Best Battery Practices?

[DrAudio]

I have a 2008 2619 with both the WFCO 3 Stage Charger and factory option Mark PV Controller (solar). Recently I replaced both GC2 batteries this month as they were were depleting quickly (the prior ones were installed in 2013).

After charging overnight and solar during the day my new batteries read about 13.1 volts on the Mark PV. The Mark PV indicates "Charged" which leads me to think it has gone into a float mode. This seems unusual since the charge set-point displays 14.4.

My questions:

1. Do I need to do anything to make sure the WFCO and the Mark PV chargers are calibrated with the new batteries and one another?
2. Should I be concerned that the battery reads 13.1 even though the set-point of the Mark PV is higher?
3. I installed a battery shut-off switch as I hear this can help preserve the batteries but the moment I disconnect it, the built-in Safe-T-Alert CO2 alarm is triggered alerting me the power source is low. Curious how other people handle this?

Thanks for reading!

[scrubjaysnest]

If there is sufficient sun light and before the solar CC goes into float you should see 14.4 volts during the absorb cycle. It may not last long, up to two hours is typical for most CC's.
If you take the GC-2's down to 50% you will a minimum of 400 watts of solar to recover.
The WFCO isn't a very good convertor. Check into Progressive Dynamics or Iota; they are more GC-2 friendly.

[Shane826]

I asked this somewhere else but the thread was deleted. Which is better for off season battery storage? Fully charge the battery then store in the somewhat warm basement with no charger? Or fully charge the battery then store in freezing cold garage with a float charger (not a trickle charger)?

[tentcamper]

"I installed a battery shut-off switch as I hear this can help preserve the batteries but the moment I disconnect it, the built-in Safe-T-Alert CO2 alarm is triggered alerting me the power source is low. Curious how other people handle this?

Does this happen when you are connected to shore power?? I don't have this issue when connected to shore power, because the converter is supplying good voltage. We almost always switch off the battery after it has recharged and just run off shore power. We do this to save the battery from the affect of the poor wfco battery charging which will boil a battery after it is full charged.

When dry camping we leave the battery switched on when we have our solar panels up. The solar panel and its controller act as the battery charger.

The question I have if connected to shore power. What do you do with the solar charging system? Do you leave the panel connected to the 12V buss to the converter, or do you switch it off? It's not an issue to us since we have a portable unit and we don't set it up if connected to shore power.

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by scrubjaysnest

The WFCO isn't a very good convertor. Check into Progressive Dynamics or Iota; they are more GC-2 friendly.

The I agree that the WFCOs have bad filtration, bad logic, and overall "poor" behavior. can also be greatly improved with one of the "Boondocker" upgrades. PD converters are better than Boondocker upgrades, and most models have the magical "boost mode now!" button - but "Boondocker" is only a "mainboard" Converter assembly replacement, you don't need to rip out the existing "DC load center" wiring and re-do it all. Bestconverter.com.

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by DrAudio

....I installed a battery shut-off switch as I hear this can help preserve the batteries but the moment I disconnect it, the built-in Safe-T-Alert CO2 alarm is triggered alerting me the power source is low. Curious how other people handle this?

The Safe-T-Alert is active whenever the bathroom door switch is "closed" (i.e., the bathroom door is raised up, activating the CO2-Propane detector and interior lighting of the two shell roofs.) In actual storage, or with the bathroom door folded down for testing, I think that it won't be running, and won't complain about "low power". (But I'm not completely positive about this: my own CO2-Propane detector is likely a different model than yours, because I replaced it a few years ago.)

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by DrAudio

[LIST=1]Do I need to do anything to make sure the WFCO and the Mark PV chargers are calibrated with the new batteries and one another?

The WFCO is a really stupid charger, with no capability for "calibration" or tuning to different types of batteries. I don't know anything about the Mark.

[BrucePerens]

Originally Posted by tentcamper

"I installed a battery shut-off switch as I hear this can help preserve the batteries but the moment I disconnect it, the built-in Safe-T-Alert CO2 alarm is triggered alerting me the power source is low

Does that mean it's on solar power only? My solar charger goes off when it detects no battery, some less expensive ones do not.

In practice, competition between the solar charger and the converter doesn't seem to be a problem because neither charger ever does anything more than stop charging if it senses a higher-than-expected voltage coming from the other charger. You don't have to do anything to one to make it work with the other. You don't have to switch solar off when you plug in to AC or the tow vehicle.

[tentcamper]

Im think the OP is saying when not on shore power he turns off the battery and runs off solar and that trips the alarm???

I never thought about turning off the battery when charging off solar.

[BrucePerens]

Originally Posted by tentcamper

Im think the OP is saying when not on shore power he turns off the battery and runs off solar and that trips the alarm???

I never thought about turning off the battery when charging off solar.

The solar system is in general after the battery master switch. If you turn off the master switch on my Morningstar, it can run for a few minutes until it realizes there's no battery, and then shuts itself off. Other units just keep running, and you get whatever voltage they can make, thus the CO detector complains.