Dead battery?

[rosalan]

My Agm leisure battery bought 11 months ago from Halfords, not holding a charge. I am in S Spain. When after being in solar sun all day it showed 50% and 11.2 amps drove to Hispavan who tested and confirmed it was now an ex-battery. Anew Agm 100amp fitted 270e. With the solar charge and drive to garage battery read 12.7 and 100% charge. Put laptop on to charge went down to 70%, put one bike battery on to charge (normally charge 2 at a time. The reading was now 12.2 and 52%. The sun still burning down…. I took everything off to awaits the morning.
Any ideas?

 

[meanders]

Sounds as if the solar is not charging the battery. Check the connections to the controller and from that to the battery.

 

[rosalan]

Thank you. The van battery shows normal behaviour from sun but leisure battery looks to be failing. Thanks for info which narrows down area of problem. Alan

 

[Lenny HB]

Do you have a meter with you so you can check what is going on with your charging, both mains & solar should act similarly, voltage rising to 14.7v then holding there for an hour or more before dropping to 13.8v.

Charging 2 e-bikes of an 100 ah AGM battery is a sure way to kill it. I have 3 80ah Gels and I only ever charge one bike at a time.
I'm surprised you fitted another AGM they are not very good for leisure use.

 

[autorouter]

When after being in solar sun all day it showed 50% and 11.2 amps drove to Hispavan who tested and confirmed it was now an ex-battery. Anew Agm 100amp fitted 270e. With the solar charge and drive to garage battery read 12.7 and 100% charge.

What is showing you the % charge? Is it a shunt-type battery monitor or a voltage reading? Do you have a voltage reading of the battery when it's not being charged and with no loads running from it?

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[rosalan]

What is showing you the % charge? Is it a shunt-type battery monitor or a voltage reading? Do you have a voltage reading of the battery when it's not being charged and with no loads running from it?

I am reading from the Adria panel which shows % full for each battery and voltage available for each battery. I have not taken a reading direct from the battery yet as I am still waiting for the mains charging to complete. Up to now I have been without mains. Thank you for your advice.

 

[Jev88]

I am reading from the Adria panel which shows % full for each battery and voltage available for each battery. I have not taken a reading direct from the battery yet as I am still waiting for the mains charging to complete. Up to now I have been without mains. Thank you for your advice.

Ah. On board battery readouts can be quite flakey and inaccurate. Little cheap multimeter direct to battery or using wires at solar controller is a lot more useful.

 

[autorouter]

The voltage on the display panel should be as Lenny HB says, rising to 14.7V or even 14.8V, staying there for some time, a few hours maybe, then dropping to about 13.8V when it's 100% full. Because you've just changed the battery to a new one, the % charge reading might take some time to sort itself out, so don't get too worried by that, until it's done a couple of charge/discharge cycles.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Hope you saved the old battery at a year to claim from Halfords?
If you haven't got a multimeter they are available usually in the Chinese bazaar shops. They are cheap and cheerful but will give you a good idea of what's going on with your batteries. As said you should be seeing a solar charge of some 14+ volts going into your battery, if not then best to check what's coming out of the solar panels before the controller.
And then advise on here.

 

[rosalan]

Hope you saved the old battery at a year to claim from Halfords?
If you haven't got a multimeter they are available usually in the Chinese bazaar shops. They are cheap and cheerful but will give you a good idea of what's going on with your batteries. As said you should be seeing a solar charge of some 14+ volts going into your battery, if not then best to check what's coming out of the solar panels before the controller.
And then advise on here.

Thank you JimboHorlicks. We could not find the receipt here in Spain and fear we will return on or after the exact date bought last year. We wondered if they would expect to give us a new replacement battery rather than cash which we don’t need. We needed the battery here and not another battery when we get home. We have left the deadweight battery with Hispovan .

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