Deep Cycle Marine Battery Leaking - Overcharge or just time to replace?

[Worleybird89]

Wonder and guess or measure and know.

Hopefully will have some time to do that this weekend, as well as capacity test.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Easy enough to verify if the converter drops back to float charge (13.2v-13.6v). Just kook up the fully charged batteries again and (after an hour or so) check the voltage at the battery terminals. Should be in the 13.2-13.6 range. WFCO claims 13.2 float for the 8735, lower than what most battery makers recommend for float. If it's reading above 13.6 that's no good.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

after an hour or so)

Per the timing diagram float starts 44 hours after bulk. How it works starting in the 'middle' of absorb, or what conditions take it back out of float are not defined. I contacted their tech support and they immediately went down a rabbit hole of what RV, cable distance, battery type and such which I'm not sure how that influences the answer. But if I can get a spec for that I'll report it here.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Per the timing diagram float starts 44 hours after bulk.

Hopefully there is more to it than that. What if the charger never enters Bulk, i.e. is typically recharging from 70+% SOC? In that case, surely it immediately discards Bulk phase and goes to Absorption. And maybe exits that to Float.
In every 3-stage design I've ever looked at there was a time limit at which it went to Float regardless of battery voltage or amp acceptance, but that was a fail-safe limit to make sure it won't dangerously charge a shorted battery. The normal exit to Float stage is based on the voltage and amperage the battery is accepting.