How to read my bluetooth Victron Charger APP (IP67) when the RV is in storage?
My RV is in storage and I an not able to check on the water level in my house batteries.
My house battery bank consists of 4-6V-GC2-Golf Cart Batteries (420AH total).
I left my new to me Victron IP67 charger plugged in to maintain my house and chassis batteries, but I forgot to take it out of "normal" mode and I left the RV stored.
Today I read the manual and they suggested I change the settings to "storage" mode when you are not using the RV.
Normal mode applies 14.4V.
Storage mode applies 13.2V; and there is a note in the manual which states this mode is recommended to keep water levels high as possible.
So now I'm wondering how fast water evaporates out of 6V house batteries over time? ...And I am wondering if a battery maintainer accelerates water evaporation?
Note: The Victron is a 17A charger, but it's also a "battery maintainer." I.e., it is a smart-charger and this is not the same as other so-called "dumb chargers."
My coach has been in storage for 6 months so far, and I plan to pick the RV up in 2-3 months. So my RV will be in storage for 8-9 months total.
The Victron IP67 has a bluetooth interface and I had a person send me a snapshot of the charging profile. (See below.)
So now I'm wondering how to interpret this information, and I am mildly concerned by the time I return in another 2-3 months that I will find my battery cell completely dry, which would defeat the purpose of using the charger-maintainer in the first place.
The Victron IC67 is only a 17A model, but that's not so important. I really like it, but I left my RV in storage with 14.4V charging, and the Victron bluetooth profile (see below) is telling me this:
After 118.5 days the Victron charger output 1328AH.
I think this means the charger is maintaining my house batteries by supplying it with 11.25AH/day. And I would expect that, because I also am using a Keyline Charger, that syphons off amps to charge my sealed chassis batteries, which by the way consists of two 950CA, group 32 batteries (I think).
Anyway, 11.25AH/Day is really about 0.46A/hr if my math is correct? Is it?
That being the case, this is the total current that is really maintaining both my house batteries and my engine batteries, because I also installed a Keyline VSR (Battery Isolator), which sounds great to me... if I am reading my Victron correct?
(Here's the math: 1328AH/118.5days= 11.25 AH/day or ~.46A/hour.)
Note: Each 6V battery has 3 cells. I have 4 batteries so there were 12 cells full of water when I sored my RV back in October.
So... I wonder what my water level will be when I pickup the RV after 8 months of storage?
QUESTIONS
* Can .46A/hour which is equal to ~7W/hr... at 14.4V of charge... boil off any or some or a lot of water in my house batteries while the Victron is maintaining all of it? ...I would think not really. What do you think?
* So how much water evaporates from batteries (just sitting in cold, mild and hot weather over time)... when batteries are being maintained in storage?
* I vaguely remember my old house batteries were down... about 50% of full, after about 8 months of storage between October and April, when I stored my RV in Houston Texas during this time. This means temperatures varied a lot, but nothing got over 80F for very long and 2-3 months averaged 45F.
I know this sounds a little esoteric, and right now; and I know I could answer my own questions if I could just pour some distilled water into my house batteries, but I can't.
So I'm wondering if any one has filled their house batteries in storage after 6+ months, while connected to a battery maintainer or not; and if so, I would like to know how much water did you added?
Note: I also use this Victron 17A charger as my main house battery charger when I am using my RV and have access to shore power. It works great, I just plug it into my wall receptacle and turn off my Dimensions Charger. And when I leave my RV in storage, I just run an extension cord in to the bedroom through those tip-out windows! Works great! ...And it takes the burden of charging batteries off my Dimensions Inverter-Charger. So this is good for my Dimension box too!
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