I’ve read about it here before but forgot how it’s best done. I want to use my portable charger to boost back the battery banks because after replacing my two 12v chassis ones a year ago, and then soon after that the four old wet cell house set with AGM’s, our inverter decided to go belly up. As many of you know, our coach has been parked by the house here for 5 years due to our multiple health issues. Usually the solar has kept the battery systems healthy, but switching batteries started a negative and disruptive scenario.
The inverter, or at least it’s remote, was already acting up when a squirrel snuck into the temporarily open inverter’s bay last summer, and tore up a thin plastic picnic table cover. The next time the inverter ran that loosened plastic got sucked up over the inverter’s rear vents apparently causing overheating. According to Magnum, that alone would’ve just required my replacing an internal heat protective module of some sort.
But then I screwed up big time. Finding the remote reporting things working fine for awhile, and then not, I opted to try an inverter Reset by holding the button on the inverter for several seconds. Oops. I didn’t realize, or had forgotten since I’ve hardly ever needed to use that reset technique, DO NOT press that button if you’re still plugged into shore power!
Now the inverter won’t do anything, its remote reports nonsense terms or is totally off, and the whole system seems dead. No lights on the inverter or response even when unplugged from shore or genset running. The genset relies (I think) on the inverter’s charger, so running the genset won’t bring back the batteries, and the chassis set is 12.5v; the house AGM set though is below 12v. Apparently the solar side hasn’t kept either battery bank up to snuff (I should’ve had the Main switches off).
So how do I hook up my portable charger to the AGM set, four 6v in standard configuration to supply 12v? Should I disconnect any cables to them first or are the BIRD, undamaged inverter components, and other peripherals safe for external charging fully connected? Should the charger be set for 2amp, 15amp, or is a higher charge rate okay?
Joel