the bulk voltage from 0 to 60 minutes before switching to float.
Now the WFCO. If you have the typical two batteries and a 55+ amp WFCO it will be difficult to get into bulk mode. With two batteries you need a 35 amp WFCO. With oversize wire (#2 or #4) a 45 amp might do OK.
I paid about $125 for the BZ Products MPPT 250HV. It doesn't have many options.  I still haven't had a chance to REALLY monitor it yet. The meager instructions indicate that it will gradually taper off to the float voltage of 14.1 (which is adjustable). I did in fact watch it drop down once, but the panels were starting to encounter shade right about then too. Hard to say for sure. I have the panels wired in series by the way.
My WFCO converter is the 35 amp variety, my batteries are the largest 6 volt Werker brand I could find. Not sure about the wiring, but I know it's not #4 or larger.
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