Why I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy new camper batteries just because I thought I'd need to.
The Batteries: Two Trojan SCS225 deep cycle "flooded" batteries, purchased in May 2012 (5 years ago at this writing) for $390.
For (almost) as long as I've had these batteries in my camper I've had roof-mounted solar panels charging the batteries, for the past few years mediated by a Blue Sky Energy Solar Boost 2512iX-HV charge controller.
Flooded batteries such as these have a higher rate of self-discharge than AGM batteries, but because I keep the truck parked outside at home the batteries' charge stays topped up, thanks to the solar panels and the charge controller providing a "float charge" as needed. Parked in a spot with at least a couple hours of sun every day (most days), which is more than enough since nothing electrical is running in the camper (most of the time).
The Abuse: "More than enough" sunlight...except when the solar panels are covered with snow.
Then the voltage in the batteries can drop to about 11v and the liquid freeze -- yes, freeze. Not good, based on what people generally say...
Snow is ice and ice is clear...but even clear substances reflect light from their surfaces, and snow has a whole lot of surfaces -- so a whole lot of the sunlight is blocked from the solar panels when covered with snow. And this winter we had a whole lot of snow for weeks -- covering my solar panels.
And I didn't clear the snow off the panels -- even though I bought a roof rake in 2013 for the specific purpose of clearing snow off my camper roof. Why didn't I? "Lazy slacker" comes to mind, and there is that ...but mostly it just didn't cross my mind. I was mostly thinking about (and acting on) the ice dams on the roof of my house.
So...with my Big Bend N.P. trip coming up in February it finally hit me that maybe the snow on the camper roof was a problem for the batteries , which is when I checked and saw the 11.0 voltage (according to my Watts Up meter) and I opened the fill caps and saw "frozen". The acid-water freezes more easily at low voltage because "low voltage" means less acid in solution, so the freezing-point depression provided by the solute is lost. And the temperature had been down to the single-digits (°F) at my house. Damn.
Bounce Back: Batteries unrecoverably dead (or were they?) With my Big Bend trip less than 2 weeks away I figured -- "Damn...gotta buy a new set of batteries. Same ones are available for $420 (for 2) locally...or do I want to switch to AGM?" I consoled myself that since they were almost 5 years old it wasn't like I'd wrecked something nearly new, so not a huge loss.
It was Wandering Sagebrush, I think, who suggested that it might be worth trying to save the batteries, so with replacement batteries available locally, if necessary, I had time to give it a shot -- why not?
The battery fluid had thawed with the slightly-warmer ambient temperature -- showing the tops of the plates slightly exposed (another bad thing), but I refilled the chambers and put my Black and Decker smart charger to work!
Maybe it had dropped a little...which it shouldn't really, but better than I expected.
Since my Big Trip was going to be in an area with lots of sun, little shade, generally few clouds -- so the batteries would be regularly topped up, and even though the fridge would likely be running a lot in the warm temperatures -- I decided to go with the cheap alternative: use the existing batteries.
¡Bueno! And my 5-year-old, badly abused, batteries did just fine on the month+ long trip!
Has their true capacity been diminished, do they no longer have "130 amp-hours" (each) capacity as the result of their bad winter experience? I'm sure they've been diminished. I figure it's like what happens when a human has and survives a heart attack -- not good as new.
But I'm glad I postponed spending $400+ dollars for awhile and got away with it!
I love my Trojan deep cycle batteries!
The Batteries: Two Trojan SCS225 deep cycle "flooded" batteries, purchased in May 2012 (5 years ago at this writing) for $390.
For (almost) as long as I've had these batteries in my camper I've had roof-mounted solar panels charging the batteries, for the past few years mediated by a Blue Sky Energy Solar Boost 2512iX-HV charge controller.
Flooded batteries such as these have a higher rate of self-discharge than AGM batteries, but because I keep the truck parked outside at home the batteries' charge stays topped up, thanks to the solar panels and the charge controller providing a "float charge" as needed. Parked in a spot with at least a couple hours of sun every day (most days), which is more than enough since nothing electrical is running in the camper (most of the time).
The Abuse: "More than enough" sunlight...except when the solar panels are covered with snow.
Then the voltage in the batteries can drop to about 11v and the liquid freeze -- yes, freeze. Not good, based on what people generally say...Snow is ice and ice is clear...but even clear substances reflect light from their surfaces, and snow has a whole lot of surfaces -- so a whole lot of the sunlight is blocked from the solar panels when covered with snow. And this winter we had a whole lot of snow for weeks -- covering my solar panels.
And I didn't clear the snow off the panels -- even though I bought a roof rake in 2013 for the specific purpose of clearing snow off my camper roof. Why didn't I? "Lazy slacker" comes to mind, and there is that
...but mostly it just didn't cross my mind. I was mostly thinking about (and acting on) the ice dams on the roof of my house.So...with my Big Bend N.P. trip coming up in February it finally hit me that maybe the snow on the camper roof was a problem for the batteries
, which is when I checked and saw the 11.0 voltage (according to my Watts Up meter) and I opened the fill caps and saw "frozen". The acid-water freezes more easily at low voltage because "low voltage" means less acid in solution, so the freezing-point depression provided by the solute is lost. And the temperature had been down to the single-digits (°F) at my house. Damn.Bounce Back: Batteries unrecoverably dead (or were they?) With my Big Bend trip less than 2 weeks away I figured -- "Damn...gotta buy a new set of batteries. Same ones are available for $420 (for 2) locally...or do I want to switch to AGM?" I consoled myself that since they were almost 5 years old it wasn't like I'd wrecked something nearly new, so not a huge loss.
It was Wandering Sagebrush, I think, who suggested that it might be worth trying to save the batteries, so with replacement batteries available locally, if necessary, I had time to give it a shot -- why not?
The battery fluid had thawed with the slightly-warmer ambient temperature -- showing the tops of the plates slightly exposed (another bad thing), but I refilled the chambers and put my Black and Decker smart charger to work!
- I started by doing a regular charge on the batteries -- just to see if they would take a charge. The charger didn't give the 'unchargeable' warning, so maybe they're not so bad...
- Next I ran the Reconditioning cycle, aka "desulfurization" which tries to remove the lead sulfate crystals that form on the plates as the battery sits in a discharged state.
- Then I ran the Equilization cycle, which "stirs up" the fluid. This may not have been necessary, since I already did the Reconditioning, but couldn't hurt.
Maybe it had dropped a little...which it shouldn't really, but better than I expected.Since my Big Trip was going to be in an area with lots of sun, little shade, generally few clouds -- so the batteries would be regularly topped up, and even though the fridge would likely be running a lot in the warm temperatures -- I decided to go with the cheap alternative: use the existing batteries.
¡Bueno! And my 5-year-old, badly abused, batteries did just fine on the month+ long trip!
Has their true capacity been diminished, do they no longer have "130 amp-hours" (each) capacity as the result of their bad winter experience? I'm sure they've been diminished. I figure it's like what happens when a human has and survives a heart attack -- not good as new.
But I'm glad I postponed spending $400+ dollars for awhile and got away with it!
I love my Trojan deep cycle batteries!
