My battery’s are over charging help please
- Thread starter Geoffrhea
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
DonTom
Well-known member
Welcome!
What is your evidence of overcharging from the controller?
And what type of batteries?
-Don- Reno, NV
John From Detroit
Well-known member
If the batteries are ACTUALLY over charging. it's the controller. Either it is programmed wrong or it is defective. But as DonTom said reworded.. Why do you think it's doing that?
That's of course great advice, and I love Morningstar, but they are a bit pricey compared to the alternatives. I have both the Morningstar MPPT 60 ($665) and a few installations with the Epever 40 amp ($160 with external monitor), and both seem to perform about equally in terms of actual watts harvested (assuming the user's needs are pretty simple, a 12 volt battery bank and a solar array voltage of less than 100 volts, although they now have higher voltage units). I definitely don't regret buying the Morningstar, but there are some pretty good cheaper options these days.
From the Amazon reviews it sounds like the charge controller the OP is using might not be one of them though...
Last edited:
What’s the advantage of a pmw
Battery’s are boiling over……this controller is hard to find any info or programming notes
Evidence is boiling battery’s…..acid 6 volts
Ex-Calif
Well-known member
I d/l'd the manual yesterday but didn't post. It is a 3-stage charger but is not programmable for any battery types. I reckon it is set up to charge lead acid. There does appear to be programming for time of day harvesting for some reason. There is also a factory reset, undervolt limits and a float voltage set. It doesn't appear to indicate how to do that but there is a factory reset button that I would try first.
Charger Manual
Have you check the output voltage while it is charging?
Not to disagree with kdbgoat but I always recommend an MPPT controller above 200W.
Mark_K5LXP
Well-known member
The voltage is the magic number to know here. Batteries will gas at anything north of 14V or so and that's a normal part of absorb phase. This would only be abnormal if the absorb phase continues beyond it's prescribed time period or the voltage continues to climb beyond that.
Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Let's leave conjecture behind and get some facts. We need to know:
- The measured voltage being applied to the batteries
- Battery wiring, e.g. series vs parallel, connections at the posts, corrosion, etc.
- Battery age & condition
- More details about when this boiling occurs, e.g. non-stop, only at peak sun, etc.
13 volts being applied at contoler
Mark_K5LXP
Well-known member
13V is not high enough to "boil" a battery nor is it an indication of overcharge. The only way hard gassing could happen at that voltage is if one of the batteries has a shorted cell and the controller is dumping in a bunch of current. If you have a hydrometer you can measure the electrolyte in each cell and see if one of them is bad. Otherwise, there's something else going on which we'll need more detailed measurements to discern.
Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
DonTom
Well-known member
Measure the voltage directly on the batteries in case there is excessive voltage drop after the controller. Perhaps from a shorted cell in a battery or something like that. Such will draw excessive current, which will drop the voltage.
13.0 volts across the batteries while charging sounds more like an undercharge to me in normal conditions. I would expect at least a few tenths more, but ONLY measure this voltage directly across the battery, and right on the battery terminals themselves, not on their connectors.
If you really have the facts correct here, Mark has it right in the previous message. But I think you should double check everything, start with the voltage right across the battery terminals in normal charging operation, when you think it is overcharging.
If you have two six volt batteries in series, measure each one and compare their voltages.
-Don- Reno, NV
