Fully Charged Battery?

[steveh]

Hello,
I bought a new deep cycle battery and Schumacher 1.5A maintainer/charger (model SE-1-12S) about a month ago. I've had it connected to shore power repeatedly for periods of 4+ hours and it never indicates that battery is fully charged (red LED vs green). I checked the voltage on the charger (while on) and the battery and both read 13V.

I'm taking my first trip with the Amerigo next weekend (state campground with electric/H2O) - anything to check/worry about?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[ERIC B.]

If it's a true maintainer with a float cycle, just leave it hooked up 24/7. In my experience, it takes far more than 4 hours to charge a battery especially with a 1.5 amp model. They are usually made only for slightly topping off or maintaining, not charging a deeply discharged battery. Hope that helps.

[Frederick L. Simson]

The way I read the info on the Googled Webpage:

1.5A Trickle Charge Rate, Charges In 2 To [b]12 Hours,

It would take 12 continuous hours to "fully charge" your battery.

[Byron Kinnaman]

The way I read the info on the Googled Webpage:
It would take 12 continuous hours to "fully charge" your battery.

I don't think that number is quite correct. It would be 12 hours if the battery had been discharged by 18 amp hours. If the battery is an 100 amp hour battery at 50% discharge, it would take a bit over 33 hours to get back to a full charge with a 1.5 amp charger. Take a gallon out of the water tank, to refill the out you gotta put a gallon back in. Take an amp hour out, you gotta put an amp hour back in.

[steveh]

Thanks much for the help - I'll leave it plugged up today (all day) and see what happens - I'll let you know.
Steve

[Benny K]

Hate to add a fly to the ointment, but believe that the charger that you bought should have had higher amp settings for charging also....I bought a resonably cheap charger/maintainer with float and it has 2, 6, 10, 12, 15 amp positions.....Benny

[Byron Kinnaman]

Hate to add a fly to the ointment, but believe that the charger that you bought should have had higher amp settings for charging also....I bought a resonably cheap charger/maintainer with float and it has 2, 6, 10, 12, 15 amp positions.....Benny

I just checked the Shumacher web site. That charger is a trickle charger meant to mount near the battery and "maintain" a full charge. It's charge rate state is 1.5 amp and will take a long time to charge a low battery. They say 2 to 12 hours, but I think it could take a lot longer than 12 hours, depending on the charge state of the battery.

[Bigfoot Mike]

Steve,

This doesn’t sound like your problem, but My trickle charger requires the battery have at least 11 volts or the trickle charger will not charge.

[Gina D.]

I have the same model charger as you and have never had the charged led go on. Maybe it's just a quirk of that model, and it wants to see that magic 13.2 or 13.5 voltage before the LED goes on. (IE: 13.15 isn't enuff to kick in the LED)

It has been plugged into the charger for days on end before.. nada for the green LED, even tho I am up at 13 volts.

I don't worry about it. The battery performs OK. With my charge controller for my solar, it will never charge past 13 volts either. Also, I don't worry about it. The charge controller, in theory, can allow up to a 14 volt level.

Oddly tho (Lets thro a cog in the wheel) I can get up to 13.8 when charging with my car when driving for long periods .. up to 4 hours or so.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Oddly tho (Lets thro a cog in the wheel) I can get up to 13.8 when charging with my car when driving for long periods .. up to 4 hours or so.

Not really odd. Vehicle systems even though everybody thinks 12volts are acutally 13.8 Volts. At least for now. Look out it'll change in few years.

[Gina D.]

I am sure my alternator has a bigger better charging current. (I know nuttin' of auto lectrickity)

Solar charger is capable of 7a, but with a 45 watts panel, Sometimes 60 when I get the WHOLE system on it, I doubt I am anywhere near that. I also could pull that much if I had everything in the trailer on!

Schumacher is 1.5.

dribble...

[Benny K]

I guess my post kinda didn`t seem to mean what I meant it to be....I meant that instead of the 1.5 amp, Steve should have gotten a charger with more amperage settings on it, which would bring his battery up quicker than a 1.5 A does......even just parked in hot weather, especially in a black case, the battery will lose a lot of power just sitting there doing nothing......Benny

[Gina D.]

he battery will lose a lot of power just sitting there doing nothing......

thats funny. So do I.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Ya, and I sure lost a lot of power these last two days. We're not used to that trippple digit temperatures.

On topic. That little charger is meant to keep it from loosing power when just sitting and doing nothing. I agree that a bigger charger might be in order to bring it up to full charge first.

[steveh]

To make a long story short, the LED finally showed red for a full charge today. I had it on shore power for most of the day yesterday and this morning before it finally switched to red. Some foks mentioned the weather and we finally had a mostly overcast day with highs only in the low-mid 90s so maybe the charger was able to finally get the voltage up.

Thanks much to all again and I think I'll take Gina's advice to not worry about it. I have far, far, more things to worry about when owning a 34-year-old camper. To give an example - bought the camper knowing the battery is dead, so I bought replacement. I go to install the battery and the the only two wires in sight are a brown one and a blue one... As I'm thinking, "Now what?", I notice written in PENCIL on the trunk door is - you guessed it! Blu to Red Brown to Blk. It's just so easy once you have the instructions...

And yes, I have addressed the duct tape wiring support problem as well!

Thanks again,
Steve

[Gina D.]

Just a note as to how much can get sucked out of the battery sitting in the heat..

I parked my rig 3 weeks ago with a 12.2v charge. Did not plug in the charger, or attach my solar trickle charger (I was lazy).. frankly, never even went in the trailer until today.

We have had record heat here for the past two weeks, escalating these past few days to 119 or more.

5 volts!!!!! There are no parasitic loads.. it just zapped itself silly.

What do you AZ folks do???

[Benny K]

I really notice the heat affecting my batteries for my digital camera that normally sits in my console in my truck.....I use rechargeable AA `s and have a few pairs on hand and am finding them all going dead in a few days just sitting in the case as spares.....also found that with my cell phone sitting unused for a couple days, also in my console......temps in the high 80`s outside.......Benny

[Darwin Maring]

Benny,

Purchase one of those small thermo padded (Keep Cool) lunch boxes to keep the cell phone and batteries in, inside the vehicle.

Will help to keep them cool a little longer however if you leave the stuff in there all day, the bag will eventually get hot inside as well.

[Steve B]

So two weeks ago when I was away from the house for a week my wife went into the SCAMP to clean and wipe things down. Our daughter turned on a light and they walked out. So there is sat for a better part of a week with an interior light on. Guess what battery was dead dead dead. Before our trip last week I had it on the charger for about 2days at 2amps. I think it only was about 1/2 charged when we left on our current trip. Kept enough of a charge to have lights on at night for a littl while before bed. I think it needs to set for a few days at the low amp charge to get a full charge. I'm going to try it and see.

[Benny K]

You know Darwin, if I`d been thinking, I could`ve put my camera batteries and cell phone, which was out of range anyway, in a ziplock bag and threw them in the Koolatron behind the truck seat which was pretty cool...had cold drinks, etc. stored in it and ran it off the truck battery on and off..... ..Benny