Can't Charge House Bank Bateries

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

Invertor started beeping due to low volts....Checked fuse, and it was blown. Put another one in and it blowed. Disconnected everything, hooked the charging cable up to vans battery to one house battery. Blown, so I hooked the cable up to other house bank, blew again. All batteries are less than a month old. Alt putting out good volts @ 14+.

At a loss. This setup has been used for some time with no problems. Any thoughts?

greg334 · Apr 28, 2010

How big is the fuse?

stamp11127 · Apr 28, 2010

Not meaning to make an obvious & stupid comment but it sounds like a short. Time to get the multimeter out. What isolator are you using and are you wired as below?

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

greg334 said:
How big is the fuse?

30 amp...but like I said it has been used for some time and now this...I guess it could be shorted batteries.... They were blowing with no load, only charging....

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

stamp11127 said:
Not meaning to make an obvious & stupid comment but it sounds like a short. Time to get the multimeter out. What isolator are you using and are you wired as below?

Close.....I had the ol'meter out and went as far as bypassing my setup stright to the house bank. Pulled all wires and installed new ends. Checked wires all good no shorts that I could see with meter or eyes. Disconnected the invertor, still blowed fuse's. I guess one or both of those new batteries may be shorting out.

stamp11127 · Apr 28, 2010

Did you check for a short to ground on the hot leads? And I'm going to assume the fuse your blowing is the circuit breaker in the diagram.

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

stamp11127 said:
Did you check for a short to ground on the hot leads? And I'm going to assume the fuse your blowing is the circuit breaker in the diagram.

Yep and Yes....

greg334 · Apr 28, 2010

If you got a volt meter, check each battery separately disconnected.

Then check and see what you are getting out of the isolator.

It may be a wiring issue at the isolator where it (I think they use mosfets) and the voltage to control the on/off of the isolator may be the initial problem - yellow wire.

BUT ...

If you have a 30 amp fuse, try charging the batteries first with a battery charger.

You can draw more than 30 amps with a flat battery.

Another question is;

Did you put new ends on before this happened or after?

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

greg334 said:
If you got a volt meter, check each battery separately disconnected.

Then check and see what you are getting out of the isolator.

It may be a wiring issue at the isolator where it (I think they use mosfets) and the voltage to control the on/off of the isolator may be the initial problem - yellow wire.

BUT ...

If you have a 30 amp fuse, try charging the batteries first with a battery charger.

You can draw more than 30 amps with a flat battery.

Another question is;

Did you put new ends on before this happened or after?

I put the new ends on after this happened. Thought about charging them but they became flat due to no charge, due to blow fuse. I'll get it...there's always a way....try some more in the A.M. before I deadhead out of Fla....

chefdennis · Apr 28, 2010

Since it is still blowing the fuse after you have made the revisions, have you taken the house bank battery cable off the lead battery to see if the fuse still blows??

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

chefdennis said:
Since it is still blowing the fuse after you have made the revisions, have you taken the house bank battery cable off the lead battery to see if the fuse still blows??

Nope, I'll give it a shot in the morn....but, no current will be flowing if I do dat.....on second thought, when engine is off, it disconnects the main battery from the house bank, doing the same thing....I think.....

stamp11127 · Apr 28, 2010

Out of curiosity what brand/voltage are they and where did you get them?

Steady Eddie · Apr 28, 2010

stamp11127 said:
Out of curiosity what brand/voltage are they and where did you get them?

Basspro shop...2x12v 185 min at 25 amps

stamp11127 · Apr 29, 2010

Looks like they have a one year warranty according to the Bass Pro website. There was only one review that was negative for not holding the charge, the rest spoke highly of them.

Store locations:
Ft. Myers
10040 Gulf Center Drive
Ft. Myers, FL 33913
Phone: 239-461-7800

GPS Coordinates:
26.4869ºN, 81.7911ºW (WGS84/NAD83)

Miami
11551 Northwest 12th Street
Miami, Fl 33172
Phone: 305-341-4200

GPS Coordinates:
25.7977ºN, 80.3859ºW (WGS84/NAD83)

Ft. Lauderdale
200 Gulf Stream Way
Dania Beach, FL 33004
Phone: 954-929-7710

GPS Coordinates:
26.0579ºN, 80.1645ºW (WGS84/NAD83)

Orlando
5156 International Dr.
Orlando, FL 32819
Phone: 407-563-5200

GPS Coordinates:
28.4703ºN, 81.4483ºW (WGS84/NAD83)

greg334 · Apr 29, 2010

I'm thinking it isn't defective, if it was it wouldn't blow fuses.

Disconnect the house battery completely, or remove the fuse.

Turn on the van and check the voltage going in and out of it.

If the voltage is within one volt, then it is alright.

Charge the batteries with an external 120 volt charger.

Replace the fuse.

Then see if it blows the fuse.

I'm thinking that the trigger - yellow wire in the diagram has a problem - and it disconnected the house batteries from the system, running them down. In doing so, when the voltage came back on for the trigger, the fuse blew because the inrush of current to charge the batteries. You didn't see it because you were driving, so I would also check the wiring for that trigger - the yellow wire. It may appear to be alright sitting still but moving may be another issue.

Steady Eddie · Apr 29, 2010

greg334 said:
I'm thinking it isn't defective, if it was it wouldn't blow fuses.

Disconnect the house battery completely, or remove the fuse.

Turn on the van and check the voltage going in and out of it.

If the voltage is within one volt, then it is alright.

Charge the batteries with an external 120 volt charger.

Replace the fuse.

Then see if it blows the fuse.

I'm thinking that the trigger - yellow wire in the diagram has a problem - and it disconnected the house batteries from the system, running them down. In doing so, when the voltage came back on for the trigger, the fuse blew because the inrush of current to charge the batteries. You didn't see it because you were driving, so I would also check the wiring for that trigger - the yellow wire. It may appear to be alright sitting still but moving may be another issue.

Did that too....When I bypassed the whole system and connected directly from the van's battery to the house bank it blew. Nothing on the house bank was connected but the charging cable. So, the short has to be in the house bank battery(s), one or both...no hurry, I have a year left on 100% replacment on the house bank...Next Autozone, I'll get'em to do a load test on them, if one or both test bad then problem sloved, if not....Use for fishing weights.

Steady Eddie · May 1, 2010

Problem sloved- Bad battery(s). Took them in to Bass Pro Shop and got both replaced.

Thanks for the replies......

greg334 · May 1, 2010

That's great.

You know I think your bad batteries were talking to my batteries here at the house. I am working on LED lights for the house and all of a sudden one of the batteries tanked on me yesterday, only been on-line for a week.

Steady Eddie · May 2, 2010

greg334 said:
That's great.

You know I think your bad batteries were talking to my batteries here at the house. I am working on LED lights for the house and all of a sudden one of the batteries tanked on me yesterday, only been on-line for a week.

Mine was less than a month old. Come to find out, when I took them into the folks at Bass pro in Perrysburg said Memphis didn't rotate their stock. One was dated 09, which is the one I think was bad. They didn't/couldn't find the battery tester so they replaced both.

I hate it when batteries talk to each other!