Reaching a full charge.

Alaska Man

My 896Ah AGM bank is not reaching full charge when I run my generator, according to the Trimetric 2030. I used to use the 3 stage charging, but was advised by a friend to use the "No-float" on my Xantrex Control Panel. Reasoning was, “You reach float, why keep burning fuel"?
I really never minded burning the little bit of fuel until I noticed I had reached float and shut the genny down.

So on to set points.
Bulk charging V 14.4 on my Full River 6v AGM’s, Absorb is 14.3 for 200 minutes. I programmed in 400ah in the control panel and had ending charge at 8A.

Each 6v battery is 224ah @ 20 hours total 6v bank 1,796ah.

The full indicator bar on the Xantrex reads full. The Trimetric reads 92%-98%

The Midnight Classic charge controller will bring the batteries to read 100% on the Trimetric. When using Ole’ Sol for power.

My gut is telling me to go back to the 3 stage charge, my friend is saying to lower the battery AH setting down to 200ah. It's counter intuitive. He explained it to me once before why lowering the AH increases the charge, but my brain has decided that information was not worth retaining.

Any thoughts? Again, thanks for any help you can give.

westbranch

Re: Reaching a full charge.

I am not sure just what your X charger is set at but it should match up with your Classic's settings... they seem to be working

Alaska Man

Re: Reaching a full charge.

That's a thought.

The Midnight switches out of bulk at 14.4, but wouldn't the battery voltage vary with the variations in the sun's energy under load? The only other differnce that comes to mind is Ending Amps, 1a on the Midnight and 8a on the AC charger. They both usually time out before reaching "Ending Amps".

vtmaps

Re: Reaching a full charge.

Alaska Man wrote: »

my friend is saying to lower the battery AH setting down to 200ah. It's counter intuitive. He explained it to me once before why lowering the AH increases the charge, but my brain has decided that information was not worth retaining.

I think it would have been worth retaining... My recollection (I don't have a xantrex) is that the xantrex uses the battery capacity to decide what the end amps should be. If you want more charging on a Midnite (or other logically designed charger) you just set the end amps as low as you want. On the xantrex, the only way to set the end amps lower is to tell the xantrex that you have smaller batteries.

--vtMaps

Alaska Man

Re: Reaching a full charge.

Yes, thanks!! That's exactly right. So logic dictates that if I do as he suggeted and lower the total AH setting in the Xantrex then it will charge longer trying to reach the lower end amp setting.

Thanks, I will give that a try.

Getting old isn't for the faint of heart, I just hope I don't forget my whole life before I go under. ;-)

BB.

Re: Reaching a full charge.

Don't worry about forgetting everything--Your wife will keep reminding you.

-Bill

Alaska Man

Re: Reaching a full charge.

BB. wrote: »

Don't worry about forgetting everything--Your wife will keep reminding you.

-Bill

That's for sure, When I b!tch about getting old she says, "You're not old, I'll let you know when you are old". :-)

Alaska Man

Re: Reaching a full charge.

It worked!!

I lowered the total AH on the Xantrex control panel, had two glasses of wine, fell asleep and when I woke up. I was in float and the Trimetric showed 100%.

Thanks again for the help.

vtmaps

Re: Reaching a full charge.

Alaska Man wrote: »

had two glasses of wine, fell asleep and when I woke up. I was in float

Really? In that order? Usually after a couple glasses of wine I feel like I am floating, and then I fall asleep

--vtMaps

Alaska Man

Re: Reaching a full charge.

LOL..... Should have said, "the batteries and I were in float".

I hear that, in the old days after two, I'd have been chasing the wife around the cabin. 8-)