2022 2600RB batteries not charging, maybe?

[jimgoings]

Even on Shore Power for days, the battery charge indicator in the storage bay shows 50.5% and charging, but it never seems to climb higher than this. Inside on the panel by the door, it says "charged".

While boondocking this past weekend, I saw the charge show 34% while the inside panel showed charged. never saw the inside panel dip below "good".

Also, the only indication that the solar panel is doing anything is a flashing green light on the charge controller.

[Country Campers]

Could you post a picture of the charge indicator? We are not sure what is being installed as there are plenty of changes made every day.

To check if the converter is charging there is a breaker in the power panel inside the RV labeled Converter, turn this off when on shore power and take a battery reading with a multimeter, hopefully you have one and can use it, then turn the breaker on for the converter and see if there is a voltage change at the battery, hopefully the voltage will rise. It is also important to have the battery disconnect key pushed in and turned so the key can not be removed. Sometimes these are wired so that the battery will not charge if the disconnect is in the wrong position. The lights on the inside panel are purely for reference and usually not a good indicator of battery health, the multimeter is your friend for this. I also think the battery charge indicator is of good quality , if it is the one I think it is, and should be fairly accurate.

Brian

[jimgoings]

Pic attached from this morning which shows 50.5%. It's now at 50.6%. The inside panel shows "charged".

EDIT: Not sure if it's relevant, but there are two batteries - I thought stock was one battery, but mine came with two.

[ncitro]

Pic attached from this morning which shows 50.5%. It's now at 50.6%. The inside panel shows "charged".

EDIT: Not sure if it's relevant, but there are two batteries - I thought stock was one battery, but mine came with two.

I would not be surprised if your battery monitor is not setup for your batteries. WondersAwait had a rig that came with one of these monitors and his dealer didn't set it for his battery capacity, it was set for the default 100ah.

[WondersAwait]

jimgoings The book has some basic instructions on how to adjust the settings to match your battery. When the dealer installed their battery before delivery they didn't do anything to the Furrion Shunt/Meter and it sat at around 78% for about a week barely moving up or down, even with plugging it in or using some DC power without being plugged into shore. I didn't even mess with it because I knew I was changing the battery out for LiFePO4 so once I made that swap a week later I opened the manual for the Furrion shunt and identified how to set it up for the batteries I installed (it was pretty simple). Once I did that it seemed to work properly. Best of luck!

[Country Campers]

jimgoings

Here is a link to a post that may be helpful in setting up the battery monitor Furrion Battery Monitor Instructions???? - Grand Design Owners Forums (gdrvowners.com)

I would guess, as stated above, that the monitor may not be set up correctly, as in set up for 2 batteries with the correct ah. I think if you get it set up right you may be able to monitor and see what your actual usage is and also be able to see if the batteries are accepting charge. Hopefully we can get this working for you.

Brian

[jimgoings]

Thanks for all the help! I think I just need to calibrate the monitor. However, I am concerned that in order to calibrate it, I have to drain the batteries completely. Isn't that a major no-no for the cheap stock batteries?

[ncitro]

Thanks for all the help! I think I just need to calibrate the monitor. However, I am concerned that in order to calibrate it, I have to drain the batteries completely. Isn't that a major no-no for the cheap stock batteries?

It should not need to be calibrated, I believe on that monitor you just need to tell it the total number of amp-hours your battery bank has. This would be related to Brians question, what do you have for batteries?

[jimgoings]

The manual is pretty clear that it needs to be calibrated to know what 0% is. I will open the battery boxes and check, but I'm fairly confident they are lead-acid 100ah.

[ncitro]

The manual is pretty clear that it needs to be calibrated to know what 0% is. I will open the battery boxes and check, but I'm fairly confident they are lead-acid 100ah.

Okay then the next question would be how much current you see going into the shunt. It should be positive if it's charging. That'll be the sum of your solar and converter. See what it's reading and turn off the breaker for the converter (or unplug from shore power) and see if it changes. That'll tell you if the converter is doing anything.

[Yoda]

The manual is pretty clear that it needs to be calibrated to know what 0% is. I will open the battery boxes and check, but I'm fairly confident they are lead-acid 100ah.

You may be misunderstand the calibration process as you dont need the batterys discharged, but fully charged instead. On my Victron 712 I made sure the batterys were fully charged (did a 24 hr charge) and measured the specific gravity). I then set the Amp Hours to calibrate. The device then knows 100% and the capacity and will show % charged base on current usage. The shunt will also track the charge input. I am by no means an expert on this, but that is how I got mine to read correctly.

[jimgoings]

Yoda The manual can be found in this post and it's not subtle about needing to discharge the batteries: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...r-instructions

ncitro For giggles, I changed the AH from 100 to 200 and the charge status dropped from ~50% to ~25%. The math makes sense there, but the fact that I've been charging for several days and it shows such a low charge value seems wrong.

I attached a picture of one of my batteries. I can't find any info online about it. Similar model numbers (but not exact) have a 81 AH rating. Thus, I should set my AH to 162 since I have two batteries. However, based on the above test of changing the AH max it will make the charge indicator worse, not better.

Perhaps I just have a bad unit? Or maybe batteries are bad?

[Country Campers]

Could you disconnect the batteries from each other and from the RV and test the voltage to see what it is? There is a chart that tells the voltage at the percent of charge.


Brian

[ncitro]

jimgoings That battery is rated by a reserve capacity of 140 rather than an ah rating. That usually happens when the battery isn't a purpose built deep cycle battery and is a combo starting/deep cycle battery like a marine one. It'll be fine but you may find it will not perform well particularly if discharged deeply.

Usually a good approximation of ah from RC is to divide it in two, so assume you have 70ah each. If you have two that's 140 total.

The current flow will slow as the battery reaches full charge, that's why I asked what the shunt display showed for current going into the battery. You should be able to scroll the display until it shows amps. See what that number is while connected to shore power. Then unplug your shore power and see what it is. If the converter is running it should go down. If you do this test after dark and there is no solar available then it should go negative when you unplug it.

[Yoda]

Yoda The manual can be found in this post and it's not subtle about needing to discharge the batteries: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...r-instructions

ncitro For giggles, I changed the AH from 100 to 200 and the charge status dropped from ~50% to ~25%. The math makes sense there, but the fact that I've been charging for several days and it shows such a low charge value seems wrong.

I attached a picture of one of my batteries. I can't find any info online about it. Similar model numbers (but not exact) have a 81 AH rating. Thus, I should set my AH to 162 since I have two batteries. However, based on the above test of changing the AH max it will make the charge indicator worse, not better.

Perhaps I just have a bad unit? Or maybe batteries are bad?

Those instructions are very interesting. Would be interesting to check with the Battery manufacturer if doing that (10.5V) would hurt the battery.