Strange Charging

[Jason Worman]

Hi All,

It's been a bit, which is good. So my Xantrex 458 is acting strange, Inverter breaker is tripping, when charging, battery stays in Normal mode, if I  turn charge battery charger off, immediately jumps to Float mode and remote LED turns green.  If I turn charging back on, LED Indicator jumps back to Normal and is Yellow. Any thoughts? Could charging function be going out?

Jason

[Fred Brooks]

    Jason,
How old are your house batteries? Do you have the remote panel with the picture of the 3 batteries on the left side? First shows batteries empty with red LED, middle picture has the yellow LED? and the right picture shows the battery full with a green LED? Is there an odor of rotten eggs coming from the batteries? What is the voltage at the batteries with the yellow LED lite? Please advise, Fred

[Jason Worman]

Fred,

Good morning, I do have the black remote with pictures of three batteries; red LED for low, yellow LED for regular and green LED for Float. I checked batteries with charger on and remote showing green, voltage was 13.40 volts for all 4 batteries. When I turned off charging and turned back on and moved to Normal, showed 14.26 colts. Batteries are three years old, no rotten egg smell. I left charge off for two days and batteries, Float LED stayed green. Should I let batteries run down to Yellow LED?

Thank you for all your help

Jason

[Fred Brooks]

    Jason,
Thanks for your reply. I am not real sure why it would stay in "absorb" (yellow led) for a long time. It could be that the batteries are a little tired and need to be refreshed. Absorb is when it starts to ramp down the amperage rate and when approximately 90% charged it tops off the batteries in "float". I would perform an "equalize" charge next because they are 3 years old. This will remove the excess sulfate that has built up on the plates and put it back in solution and rejuvenate the batteries. (read my post on equalizing batteries). Hope this helps, Fred Brooks