Batteries

[Paul Meehan]

Thanks Gerald.  I will check it out once I get the coach back from the shop.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Paul,
You can also check the output of the Echo charger while the house batteries are being charged. Once house battery voltage is above 13V, remove the fuse on the red wire with the yelllow stripe that comes from the Echo charger. The voltage on the Echo charger side of the fuse holder should be above 13V.
Steve

[Joel Ashley]

Okay, my bad.

Sorry Paul, you did indicate "all" your batteries are maintenance type, and I shouldn't have questioned which that you were adding water to.  It's fairly rare to find chassis batteries that aren't maintenance-free 12v.  I haven't seen a 12 chassis battery that needed water watched in a very long time - mostly deep cycle.  There are combo batteries out there that people buy thinking they are the best of both worlds, standard starting and deep cycle, but they are more like the mediocre of both worlds - not enough cranking amps and not enough reserve amp hours.

And my apologies to Gerald.  You've reminded me in the past, but I keep forgetting the era cutoff involving Echo chargers and BIRD technology.  And there's been more Echo charger fixes related on this Forum than problems with BIRDs.

Joel

[Jerry Emert]

A related question.  I just replaced the temp sensor and got my Magnum BMK working again by tightening some connections (2 separate things) .  That brings me to a question I now have after reading some of the past posts about amp hour ratings.  The AH ratings of my 6v Interstate batteries is 208AH.  I have 4 of them.  When setting the AHs on the Magnum ME-ARC control panel, do I put in 832AH for the batteries or as has been discussed, half of that for the effective output?  I had previously set it at 832 but am now wondering what to set it at.  (Probably overthinking this)  Thanks
Jerry

[Jim Edwards]

Hi I think you setting should be at 418. In the general configuration for house batteries is series/parallel.  2 6 v batteries are connected to raise the voltage to 12v but this does NOT increase the amp HR capacity. Just the voltage. When the 2 "banks" of 12V are connected, the amp hr is increased.

The following is from the Magnum ME-RC manual.

Parallel connection – batteries connected in parallel (positive to positive,
negative to negative) increase the AHr capacity of the battery bank, but
the voltage remains the same.
Example: A 12-volt battery bank with three 12-volt batteries that are rated
at 125 AHrs each. Each of the positive terminals are connected together and
each of the negative terminals are connected together (i.e., connected in
parallel). The AHrs of each battery connected in parallel are added together
(125 AH + 125 AH + 125 AH = 375 AH), but the voltage of the battery bank
stays the same (12 VDC).

Series connection – batteries connected in series (pos. to neg.) increase
the voltage of the battery bank, but the AHr rate remains the same.
Example: A 12-volt battery bank with two 6-volt batteries that are rated
at 220 AHrs. The positive terminal of the fi rst battery is connected to the
negative terminal of the second battery (i.e., connected in series). Since the
two 6-volt batteries are connected in series, the voltage of the batteries are
added together to produce 12-volts (6 VDC + 6 VDC = 12 VDC), but the
amp-hour capacity of the battery bank does not change (220 AH).
In battery banks where you have batteries connected in series and in parallel,
the rules are the same. The batteries connected in series are referred to as a
‘series string’ and the amp-hour capacity doesn’t change. Each series string
is connected together in parallel to increase the amp-hour capacity. Add the
amp-hour capacity of each series string connected in parallel to determine
the total amp-hour capacity of the battery bank.

[Gerald Farris]

Jerry,
The amp hr. rating for your house battery bank is 416.

Gerald

[Jerry Emert]

Thanks Jim and Gerald.  I should have noticed that before I asked.  Those manuals are hard to stay interested in for me.  I appreciate the help.
Jerry