House battery is clicking!?

Lemonade · 05-26-2021, 05:09 PM

Everything's been going well on our inaugural voyage. Until.. the house battery and the converter seem to be at odds. They click back and forth. When the battery clicks, the voltage goes down about half a volt. Not working are the water pump and the levels indicator panel. Working are the exhaust fans and 12v lights.
The battery tests at 12.6v. The breakers are all good. Any words of wisdom? Thanks in advance!

Morich · 05-26-2021, 06:30 PM

Brings some basic questions for you to run over and see what might make sense.
One is that batteries should not click, so is it possible your are hearing sound that might be a loose wire near the battery making a snap as it makes or breaks contact? Click or snap might sound the same???

What I'm thinking "might" need checked is that all the cables and wires in that area are good, clean and tight as a loose wire could also make the voltage seem to jump up and down on the battery.

The converter while working may be expected to put out more than 12. 5 or so, so the battery voltage might appear higher while receiving charge from the converter but then if the wire comes loose again (snap or click?) you may see only the battery voltage which is going to be lower than the charge voltage.

Loose wires would also add lots of things that work or not as the gremlins wish! Also don't forget to check the ground wires as potential problems. They sometimes hide down behind the batteries.

Lemonade · 05-26-2021, 06:47 PM

We have (he has ��) checked all the connections. The clicking is very regular and continues when there's no motorhome movement. I put my ear right up to it, thinking that it might be something near the battery, but I really don't think so. Thanks for taking the time to brainstorm. It just might be gremlins weirdly showing up on day 6. I hope not!

NormD · 05-27-2021, 08:29 PM

You say that the water pump and level indicators don't work but the lights and fan do. In my coach the pump, level indicators, water heater, and generator switch are all available at the control panel. I don't have a wiring diagram for your coach, but an easy check might be to see if the water heater turns on. If it does not, electricity may not be getting to the panel. Do you have an automatic thermal circuit breaker that is trying to reset, but finds a short circuit each time it reconnects? This could account for the fixed time between clicks.

DavidM · 05-28-2021, 05:14 AM

Could it be the BIRD/Trombetta solenoid clicking? This is the one that connects the house to the chassis batteries so one can charge the other. I don't have one on my MH (I have the Precision Circuits BIM) but PC says that their product can avoid the "annoying clicking of the BIRD", so maybe that is what it is.

David

Lemonade · 07-04-2021, 05:11 PM

I'm going to try to explain what this was all about. If there's anything obviously wrong, it's because I misunderstood (entirely possible). The clicking was the converter cycling on. And on. We took the house battery out of its cubby and put 2 batteries elsewhere, connected to the solar panels.
There were cables belonging to the old battery that went under the floor. These were vaguely secured with rusted screws, unknown to us. We headed out on a trip. Not far into it, she (? ) started running
ragged and there was an alarming smell. I pulled over and we investigated. The smell seemed to be coming from the new house batteries. My husband disconnected them and off we went with no house power. Back at home he found what had happened we were shocked and grateful. The wires (for the battery and the pilot light for the fridge) fell down across the drive shaft and the insulation was rubbed away. We had (as I understand it) an arc welder going underneath right near the gas tank! It ran raggedly because the alternator is part of that circuit.

Thanks to all for trying to help us figure out what was going on. I'm so grateful we didn't end up as a mobile bomb. The wires are scary to look at.