Burning out Convertors

[ChuckS]

Originally Posted by GBR

I have gone thru 3 converters under warranty on my 2017 Alpine. The dealer upgraded to 70amp converters and still replace 2 of them. Also have gone thru 3 house batteries. All the wiring checked out ok except for the 50 amp pole fuse on the hydraulic jack wiring. The pole was actually shorting and slides would continually stop and go. I noticed this when they stopped working and wiggled the connection and worked. Whether this caused the converters to fail, I don’t really know but the poor connection likely caused the batteries to go below 50% and fail. Since the fuse replacement last August I have no problems.

Hope you are using more than ONE battery for main coach power..if not and you do any boon dock camping one battery won’t hack it..

My 2014 Alpine still running OEM WFCO 70 amp converter. Two Costco GC2 batteries in the hyd compartment ..

Replaced the 50 amp breaker for pump motor 3 days after buying the Alpine back in 2014 with an 80 amp manual reset

[ND1C]

My Question is what is the AC Voltage to the Converter? Check it with the System Under a load. If you have a voltage drop low enough, That would fry the converter. Also look for over voltage. My Bet would be Voltage drop under a load.

[Farside]

It seems some people have missed the statement that he is also looking at going with a 1K solar setup later, and he even asked the question if he should go out and buy Battleborn lithium batteries. If you are going solar, I would definitely recommend going with the lithium batteries. They can be discharged 100% and recharged without any damage thousands of times and are maintenance free. In the long run they will last longer and be more economical. Also, the weight factor is definitely a bonus when you are loading down your RV with batteries. Two good 100ah lead acids will weigh in around 100lbs, cheaper batteries will be less, while two 100ah Battleborns will top out around 60lbs. Discharging an AGM 80% will drastically reduce it's lifecycle capability while a Battleborn will keep on ticking for years to come.

[Rocketsled]

The LiFEPO (Battleborn) battery will have a ton more capacity, and weigh significantly less...if that’s the route you take, be sure you get a converter that’s compatible. While they say Battleborn are a drop in replacement, every YouTube video I’ve seen calls out for a compatible converter.

I have 2 6v deep cycle batteries. More storage than 2 12v batteries, but also 4 times what a Battleborn would weigh.

[thatoneguy]

Wow lots of good advice! So I refilled my batteries, fluid was low in both, so far this 70a converter has been holding up like a champ but I may have to concede that the batteries are not performing optimally. AGM batteries were considered but I think I need to go back to battery shopping. I think my new converter will work with lithium, so I have that covered.

I did too many things at once to figure out what exactly was the issue but so far so good min us the short battery life which is my next upgrade.

Also since switching to this converter the lowest voltage I've seen is 12.0, so I'm guessing my batteries needing more electrolyte were part of my issue.

I'll be doing more wiring schematic studying for my solar array, but one thing at a time.

[GBR]

I note youR 80 amp replacement and I actually have one in hand that I purchased soon after the 50 amp was replaced. I will see how the new 50 amp does (currently great) and will replace at first sign of problems. I have also read where Lippert does recommend upgrade to 80 amp along with upgraded wiring to handle the load and heat generated. I have already upgraded to 4awg pending upgrade.

[kcmusa]

Did you check the wiring to the battery’s from the new converter. 50 to 70 amp may require larger wire.

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by kcmusa

Did you check the wiring to the battery’s from the new converter. 50 to 70 amp may require larger wire.

So far so good, I don't seen to be having any wires getting hot, or boil off issues on the batteries.

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by GBR

I note youR 80 amp replacement and I actually have one in hand that I purchased soon after the 50 amp was replaced. I will see how the new 50 amp does (currently great) and will replace at first sign of problems. I have also read where Lippert does recommend upgrade to 80 amp along with upgraded wiring to handle the load and heat generated. I have already upgraded to 4awg pending upgrade.

I actually went with a 70a converter as the 80a converter takes a different style of plug, not the standard. My service advisor recommend ed I didn't exceed 70a.

[firestation12]

Lithium batteries will require a higher voltage to charge them fully. Your new 70 amp voltage converter’s output of 13.?? will not fully charge the Battleborn batteries. Also the solar controller will also need to be capable of regulating a higher voltage from the the solar panels to the batteries. Don’t forget that the battleborns will need to be protected from Freezing.

[WDPatterson]

Originally Posted by thatoneguy

The batteries go from 12v to 10v extremely fast, 2 brand new interstate deep cycle. tbe come back to 12.8v pretty fast once on shore/generator power after a charge and only seems to have issues if also running the furnace.

note it will run the furnace just fine as low as 9.8v but as soon as i flip the generator on, the convertor hates it . Im guessing because the furnace is the largest system on 12v but if the furnace is on and working and batteries are low, turning off the furnace to recharge batteries seems like a design flaw.

Are you using wet, liquid acid batteries?? You should never discharge them below 12 volts. Lead acid batteries will not survive constant discharging like that. If you're running sealed batteries, the same thing applies. If you're running gel cells, you can complete them, but it's not good for your electrical system. Your electrical system needs to run at 12 volts, minimum.

Most Battery Systems have limiters which prevent you from running anything on an inverter below a certain voltage. That is usually 10 and a half or 11 volts. Anything below that, and things get hot. That's exactly what happened in your situation.

If you run lithium batteries, it's still not a good idea to discharge them down below 20%. In fact, it's best to just discharge them no more than 50% if you want them to live longer.

If you run the generator, it's probably a safer idea to keep doing that. Otherwise, you're going to need more batteries.

I've been living on our property and our fifth wheel for the last two years. Up until last week, we ran our generator almost full-time. The reason is simple. Batteries will only do you so good if you don't have enough of them.

We started running off of solar back in the spring. We were running on 192 amp hours LiFePO⁴ cells. That'll work fine, but if you run appliances at night, your batteries will die. If you want to keep doing things the way you're doing them, you're going to need to get good quality lithium iron phosphate cells which have a long profile for discharge. You going to need at least two hundred amp hours to keep your fridge running and your furnace. If you use your air conditioning, you're going to have to use your generator.

Otherwise, you're going to need over four hundred amp hours, along with solar panels. All of that is going to have to be made to keep up with your load. You're going to need to measure the load created by every Appliance in your system.

[WDPatterson]

Does your generator use a bonded neutral?? That is, the neutral wire is bonded with the ground wire. It's very important on RVs.

[WDPatterson]

Originally Posted by Steveo57

The converter is protected several different ways from overcurrent so I fail to see why it would smoke if there's a large demand on it. Typically they are current limited and will shutdown to protect themselves. There are also reverse polarity fuses which are in the output of the converter that will also protect it from overcurrent.

Your batteries should never see 10 volts. If that's what it really is then you're killing the batteries. It will take literally hours and hours and hours of running the generator to get the batteries back to a full charge if they are low like that. My converter takes 24-48 hours to fully top of the battery and get it back to 100%. Running it for a few hours will only get you a little bit of charge. You should be trying to keep the voltage above around 12.2 volts no load to make the batteries last.

Agreed... you'll kill lead acid batteries if you continually discharge them passed 12 volts.

I don't recommend long-term boondocking like what you're doing. In fact, you're better off getting a 6000 watt inverter, a set of good lithium iron phosphate batteries, and plug in with your 50 amp cable on the outside.

[WDPatterson]

Originally Posted by thatoneguy

Wow lots of good advice! So I refilled my batteries, fluid was low in both, so far this 70a converter has been holding up like a champ but I may have to concede that the batteries are not performing optimally. AGM batteries were considered but I think I need to go back to battery shopping. I think my new converter will work with lithium, so I have that covered.

I did too many things at once to figure out what exactly was the issue but so far so good min us the short battery life which is my next upgrade.

Also since switching to this converter the lowest voltage I've seen is 12.0, so I'm guessing my batteries needing more electrolyte were part of my issue.

I'll be doing more wiring schematic studying for my solar array, but one thing at a time.

Good !!!... You definitely need to keep an eye on those wet-cell batteries, and keep them well-vented... you don't want to have hydrogen build up in the storage compartment.

Two 12-volt Battleborn batteries, in parallel, will give you better results... they have their own battery management system within the battery. They'll shut the battery off to prevent damage.

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by firestation12

Lithium batteries will require a higher voltage to charge them fully. Your new 70 amp voltage converter’s output of 13.?? will not fully charge the Battleborn batteries. Also the solar controller will also need to be capable of regulating a higher voltage from the the solar panels to the batteries. Don’t forget that the battleborns will need to be protected from Freezing.

14.8 is what my converter puts to the batteries on their boost mode

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by WDPatterson

Does your generator use a bonded neutral?? That is, the neutral wire is bonded with the ground wire. It's very important on RVs.

I'm unsure.

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by WDPatterson

Agreed... you'll kill lead acid batteries if you continually discharge them passed 12 volts.



I don't recommend long-term boondocking like what you're doing. In fact, you're better off getting a 6000 watt inverter, a set of good lithium iron phosphate batteries, and plug in with your 50 amp cable on the outside.

I'm confused as to what you're suggesting? A 6000watt inverter to do what exactly?

[WDPatterson]

Originally Posted by thatoneguy

I have to disagree with below 0% that or my in-command monitor is very inaccurate... There would be no way for me to power anything if i was at 0% charge, so I'll say ive never run the multimeter to batteries directly but i promise the batteries aren't destroyed.


example i was reading 10.8-11 v on battery this last time , started generator, voltage reading 13.7, 5 minutes later voltage was 9.9 and falling fast with obvious power drain, assuming the converter pulling lots of power that it wasn't prior to "due to the short?" So my problem should have nothing to do with the batteries low voltage, as THEY CHARGE FINE under normal circumstances without the furnace on. However the batteries themselves could be an issue in conjunction with the converter.

If the batteries were "destroyed" bu running them low, it would happen the first day. Non deep cycle batteries i agreee, you ruin them, deep cycles are meant to be depleted. Yes you lessen their life span the more you discharge them but they aren't ruined.

What you're seeing, at 13.7 volts is charge voltage. Not actual battery voltage. If you turn off the charger, you'll see the battery start settling. That's what the battery's voltage really is. I don't think you're getting your batteries charged all the way up. And, I think the load is too great for the batteries you have. As someone else here pointed out a while ago, those batteries have to charge for at least 12 to 14 hours. A couple of hours doesn't cut it.

[thatoneguy]

Originally Posted by WDPatterson

What you're seeing, at 13.7 volts is charge voltage. Not actual battery voltage. If you turn off the charger, you'll see the battery start settling. That's what the batteries voltage really is. I don't think you're getting your batteries charged all the way up. And, I think the load is too great for the batteries you have. As someone else here pointed out a while ago, does batteries have to charge for at least 12 to 14 hours. A couple of hours doesn't cut it.

According to my paperwork, it takes 2-3 hours for my converter to charge batteries to 85-90% but up to 6-8 hours to get fully charged.

[WDPatterson]

Originally Posted by thatoneguy

I'm confused as to what you're suggesting? A 6000watt inverter to do what exactly?

Instead of running off your internal batteries, you should be using an external inverter outside of your trailer. Think of it as an external power source. When you're camping long-term, like what you're doing, that's not really boondocking. That's a semi permanent situation. So, you're best off plugging it to it with your external trailer cable. You can actually make a 50 amp jumper to connect to the 6000 watt inverter. Connect inverter to a set of batteries, and let the generator charge them. I reccomend a good Schomacher charger for that.

If you are really intending to go with solar, I can make a few suggestions. 1000 Watts won't be sufficient. Look at 370 W, or above, panels. That requires a different forum.