RV Wizard

I would like your opinion on adding 'battery oil' with the distilled water.

Thanks

I don't have an opinion as I have heard of it but do not have any experience with it. A properly operating system will not need any water added as the caps are designed to allow the hydrogen gases out and condense the water in the cap and drip back into the cell. I have checked by batteries every month and have yet to add any water. Have spent summers in FL. living full time with same result.

I have a new coach purchased in June. It came with 65 warranty problems that is now down to the last 9 that are currently being repaired. I have used the coach for 2 weeks out of these 5 months and the rest of the time it has been in 4 different shops for warranty repairs.
Two of the three batteries have now been replaced. The starting battery was bad when I took delivery and was replaced first. The dash computer failed and it was thought the converter was bad but the factory warranty department determined it was only a defective battery that had 4 bad cells in it, and was replaced. I now only have one original battery left and it must fail before it will be replaced.
The chassis was built last year and the batteries were dated April, 2003.
The factory advised they will no longer be using Exide batteries due to the high failure rate.
I am happy to see the original info in this post so I will know what to look or listen for while this last battery fails

Just a safety note;
Seems that when I take the caps off the batteries to check the water level, a few tiny drops of acid will splatter as the tops come loose. This amount or splatter is always more if I happen to be wearing a good shirt or new blue jeans After a couple of washing the damage shows on the clothes. Main thing is be sure and wear safety glasses when doing battery maintenace! It only takes a tiny amount of acid in your eye to cause big damage. CLothes can be replaced, eyes cant.

We just experienced exactly the same thing today. The odor started bothering me. I checked all sewer connections since I had drained tanks today. Finally opened battery compartment and first 12V Trojan of 3 was gurgling. That was the odor. Battery needed water the other day. A few people in the park figure it had a short and the charger kept trying to charge it. The temperature was 130 deg for that battery and the other two were in the 90s (using Radio Shack infrared digital thermometer). We disconnected the problem battery (other two may be as well, don't know yet) and disconnected the charger cable. We are running on the remaining two right now so that the fridge will operate. We will monitor overnight and reconnect the two to the charger in the morning and see what voltage is flowing.

Anyone have any idea what the warranty is on Trojans - I can't find it on their site or in my Winnie material. The battery posts are marked - Positive K 13 and Negative L 3 I assume Winnie one year warranty will start from my date of purchase last may.

When you add water how much have people had to add at any one time?

Thanks

Don

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Originally posted by Matt Cassels:
RV Wizard, you may just have saved my hide.
I was having a problem with the gas detector alarming, only happened when the coach was closed up at night with the Fantastic fan running and a bedroom window slightly open.
I checked all the propane fittings and connections with a hand held gas detector and found no leaks. Convinced that the detector must be faulty I disconnected the monitor, dumb move from I guy who has been RVing for 30+ years and should know better. i just happened to be reading some of the older posts on the forum and came across this one by RV Wizard, I realized that I had just had to top off the water in my batteries recently and they took an awful lot of water. I took my trusty gas detector around to the battery compartment and before I got the compartment door open it was alarming. I aired the compartment out before disconnecting the two 45 amp convertors and turning the battery disconnect off, didn't need a spark right then. I'll make along story short, the batteries had some bad cells, the convertor/charger was working just as it should by continuing to try and charge them. The battery compartment is sealed off from the rest of the coach, however where the cables went through the compartment the seal was not air tight and when the Fantastic fan was pulling air out and causing a negative air pressure the gas from the boiling batteries was pulled into the coach. Needless to say I have 2 new batteries and the gas monitor is re-connected.
So again I thank you RV Wizard for your post which may just have saved me from a disaster.

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Don, if you go to Trojan's web site, they have a section called "customer care" - they say they want your experience with them to be "trouble free".

Worth a try - I think the battery warranty is 2 years.

http://www.trojan-battery.com/rv.asp

Gentlemen about your batteries. Check the water levels often. Since we're now living full-time in our coach I have to check the levels every 2 weeks and yes they do run low. I don't see all the cells running low but some do.

I have a gallon of distilled water, and just purchased a turkey baster to add water with. Sometimes the turkey baster is more trouble than it's worth but it was only a buck and a half so I'll try it again. I do like to use a paper cup and I crease a spout in it and it seems to work well enough.

I just treated my self to a BatteryMINDerTM that I picked up today at Camping World. I have now experienced that not having one is a definite no-no. We were camping at Fort Wilderness for about 2 weeks and when I went to start the engine. I experienced a slight hesitation in the battery power BUT the engine kicked over right away.

I am concerned about this so I though that using a float charger would be a great idea. You all know that many posts were developed here in support of the BatteryMINDer and now out of necessity I have one working its magic below decks charging my engine battery.

According to the instructions in the documentation, if the green light does not begin blinking after 72 hours of continuous charging, the batteries will need to be de-sulfated. This is easily accomplished by pressing a small button on the case of the charger. I hope to be able to maintain a full charge on the battery, and resolve any problems with the battery with the conditioner circuitry.

I plugged in an extension cord into the side of my MH and ran the cord under the coach to the battery compartment. I left all the electronics in the battery compartment and I'm using alligator clips on the side of the engine battery. A more permanent solution is also included in the kit and that is a ring terminal harness that can be mounted to the side terminals permanently to the engine battery.

I hope that this little magic box performs as advertised and I have no doubt that it will because of all the members that have used this gizmo all have reported positive results. Everyone knows that iRV2 members always have the best gizmos and I'm pleased to have the BM on board taking care of my engine battery.

Thank you to all those members that preceded me in posting about the BatteryMINDer.

For more info see the website by clicking on the graphic.


Model 12112

I've been in touch with Winnebago (very helpful) and they also suggested it might well be a short in one battery. They suggested I have Trojan check. I called Trojan and will be taking all three batteries to their Fla distributor to be checked. If one or more have a flaw they will be replaced under warranty.

Also read the Trojan web site the other night (didn't get to bed until after 2pm as I read that site and just about every other one on the web related to batteries).

Driver, please keep us informed on your experience with the BatteryMinder. My automotive batteries are down to 12.2 and this solution sounds like the best to me.

My Dimensions inverter, converter and charger seems really great the way it conditions, charges and floats. Every five cycles it raises voltage to 15 to equalize. Only thing that puzzles me is that there is a wire that runs to the House bank of batteries to monitor temperature. I would have thought the high temperature would have shut down the charger. It might be that it can only really check the temperature of the first battery that it is connected to - it was the third (outer one) that boiled. Anyone know?

I'm going to try and make sure I don't have to experience this again. Driver, I paid $2.49 to a battery filler at Advanced Autoparts/Zone or whatever their name is. It made filling easy but the inner battery is still tough to check so I'm going to design my own dipsticks that will clearly show the level above the plates.

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Originally posted by dleslie125:
Driver, please keep us informed on your experience with the BatteryMinder. My automotive batteries are down to 12.2 and this solution sounds like the best to me..

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Don, Before I installed the BatteryMINDer I observed the engine battery voltage. It read 12.1 V. After having the unit in place for more than 72 hours, my battery voltage is now 12.9 V. It looks like it's workin'!

I have it on a de-sulphating cycle right now, perhaps that'll make it even better.

Be careful when de-sulphating (equalizing) that you do not have any of your 12 volt electronics on, as they do not like the 15 volts put out to the battery bank.