Electrical What battery, and what happened?

[Ol' Salty]

Hey All, fist time poster.
Ive got 2013 Jayco starcraft outback.

So the other day the other half told me the caravan was making a buz noise. I went out there and saw that the controller was reading 10.2 volts, thought that was a bit strange because I thought it would stop putting out power at around 12. Thought I must have left the light or something on. Anyway so I go get out the ctek charger and hooked it up, after turning off the power to the controller and the Jayco battery charger.
Came out today to disconnect and see how the battery was going and smelled that dreaded electrical burning smell, then found the battery had overheated, hot and had expanded.
- So what I want to know is this likely the battery just failed?
- Could it of possibly been the ctek charger, I thought they're pretty smart.
- there was originally a gel 100 AH battery in there, can I replace it with an AGM ? and will the Jayco charging system handle that.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ol' Salty]

Bocsh 100 AH gel battery

 

[Ol' Salty]

Everthing is in thread.
Found it flat and charged it with a ctek battery charger.
Type of battery was also there.

 

[Boots in Action]

Everthing is in thread.
Found it flat and charged it with a ctek battery charger.
Type of battery was also there.

Hi @Ol' Salty and welcome to the forum. To answer your questions one at a time in order. I assume you have a Setec charger ST20 or 35 Series III. If you look in the manual (you can download it if you cannot find yours), you will find on page 2, that there is what's called LVD (low voltage disconnect) and this happens when the Setec detects that the voltage is 10.02 volts give or take, and automatically disconnects all electrical loads to protect battery from further discharge and maybe save it. Re-connection of power to loads and with the Setec charging does not occur until battery voltage reaches around 11.8 volts approx. It is fully explained in manual and does not cut out at 12.00 volts as you said. If the Setec tries to charge battery, it is only at 0.8 amps until the higher voltage is reached.
So battery has probably failed due to age or number of recharges has reduced it ability to accept and hold a proper charge. How old is it anyway?
When you tried to charge the battery with your Ctek charger (multi-stage "smart" charger) and failed, battery was probably beyond useful life and/or had an internal short. I hope you set the battery type as "gel" not "sealed" or "AGM' as they have different charging algorithms. Gels like max charge voltage between 14.2 and 14.4 max. AGMs need slightly higher voltage - 14.4 to 14.7 volts - for optimum charging. See side of battery for these details. What you saw today was a hot battery no longer able to accept any charge and you would not be the first on this forum to experience this.

Yes , you can replace your Gel battery with an AGM. I have an AGM 135ah capacity in my van - original 120ah AGM lasted just over 8 years. Connecting an AGM to the existing Setec system in your van is not the best combination as the Setec will only charge to 14.05 volts (also in the manual), which is not optimum, but quite satisfactory if you accept that approx 15% of battery capacity will not be used and eventually lost. You can overcome this problem by using your Ctek "smart charger" when back from off grid or having used the battery, to bring battery back up to max for a couple of days and then connecting to the van Setec to look after the battery on "float" for longer periods. The following may be helpful to you.

 

[Drover]

I would replace it with an AGM, I have GEL's and they will be replaced with AGM's which are easier to source on the road and are more cost effective .............
I have had a GEL do the cook and expand thing myself, the battery shop said not uncommon, at least they don't go bang.

 

[Hylux]

The gel batteries can and do fail giving expanded sides, running hot, giving a strange smell and sometimes a faint noise while charging. I would do maintenance checks on thousands of these batteries in my working life. My experience they should be checked at least every 6 months.
1. Charge voltage 13.8-14.2v. If in storage or low I like 13.8 for sustainability of the battery, constant use 14.2v to give better output.
2. Feel for any bubble, expansion,cracks etc on the outside. Replace if evident.
3. Any sign of terminal corrosion replace as should not happen.
4. Ensure no heat in the battey compartment, they hate heat.
5. A fully charged battery should not drop bellow initial 12.4-12.2v when switched to heavy load. If does maybe getting near end of life.

My thoughts from experience anyway

 

[Drover]

I knew I had a pic, stand corrected though it was an AGM that went "China", very scary, now I keep a regular check by eyes and nose .................. explanation was things short sometimes................ Having been around exploders before I took great care getting this out and cooled down, later finding this is what they do instead of BANG...

 

[mfexpanda]

I knew I had a pic, stand corrected though it was an AGM that went "China", very scary, now I keep a regular check by eyes and nose .................. explanation was things short sometimes................ Having been around exploders before I took great care getting this out and cooled down, later finding this is what they do instead of BANG...

View attachment 67860

we had one of ours do that when we were in karumba earlier this year .
it got very hot

 

[Drover]

At least when a lithium goes it will burn down the whole van, saves looking for replacement battery...,

 

[Ol' Salty]

Thanks

Hi @Ol' Salty and welcome to the forum. To answer your questions one at a time in order. I assume you have a Setec charger ST20 or 35 Series III. If you look in the manual (you can download it if you cannot find yours), you will find on page 2, that there is what's called LVD (low voltage disconnect) and this happens when the Setec detects that the voltage is 10.02 volts give or take, and automatically disconnects all electrical loads to protect battery from further discharge and maybe save it. Re-connection of power to loads and with the Setec charging does not occur until battery voltage reaches around 11.8 volts approx. It is fully explained in manual and does not cut out at 12.00 volts as you said. If the Setec tries to charge battery, it is only at 0.8 amps until the higher voltage is reached.
So battery has probably failed due to age or number of recharges has reduced it ability to accept and hold a proper charge. How old is it anyway?
When you tried to charge the battery with your Ctek charger (multi-stage "smart" charger) and failed, battery was probably beyond useful life and/or had an internal short. I hope you set the battery type as "gel" not "sealed" or "AGM' as they have different charging algorithms. Gels like max charge voltage between 14.2 and 14.4 max. AGMs need slightly higher voltage - 14.4 to 14.7 volts - for optimum charging. See side of battery for these details. What you saw today was a hot battery no longer able to accept any charge and you would not be the first on this forum to experience this.

Yes , you can replace your Gel battery with an AGM. I have an AGM 135ah capacity in my van - original 120ah AGM lasted just over 8 years. Connecting an AGM to the existing Setec system in your van is not the best combination as the Setec will only charge to 14.05 volts (also in the manual), which is not optimum, but quite satisfactory if you accept that approx 15% of battery capacity will not be used and eventually lost. You can overcome this problem by using your Ctek "smart charger" when back from off grid or having used the battery, to bring battery back up to max for a couple of days and then connecting to the van Setec to look after the battery on "float" for longer periods. The following may be helpful to you.

Thanks Boots in Action,

Yeah, 12 was wrong, was thinking cut out on crank battery.
Its a setec st III, bought the van used, but say its the original battery.
Ctek charger is auto, so no setting battery type. It just knows somehow.im going to go a AGM, and may upgrade the solar reg to top up battery properly whilst out n a bout

Thanks again,