House power dipping low, causing problems

[smac999]

14.7v on flooded golf carts is perfect For bulk / absorb. Equalizing is around 15.5v Though if that many gC's are Only taking 5a it should certainly be going to float pretty soon. Assuming you have an external reg

Yes your batteries sound toast. Based on ah and voltage. Or some of them. You should be able to draw half the ah and stay at 12v (Load taken off). With -22ah you should be at 12.7v (load off). With a c20 load I'd see over 12.5v loaded for about 5h. And not dropping below 12v for Probably 8h while loaded. at c20. (They should last 20h to 10.5v)

This issue is still irelivent to your charging shutting off and going to invert mode. Sounds like you have 2 issues.

I would remove 1+ 7. And see how the 6 remaining handle some load.

[boatbod]

Put a heavy load on the batteries (in circuit) and while it is applied, use a DVM to measure each battery to see how it performs relative to the others in the bank. Lowest voltage will be your weak one(s)

[haveaday]

Originally Posted by smac999

14.7v on flooded golf carts is perfect For bulk / absorb. Equalizing is around 15.5v Though if that many gC's are Only taking 5a it should certainly be going to float pretty soon. Assuming you have an external reg

Yes your batteries sound toast. Based on ah and voltage. Or some of them. You should be able to draw half the ah and stay at 12v (Load taken off). With -22ah you should be at 12.7v (load off). With a c20 load I'd see over 12.5v loaded for about 5h. And not dropping below 12v for Probably 8h while loaded. at c20. (They should last 20h to 10.5v)

This issue is still irelivent to your charging shutting off and going to invert mode. Sounds like you have 2 issues.

I would remove 1+ 7. And see how the 6 remaining handle some load.

Given the relative youth of the bank I'm leaning towards replacing the two weak batteries and living with the shortening of their life given the age of the other batteries. The prospect of replacing all 8 batteries seems unnecessarily expensive. Am I being short sighted in doing this?

Thanks
Ben

[boatbod]

Originally Posted by haveaday

Given the relative youth of the bank I'm leaning towards replacing the two weak batteries and living with the shortening of their life given the age of the other batteries. The prospect of replacing all 8 batteries seems unnecessarily expensive. Am I being short sighted in doing this?

Thanks
Ben

Youth has nothing to do with it. Unless the remaining batteries are functionally sound (i.e. near new condition), you are throwing money away. Best find that out before making a potentially expensive decision.

[haveaday]

So, it would seem there was a problem with the crimp in one of the negative cables running between the batteries. Today while load testing and metering I found a very hot terminal on one of the batteries. I quickly realized the heat was coming from a cable and not the battery itself. I cut the end off the cable and recrimped a new 4/0 lug on. Seems to be good now. I'm seeing dramatically higher voltage and at 144ah of consumption in five hours not seeing any signs of continued trouble.

Ben

[haveaday]

Originally Posted by boatbod

Put a heavy load on the batteries (in circuit) and while it is applied, use a DVM to measure each battery to see how it performs relative to the others in the bank. Lowest voltage will be your weak one(s)

Oh and I did find that under load each battery was producing about 6.3v. There was less than .02v variation between the batteries.

Ben

[boatbod]

Glad the batteries steer ok. I've seen bad terminals melt the posts to which they were attached!

[dw1979]

I second the hard start kit or capacitor replacement. You mentioned that your MFD Rebooted which can be a problem at unexpected times. Electronics can be very sensitive to both voltage spikes and low voltage. For reliability and protection consider using a separate battery and a Blueseas SI-ACR. The electronics will then run off of the house bank most of the time and the separate battery only as needed.