Solar panels vs battery charger

[Robhwa]

Yes, don't replace batteries without understanding how many amp hours they can produce and hold after being fully charged, as that may cause you to spend hundreds of dollars needlessly. A charge/discharge test would do this. It does sound like your solar charge controller could be the problem. You may replace the batteries and still have the same problem afterward.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by sailscubasurf

I'm having a problem I can't seem to figure out.

I have 400 watts of solar panels and a 660 amp hour battery bank. Just recently my panels won't charge my batteries to 100%, even though it only took about 3 hours before during a sunny day. I'm still showing that the panels are outputting 12 or more amps into the batteries via the MBPT Controller.

If I switch to shorepower with my 20 amp battery charger within a couple of hours my battery bank is showing 100% charge.

Any thoughts?

How are you determining that your batteries are fully charged?

Brand of solar controller would be helpful as well.

[Skipper Lee]

Hi Rob,
I have 4 batteries to get 48 V (E-Drive), how or do you know if i can use the devices in the link you provided to isolate and monitor all 4 as individuals?
Regards, Lee.

[Robhwa]

hmm...not familiar with doing each battery separately...I usually think of batteries linked in series or even parallel as a "unit", and monitor in/out for that unit. In series, the current from each battery in series would pass through each consecutive shunt. I'm not sure what you would be monitoring the performance of...this is different then voltage, which could be separately monitored.