Stuck in Mexico: need advice

[BruceS]

Originally Posted by four winds

I don't think jenders stated whether the batteries are 6v or 12v lifelines.

He said he was charging them separately, but I suspect that was not the daily operation method. Rather part of troubleshooting to determine which were bad.

Clarification of this would likely change some of the advice given.

Very important post 4Winds!!!

[Valmika]

Originally Posted by four winds

I don't think jenders stated whether the batteries are 6v or 12v lifelines.

He said he was charging them separately, but I suspect that was not the daily operation method. Rather part of troubleshooting to determine which were bad.

Clarification of this would likely change some of the advice given.

This is the way i took it also. I may be wrong but I thought he tried charging separately to find the bad one. Not as a normal course of charging.

[jenders]

Thank you all for your help. I was unclear about a couple of things: All my batteries are 12 V AGM lifelines. And now, correcting my earlier statement, I have found that 2 of the four house batteries will not take a charge. I plan to pull them both out and take to battery shop tomorrow here in Guaymas . A fellow cruiser here said they may have one of those super duty AGM chargers, what one of you referred to as a military charger. He said he did that last year and the battery took a charge and has held it. We'll see. And no, I'm really sorry I can't respond to some of your comments asking for more information about separators and VSR ETC if I knew what I was doing I wouldn't be asking/needing help. LOL.

[Valmika]

So help me out here. Are these AGM Superchargers anything more than just an old style "Dumb" charger that will try to ram voltage into a battery no matter what its SOC? I know I have had a problem with "smart " chargers that don't want to charge a battery if it is to low of voltage. I use my old charger up to a point that the smart charger will accept and then let the smart charger finish it off. Maybe if you don't have a dumb charger you could Jump the batteries together to get enough of a charge in the bad one for the charger to take over.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Seadoc777

I HAVE FIVE AGM ALL SEPARATED BY INDIVIUAL BLOCKING DIODES TO PREVENT ONE KILLING ALL. EACH DIODE OUTPUT IS CONNECTED TO A TWO POSITION POWER SWITCH ALLOWING ANY COMBINATION TO BE PLACED ON-LINE.

Usually blocking diodes are used to separate battery banks for charging and will not provide any isolation of individual batteries within in a house bank during normal discharge use. So your system switches need to be manually controlled to prevent one bad house battery from discharging others in the same bank, right? Problem OP had is he was not thete to monitor and remove or switch out a bad battery.

[smac999]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Adding devices between the batts in a single bank adds resistance and complexity.

The OP was using each batt as a standalone, not connected into one bank.

he is charging them one at a time to test them...

if they were separate. all 4 would not have been equally drained to 4.9v

he is doing the right thing. test them seperatlly and take the bad one out. and use with 3, untill you can replace the whole bank when you get somewhere you can buy the batteries you want.

[smac999]

Originally Posted by jenders

Thank you all for your help. I was unclear about a couple of things: All my batteries are 12 V AGM lifelines. And now, correcting my earlier statement, I have found that 2 of the four house batteries will not take a charge. I plan to pull them both out and take to battery shop tomorrow here in Guaymas . A fellow cruiser here said they may have one of those super duty AGM chargers, what one of you referred to as a military charger. He said he did that last year and the battery took a charge and has held it..

no charger is going to fix a dead battery.

3 things could happen.

1:
battery at 4.9v. attach charger. battery stays at 4.9v. charger does not start. this is not a battery issue. this is becuase some chargers will not start to charge a dead battery for safty reasons. you either need a cheap dumb charger to get it started. and then switch back to the good one. or jump the bad one to your start battery to raise voltage, when the charger kicks in, removed jumper to start battery.

2: battery at 4.9v. instantly goes to 14.4v when charger added. charger currently likly very low. battery is toast. it's not going to hold any charge. throw it out

3: battery goes from 4.9v to 14.4v over several hours with charger current at max. battery is taking charge. leave on charger for 24 hours. battery will be damaged and have reduced capicity, but may work a little longer.

[zeehag]

any ferreteria has lth batteries. these are decent batteries and available all over mexico. mine are lth golf cart batteries lead acid. there are agm and others as well. funny how mexico is not the backwards nation those from the frigid north think it is.

[roland stockham]

Yes you can reconnect the 2 remaining batteries back together. Expect about half you original capacity. (They will have lost some capacity from age and going flat)
No you CANNOT combine and sealed battery with one that needs topping up.
3yrs is not uncommon as a lifespan for 12v AGM. They can do twice that if everything is perfect but often not.
You should plan to replace within 12 months. When replacing consider
1 Only fit 6v batteries (add 2 together in series for 12v) because 6v batteries last about 3 times as long as 12v and are the only true deep cycle ones whatever the label says.
You can only run one type of battery from 1 charger
Unless you are a marina queen or primarily charge from solar you need an external 3 step regulator to control the alternator.
Open lead acid batteries (ie ones you can top up) are half the price and double the lifespan of AGM. But they are about 10% bigger and you need to check water level occasionally. They can also be charged faster with an external regulator

[Cheechako]

Yes you can pull one out. No problem. You can also put a wet cell in with the others if you really need more capacity. I know people say not to do it but I ran one boat that way for a year and a half. People fail to recognize that a boat battery seldom is fully charged anyway and lives it's life at discharge much of the time. So whether you charge at the perfect voltage is irrelevant.
BTW, one way to find a shorted battery is charge them and feel each one, the shorted one will often be very hot.

[jenders]

All: Thanks to everyone for the input. I've had all my batteries load tested and none are holding a charge under load. I'm driving to Phoenix to replace them. Still have no idea why they all were fried. The outer walls began to collapse, like they were sucked in, which I'm told signifies they were overcharged. I have two 85 amp solar panels, and a Blue Sky charge controller, which I assume should have stopped any possibility of overcharging. Still trying to figure this out. What I need is a full electrical system audit. Anyone know anybody in the Baja area who does such things?

[a64pilot]

Of your going to buy a whole new Lifeline bank to replace the old, you certainly ought to cal them, they are helpful.
Plus you are very correct, you really, really do need to find help in correctly setting up your charging system, or you will kill the new ones

[AlaskamanUSCG]

Good morning
We are also here in Guaymas. Finishing up on the hard at Marina Seca Guaymas. I replaced our Trojan T105 house bank with quality GC2 batteries from LTH right here in Guaymas. They also have RED and Blue top Optima AGM batteries available. When you consider the drive time up to the states it's worth buying local. With only two 85W panels you don't have enough solar power to recharge your system. Unless your heart is really set on the AGM's you can save allot of $ and stick with wet cell 6V LTH GC2 batteries and connect them in series/parallel to give yourself the necessary 12v you want. Hope this helps. Good luck.

[zeehag]

i second the LTH batteries availability and durability. why spend more for less.

[john61ct]

Optima are no longer true deep cycling batts.

No matter what color, and do not trust their marketing claims.

Used to be Enersys, now JCI.

Great Starter batts + occasional short high-amp loads though, but not if regularly deep cycled.