Help please, renogy issues! (1 Viewer)

[Sophie12]

Hi all, I'm struggling with my system and Renogy have been worse than useless in helping me resolve it. I'm hoping someone will be able to shed some light.
I have a Renogy Rover 40 charge controller attached to none-Renogy AGM batteries. Renogy advised initially via live chat to set the charge controller to SLD setting (there is not a specific AGM setting). Has been hooked up like this for about 9 months.
All seemed well until yesterday when I happened to notice charge controller display said "EQUALISE" and voltage was 14.8. I've never noticed this before but granted I don't look at my charge controller every day. Could be new, or maybe I just never noticed before, impossible to say.
I know that 14.8 is the maximum charge an AGM should receive, but my concern is that I don't know how high the "EQUALISE" voltage may go. My physical manual states that the SLD setting does have an "equalise" setting but max voltage is 14.6. So already 14.8 doesn't seem right. Renogy have advised a different thing every time I ask them, they don't seem to have a straight answer - the manual they sent me via live chat yesterday suggested SLD setting shouldn't even have an equalise stage!
So my question is - what setting should I use on a Rover charge controller for AGM batteries. Should I be worried that my manual states equalise stage is 14.6 but mine were charging at 14.8.

Any help really appreciated

 

[Ray-Vic]

I think most AGM manufacturers don't advise that equalisation is done and, even if it is, it would generally be a bit of a last resort for batteries which have sat for ages or are in a bit of a state. It seems the Renogy charge controller may have an automatic equalise function, which is often used on back-up storage systems using LA's to periodically equalise them. It may be that SLD setting is right, but you may have the option to disable automatic equalisation.

What make/size of batteries are you using?

 

[Ray-Vic]

Ok looking more in to this, it appears the Rover carries out an equalisation every 28 days when using the SLD profile. It seems it does not carry out this process if using the gel profile.

It may be worth looking at the settings recommended by your AGM battery manufacturer, and seeing if they closely match the settings in gel profile within the Rover. If so, switch to that profile, which you may need to adjust the boost setting on to increase the voltage a bit (depends on your battery).

 

[Sophie12]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yes, my manual shows the Rover carries out an equalisation every 28 days but the max voltage shown in the manual is 14.6v, which would be fine and actually useful for AGM. But on this occassion, it was charging at 14.8, which is right on the limits of safe. It worries me that it was charging higher than the manual indicates - surely this shouldn't happen.

Also, when I contacted renogy they seem surprised that the SLD setting was equalising at all and sent me a different version of the manual showing no equalisation for the SLD setting - so that was very helpful lol.

Unfortunately no option to amend the parameters for the settings, or that would be a good solution!