Ec160 no power

[roadtripper]

And your battery type?

My concern at the minute is that the voltage level from the CTEK looks very high if you are a standard battery - the CTEK will charge at 14.7 for AGM but only 14.4 for standard - depending on how accurate the readings on your BM2 are.

The "charger" in the EC160 isn't really - it's just a power supply at a voltage where most standard lead acid batteries will float charge. It's not doing anything to control the charging process.

 

[russed68]

Pic attached

 

[roadtripper]

That's a new brand on me but looks like this one:

SFL110 Solarflex Industrial Solar Battery 12V 70Ah 90Ah 110Ah

* Please note that the colour of the battery case may vary between black and grey * SFL110 Solarflex Industrial Solar Battery Range The SFL110 battery has been designed to meet the needs of grid-assist solar storage banks. Designed to respond to grid demands and “dump” large amounts of current...

www.tayna.co.uk

It doesn't look ideal as a leisure battery as it is described as suitable for high drain solar backup and based on a starter battery.

From the datasheet it's a standard battery so 14.4v charge

I wouldn't rule out a drain so I'd investigate that but I would say the first thing to look into is the configuration and model of your CTEK charger - there will be 2 small configuration wires one red one black - the black one should be not be connected to anything for a standard battery but it's a commonish mistake for installers to connect "red +12v black 0v" out of habit. This will select AGM profile and overcharge the battery.

 

[wallport]

it's a commonish mistake for installers to connect "red +12v black 0v" out of habit

Yep they did that on mine. No idea how much it contributed to it (loads of documentation in that other thread) but the battery is a write off after just over a year.
It's also true that as newbies we had no idea how quickly a leisure battery could discharge when the van is parked up for long periods - even with nothing turned on. This probably also contributed.

From experience, my advice to all is to fit a battery monitor such as a BM2, keep an eye on the state of your battery and put it on hookup charge when needed. Don't rely on alternator charging from something like a ctek d250se - it takes too much driving to charge it and is going to be irregular.
I will just shout out for the experienced guys on this forum. They have tought me loads and are now helping me in switching to a Lifepo4 battery.

 

[russed68]

Thxs for all your input guys . How easy would it be to upgrade to a lithium battery if this one needs replacing . Thxs again

 

[wallport]

Here's my thread

 

[russed68]

The ctek is compatible with a lithium , but not to sure on my seargent unit

 

[roadtripper]

No you'd need to disable the "charger" and add something like a Victron mains charger to supply 12v power on EHU and charge the battery.

This is quite a common thread so have a search on "Sargent".

However it's important before planning that to be sure why your current battery is in trouble. A faulty charger or parasitic drain is quite capable of prematurely aging a lithium battery as well, it will just cost a lot more to replace.

 

[russed68]

Thanks for all the input. So if I was to completely disconnect LB charge it on a mains charge and monitor would this tell me if it was the battery at fault rather than the system draining it.?

 

[roadtripper]

If you have a good multistage maintenance charger from the likes of CTEK/NoCo/Victron then that could be a useful test.

If you have a Victron then they will do logging, but you can leave your BM2 connected to log what's going on during the charge.

 

[russed68]

Unfortunately the only charger I have was last used by Moses on his ark. I'll charge it up , leaving the bm2 and see how it goes. Thanks for all your input

 

[roadtripper]

I'd really recommend getting one - you'll need it looking after a twin battery T6 at some point.

Basic motor factor type chargers are generally not kind to batteries.

A basic 5A model is not that expensive.

 

[Salty Spuds]

I'd really recommend getting one - you'll need it looking after a twin battery T6 at some point.

Basic motor factor type chargers are generally not kind to batteries.

A basic 5A model is not that expensive.

To add to this, camper leisure batteries are slightly off piste in that they charge and discharge at the same time. I.e. you plug into EHU & your mains charger kicks in. But at the same time the fridge/lights/usb etc will be pulling current from the battery. Some battery chargers don’t like this scenario, they expect the battery to be sat on a bench, charged & put back into service. Some chargers are so “smart” that they see the current drain being taken by the consumers as a battery fault & shut down. I had this exact problem with with an Optimate. Ideally you want a charger that will charge the battery AND supply the background demand of the van. Victron do this & would be my only choice tbh, they just work.

 

[russed68]

Well I've charged the battery up and left it unconnected and it's held it's charge without any significant depreciation, so I'm guessing then it's either a parasitic drain or sub standard wiring somewhere

 

[roadtripper]

So next step is to connect battery back up but add the circuits one at a time to see which one is causing you the issue.

I'd start with the fridge as those are often problematic and permanently connected, heater controllers (if you have one) are similar. Next in line is any USB sockets as those are active devices and draw power all the time.

Doesn't have to be physically disconnected if that's not easy, just pull the fuse for that circuit.

A wiring fault might explain a low voltage issue or slow charging but it wouldn't cause a drain in itself.

 

[wallport]

One word of caution. You have seen my other thread where @roadtripper and others helped me diagnose a battery drain issue. We did indeed identify some parasitic drain but in the end, the main issue was the battery.

Since replacing it, I left the Bm2 on the old battery (the only thing connected), saw it bounce from under 11v to over 12 and now its staying at 12.2ish volts after a couple of weeks. It hasn't dropped at all in the last 5 days. I believe there can't be any significant charge in that battery as the charger has failed to bulk charge it for months and the van was barely driven. At various points I misinterpreted the strange way the battery behaved and it's state constantly confused and contradicted the logic of the testing regime.

I wouldn't stop investigating, and wouldn't dream of contradicting the experts on here, but bear in mind that it could just be the battery misleading you. If I was to advise (which I think my months of investigations perhaps buy me a little right to do) I would say make sure that tests are repeatable with the same results or it could just be a devilish battery trying to wind you up.

 

[roadtripper]

It's a good point @wallport if it's holding charge we know the plates are not shorting but they could still be damaged by being run very low so the battery capacity could be well down.

In this case the aim now we know it holds charge is to find out if anything is causing a parasitic drain.

What would be good to avoid is replacing the battery but it being damaged by a drain we hadn't found.

In these situations it could just be that the battery is old and has had a rough life with discharge cycles, but it's always worth checking if the damage is a symptom of a drain or charger failing as those will quite quickly damage a new healthy battery.

 

[russed68]

I'm at a bit of a loss how to proceed now lol. As I know as soon as I connect the battery back up it will be depleted within 3 days even with everything turned off on the ec160. Guess it's taken all the fuses out reconnect and go from there

 

[DXX]

Get the battery load tested by a battery specialist. It doesn’t matter how old / new the battery, if it has been discharged more than 50% it’s probably knackered.

 

[roadtripper]

I believe we've already established the battery is very likely damaged and needs replacing.

However I believe it's better to find the drain using a battery that is good enough (not self discharging) rather than trying to find it with a new healthy battery and risk damaging that.

You can do it either way @russed68 :

• if you need to use the van there are advantages to getting a good quality healthy battery in first - but you will need to focus on finding the drain or isolating the battery to stop it draining under 50%
• if you've got a bit of time before you need the van your existing battery is holding charge so you can use that to find a drain but you likely have very low capacity if you needed to use the van