starter battery

[POH]

can someone tell me what voltage it should be , have been checking it, gone from 14.4 to 12.6 over the last few days , been checking on the metatrak app , took the van round the m60 on Tuesday to charge it also been on a trickle charge as well , the 12.6 is today's reading .

 

[pappajohn]

12.6/12.7 is the float voltage, normal after being stood for an hour or two with no charge or load.
14.4 is an on-charge voltage.
13.6 is just off charge with no load slowly reducing to 12.6/12.7

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Whilst on charge or driving your battery will be charging at 14 plus volts. When not on charge it will drop to 12.7 /12.6v
If it drops below this after a couple of days without anything being turned on then that's the time to be concerned.
And it best checked with a multimeter direct on the battery.

 

[Revolvor]

can someone tell me what voltage it should be , have been checking it, gone from 14.4 to 12.6 over the last few days , been checking on the metatrak app , took the van round the m60 on Tuesday to charge it also been on a trickle charge as well , the 12.6 is today's reading .

The voltage on the Metatrak app cannot be relied on. Vanbitz confirmed it's just a rough guide. Mine is often wrong by 1.0 volt.

 

[POH]

battery is on trickle charge and is showing 12.6 on the app don't have a multimeter.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Whilst on charge or driving your battery will be charging at 14 plus volts. When not on charge it will drop to 12.7 /12.6v
If it drops below this after a couple of days without anything being turned on then that's the time to be concerned.
And it best checked with a multimeter direct on the battery.

Interesting points raised re nothing turned on.
Could an alarm/ immobiliser cause upto a 0.2v drop over a period of say 7 days ( flashing led light on door to indicate alarm on).
Other than that my own engine battery is performing exactly as you describe.
Just curious, thanks.

 

[autorouter]

A standard flooded lead-acid starter battery should settle to a 'resting voltage' of about 12.6V if nothing is charging it, and there are no loads on it. It may take several hours to settle to the resting voltage after it has been on charge, especially if it is cold.

When being actively charged, the charger raises the voltage to about 14.5V to push charge backwards into the battery, to recharge it. This may take several hours.

When charging has finished, the charger usually doesn't just switch off. It usually just drops the voltage to about 13.5V. This is the 'float voltage'. It is just enough to stop the battery self-discharging. It can stay at this float voltage indefinitely without overcharging.

The thing to remember is that if the battery voltage is 13.0V or more, something is charging it. A battery not connected to a charger won't go above about 12.8V once its voltage has settled from being charged.

In normal use, the battery voltage slowly drops from about 12.6V (100% charged) down to about 12.0V (about 45% charged). At 12.0V you should be thinking of recharging it.

 

[LostInSpace]

As the title of this thread is "Starter Battery" and the OP talks about "without anything being turned on", I think it worth mentioning that that situation really comes from the marine world where the starter battery does nothing except start the engine.
Having an engine not start out at sea could be a life or death situation!

Everything thing else is powered off the Services Battery.

We use our two batteries (engine and leisure) in a completely different way and an engine not starting probably means we just put the kettle on!

 

[Sneds]

Order online at Screwfix.com. Multimeter features large digital display with backlit LCD for easy use in dark environments. Data hold function captures and hold



source:%20Screwfix.com
https://search.app/1dkqx8KBVC54ZgRe7

 

[TrudeandDall]

battery is on trickle charge and is showing 12.6 on the app don't have a multimeter.

Are you sure that your trickle charger is working correctly? Take the battery completely off charge and see what happens to the voltage after resting using a multimeter.
Also worth remembering that a statter battery on your vehicle will always be provided a small charge for the vehicle systems, so will drop in voltage over time anyway.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seasideBill]

In storage over a few weeks my starter battery voltage (as measured by Moving Intelligence app) will gradually drain to 11.9v and then the controller trickle charges it from the leisure battery back to about 12.3v. It never drops below 11.9v and will always start at that voltage. The controller manual states this process is triggered at 12.4v, but maybe that’s just measurement error?

 

[autorouter]

In storage over a few weeks my starter battery voltage (as measured by Moving Intelligence app) will gradually drain to 11.9v and then the controller trickle charges it from the leisure battery back to about 12.3v. It never drops below 11.9v and will always start at that voltage.

I'd say the voltage reading of the Moving Intelligence app is out by about 0.4V. That is par for the course for these apps, as Revolvor said in post #4. It's probably varying between about 12.7V and 12.3V, if you were to measure it on the actual battery terminals with a multimeter.