Split Charge Relay Help

[Deleted member 7446]

Ok mate yeah makes perfect sense thanks for the help all of you! 

Another pointer.

If you can insulate your battery either by polystyrene sheet under and beside it temperature can also help prolong the batteries life.

Safety point

A battery must be ventilated and not enclosed in an air tight box when charging as gases need to escape which mitigates fire and explosion 

 

[RyeCleanLiam]

Very bizarre but I have a stop start van and I've never charged my battery once in 2 years and it never drops below 12.5v. and I have a diesel water heater that runs everyday of the year.

I do use a smart split charge though so maybe that helps.

 

[Deleted member 7446]

Very bizarre but I have a stop start van and I've never charged my battery once in 2 years and it never drops below 12.5v. and I have a diesel water heater that runs everyday of the year.

I do use a smart split charge though so maybe that helps.

When I say start stop I didn't mean engine idling cut off. 

Start stop short journeys within a close proximity to home without driving miles on end for a long period of time 

 

[dazmond]

Very bizarre but I have a stop start van and I've never charged my battery once in 2 years and it never drops below 12.5v. and I have a diesel water heater that runs everyday of the year.

I do use a smart split charge though so maybe that helps.

You run a diesel heater every day and you never have to charge your batteries up overnight?what batteries do you have and is it a 9kw diesel heater your running every day?

 

[ched999uk]

Very bizarre but I have a stop start van and I've never charged my battery once in 2 years and it never drops below 12.5v. and I have a diesel water heater that runs everyday of the year.

I do use a smart split charge though so maybe that helps.

WOW do you do lots of miles? What make and model of smart charger do you use?

 

[Deleted member 7446]

Very bizarre but I have a stop start van and I've never charged my battery once in 2 years and it never drops below 12.5v. and I have a diesel water heater that runs everyday of the year.

I do use a smart split charge though so maybe that helps.

On average a van would have to travel around 80 miles a day on motorways to sustain an adequate charge and battery cycling.

Thats what I was told by the head engineer at durite and was also asked in depth details of my work schedule and informed I'd still require an additional bench leisure battery charger to keep my batteries in good health and regular morning readings of approximately 12.6v 

 

[Part Timer]

On average a van would have to travel around 80 miles a day on motorways to sustain an adequate charge and battery cycling.

Thats what I was told by the head engineer at durite and was also asked in depth details of my work schedule and informed I'd still require an additional bench leisure battery charger to keep my batteries in good health and regular morning readings of approximately 12.6v 

We have 2 weeks where we work locally, that's within 30 miles for us. In those 2 weeks we don't do more than a tank of diesel, 500ish miles, and haven't needed, as yet, to bench charge the batteries. That's 2 men running 2 electric reels and filling every night with onboard filtration. Once, in 6 months, the top display, the controller that we use for the filling, was flashing BAT at the end of the week.

 

[spruce]

We haven't been able to fully charge a leisure battery off a split charge relay or battery to battery charger on any of the vans we have used for window cleaning.

What I have found is that a lead acid battery will only accept a limited charge rate depending on the charge left in the battery. On all the vans, I have found that the van's alternator will charge our leisure battery at the same amps whether the engine is idling or revving down the motorway. It just takes time to recharge a battery. The closer the battery is to full charge, the lower the amps the battery will accept.

Today, we used 17 amps of power from a full charged battery. The drive home was 4 miles and I returned 3 amps of that 17 amps. My Numax smart charger has been on for the past 2 hours and is currently charging the battery at 3amps. The leisure battery is 96% fully charged according to my battery monitor.

I keep wondering when the price of a lithium-ion battery will drop enough to make it economically feasible to use instead of a leisure battery, and even if it will be suitable in our environment and application.

 

[spruce]

Ok mate thanks for your help 

Yeah mate so it got down to 7.00 and I’d try Leave engine running to do some work and it would just stay the same, do you reckon it’s the split charge relay then that’s knackered? Thanks 

One of the most important tools a window cleaner needs to have in his tool kit is a good multimeter.

With the multimeter set on DC volts, we measure the voltage across the leisure battery terminals with the van's engine running. The multimeter should read a voltage of around 13.9 to 14.2v.

However, if you have a smart alternator and/or regenerative braking, then things could be very different. What SCR have you got and what van have you got?

 

[Deleted member 7446]

One of the most important tools a window cleaner needs to have in his tool kit is a good multimeter.

With the multimeter set on DC volts, we measure the voltage across the leisure battery terminals with the van's engine running. The multimeter should read a voltage of around 13.9 to 14.2v.

However, if you have a smart alternator and/or regenerative braking, then things could be very different. What SCR have you got and what van have you got?

Very true

I had a 50cal ammo box under my passenger seat with flue multimeter, clamp meter, tools, gas soldering iron, fuses and lots of magic 

 

[Billy pajak]

One of the most important tools a window cleaner needs to have in his tool kit is a good multimeter.

With the multimeter set on DC volts, we measure the voltage across the leisure battery terminals with the van's engine running. The multimeter should read a voltage of around 13.9 to 14.2v.

However, if you have a smart alternator and/or regenerative braking, then things could be very different. What SCR have you got and what van have you got?

I don’t know what you mean by SCR I have a Ford transit connect m sport 14 plate 

One of the most important tools a window cleaner needs to have in his tool kit is a good multimeter.

With the multimeter set on DC volts, we measure the voltage across the leisure battery terminals with the van's engine running. The multimeter should read a voltage of around 13.9 to 14.2v.

However, if you have a smart alternator and/or regenerative braking, then things could be very different. What SCR have you got and what van have you got?

I’m very new to wfp window cleaning so it’s all a bit much to get my head around as you can imagine, learning every day 

 

[Davy G]

I don’t know what you mean by SCR I have a Ford transit connect m sport 14 plate 

I’m very new to wfp window cleaning so it’s all a bit much to get my head around as you can imagine, learning every day 

Go on YouTube and type in Durite Split Charge Relay. There are several posts with explanations. Watch a good few and get your head around the subject. If you go this route make sure you get the correct one for your vehicle and, as it's a totally alien subject to you I'd get it fitted by a professional auto electrician. Preferably one familiar with them. A good caravan/campervan specialist should be able to help you.

 

[Billy pajak]

Go on YouTube and type in Durite Split Charge Relay. There are several posts with explanations. Watch a good few and get your head around the subject. If you go this route make sure you get the correct one for your vehicle and, as it's a totally alien subject to you I'd get it fitted by a professional auto electrician. Preferably one familiar with them. A good caravan/campervan specialist should be able to help you.

Ok mate Thankyou, as of now I’m just manually charging my leisure battery it lasts me about 5 days per charge 

 

[ched999uk]

Ok mate Thankyou, as of now I’m just manually charging my leisure battery it lasts me about 5 days per charge 

Just so you know you shouldn't allow the rested voltage to drop below 12.1v (50% charge). If allowed to drop below 50% you will be shortening it's life! So might be best to charge more frequently.

 

[Billy pajak]

Just so you know you shouldn't allow the rested voltage to drop below 12.1v (50% charge). If allowed to drop below 50% you will be shortening it's life! So might be best to charge more frequently.

Ok mate cheers 

 

[Deleted member 7446]

I don’t know what you mean by SCR I have a Ford transit connect m sport 14 plate 

I’m very new to wfp window cleaning so it’s all a bit much to get my head around as you can imagine, learning every day 

If you read the forum and take notes it will help you learn the trade made 

 

[spruce]

Ok mate Thankyou, as of now I’m just manually charging my leisure battery it lasts me about 5 days per charge 

You might look at this thread. I appreciate that the many facets of running a window cleaning van can be daunting sometimes. We have all been in that same situation at some time or another.



Let's talk about battery care. After all, leisure batteries are expensive and, as an industry, we are inclined to be very hard on our batteries.

For your battery to last a long time and serve you well, you have to know how to care for it. A lead acid battery doesn't like to go below a 50% depth of discharge. This means that a 100 amp leisure battery has a working capacity of around 50 amps. Your battery needs to be recharged as soon as possible. A battery that is consistently used to say a 20% depth of discharge and recharged asap will last much longer than a battery deeply discharged to say an 80% DoD. Since over-discharge can dramatically damage a rechargeable battery, a concrete request on maximum DoD is defined by manufacturers.

If you Google "NCC verified battery scheme" you will see a list of 3 classes of batteries and what number of discharge/recharge cycles you can expect at a 50% DoD.

One thing we do is to fully recharge our leisure battery every second night in summer and every night in winter. It's just a matter of plugging the van in using an extension cable. In winter we put a frostat heater into the van which stops the van freezing up when the nights are cold, so plugging a smart charger into the van takes just a few moments more.

Let's go back to our 100 amp battery. We will have about 50 amps of usable capacity to drive a single Shurflo pump. A Shurflo pump using a controller could well draw around 4 amps of current each hour running continually. Let's say your pump only runs 50% of the time each hour as you are doing other things for the balance; driving to the next job, drying the doors and wiping the sills down, writing out tickets, etc. If you work for 8 hours on your own, then you could have used around 16 amps. 84 amps are left in the battery. By the time you have worked for 5 days, you have used 80% of your battery's capacity. It still will provide power to your pump for maybe another day, but then it's flat. But the thing is that you can’t usually use all that energy without damaging the battery. You have used up one of its expected cycles. It becomes sulphated if left discharged and losses capacity.

Using 2 pumps and a diesel heater will use around 25% to 30% of our battery's 105 amp capacity each day, and we don't work a full 8 hours. (My health and age does allow me to do what I once used to do.) We don't do much mileage every day, so my van's alternator doesn't put much back into my leisure battery on the way home or back out the next day. But that's my circumstances. Other cleaners may spend more time stuck in traffic with the engine idling. This will give the alternator more time to replenish the charge to the battery.

 

[spruce]

Just so you know you shouldn't allow the rested voltage to drop below 12.1v (50% charge). If allowed to drop below 50% you will be shortening it's life! So might be best to charge more frequently.

This is another issue. Many battery experts still can't agree with when a battery is say 50% charged. Some say 12.1v and others say 12.5v. I've always run with 12.5v. This seems to better relate to what my battery monitor reports.

We also have Peukert's Law which I put my hands up to not understanding. What I can't figure out is how his law relates to my battery charging. In other words, my battery monitor will tell me my battery is fully charged when it's still accepting a charge rate of 3 or 4 amps.

Changing the Peukert constant between 1 to 1.5 in the settings menu on my Victron monitor changes the reporting characteristics. As I have no clue about these things, I leave the settings as the default settings set by Victron.

 

[steve garwood]

This is another issue. Many battery experts still can't agree with when a battery is say 50% charged. Some say 12.1v and others say 12.5v. I've always run with 12.5v. This seems to better relate to what my battery monitor reports.

We also have Peukert's Law which I put my hands up to not understanding. What I can't figure out is how his law relates to my battery charging. In other words, my battery monitor will tell me my battery is fully charged when it's still accepting a charge rate of 3 or 4 amps.

Changing the Peukert constant between 1 to 1.5 in the settings menu on my Victron monitor changes the reporting characteristics. As I have no clue about these things, I leave the settings as the default settings set by Victron.

Must say @spruce I do admire your commitment to this forum. You put a lot of effort, and I for one am grateful.

Although being honest, when I see how long your last couple of post were, I couldn’t be ar5ed to read them 

 

[Part Timer]

Must say @spruce I do admire your commitment to this forum. You put a lot of effort, and I for one am grateful.

Although being honest, when I see how long your last couple of post were, I couldn’t be ar5ed to read them 

Not much point in me reading them as I wouldn't understand it anyway.

 

[Tuffers]

Must say @spruce I do admire your commitment to this forum. You put a lot of effort, and I for one am grateful.

Although being honest, when I see how long your last couple of post were, I couldn’t be ar5ed to read them 

He knows his stuff that's for sure. As long as my pump pumps I'm happy ?. I do charge my battery every night and it only takes up to an hour. I have an inbuilt charging facility on my controller. I wired it up to a 12v cigar lighter socket in the back of the van. When I stop the van after driving it my charger flashes 'charge' for a while.