Help with electrical glitch

[Joe MacDonald]

being hooked up backwards, if no charge power wsa applied to it, would not cause a failure of the battery, just your items like pump, fan would run backwards, and sensitive electronics would be damaged. if it received any charging, that would cause the issue.
I once ruined a battery by putting it on a charger backwards for 4 hours.

Joe

[ZachO]

Alright. The only charging that happened was about 5 minutes of solar, but my solar hooks directly to the battery and has red and black wires so I had it connected right!

[ZachO]

Does this make sense? Cloudy, late evening, and somehow my panel is showing what it normally would in mid day full sun with the panels charging. In the morning, the battery will be back to “fair”. I don’t get it, and don’t get how with overcast weather it’s getting so much charge. Something is weird here.

[Joe MacDonald]

The panel in your picture is a standard trailer issue one, not terribly accurate. I put a slightly better one in my camper but don’t use it for battery, just holding tanks
For my battery I got a Xantrex link 10 that is programmable to the specs of your battery, and it then shows power in, out and battery state
Joe

[ZachO]

Thanks.

I know it isn't accurate, but after 3 seasons of full-timing in my trailer, I have a sense for what's "normal". Seeing full charge late in the day with overcast skies isn't normal.

I'm plugged in right now, and so far I'm seeing the same thing. I'll charge for a few hours then stop for the night. In the morning it's back to "fair", with maybe a little flickering in the "good" range. Again, yeah you're right it's not accurate, but it's also not normal. Guess I'll take the battery in and get it tested.

On another note, I replaced the relay on Thursday. Furnace is back up & running.

[ZachO]

Now a question on my panels. Is there any way they could have been damaged? The panels were connected with correct polarity, but to a battery with the camper wires connected wrong. Could that have hurt them or the charge controller?

In full late afternoon sun, when I check my battery terminals I get 13.69V. I see around 19V coming out of each panel, and a bit over 14V coming out of the charge controller. Sounds like they're ok? Looks like I'm losing voltage between the controller and the battery, but otherwise things are functioning.