# On Board Battery Charger



## coonchick22 (Jun 20, 2011)

Our on board battery charger is not charging the bAttery in our RV. We have a WFCO converter. When the battery is charged everything works good inside the RV. So does anyone have any suggestion on what may be the problem?


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## Bob in Virginia (Jul 15, 2010)

How old is the battery? Have you check the voltage being provided by the charger? Batteries can give odd symptoms when failing, showing 12+ volts but insufficient amperage to support anything other than a single bulb. You might also want to check the battery connection for corrosion.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

First thing...check to see if there is power coming to the battery. Plug in the trailer and then test the leads at the battery to see if you are getting a charge. If not...starting looking down line to find loose wire

If you are getting power to battery...check battery water level. Fill with distilled water...charge again.

If that fails...get in your truck and drive to store and buy replacement battery. Take old one with you...they typically give you a credit for it (like $10). Install new battery...open beer and enjoy.


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## coonchick22 (Jun 20, 2011)

Oregon_Camper said:


> First thing...check to see if there is power coming to the battery. Plug in the trailer and then test the leads at the battery to see if you are getting a charge. If not...starting looking down line to find loose wire
> 
> If you are getting power to battery...check battery water level. Fill with distilled water...charge again.
> 
> If that fails...get in your truck and drive to store and buy replacement battery. Take old one with you...they typically give you a credit for it (like $10). Install new battery...open beer and enjoy.


Thanks sounds like good advice. I forgot to mention the fan on the converter does not come on.


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## Jewellfamily (Sep 25, 2010)

The fan on the converter will run at varying speeds depending on draw on the system. If there is no draw or demand from your battery for charging you may not get the fan to run.


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

coonchick22 said:


> Our on board battery charger is not charging the bAttery in our RV. We have a WFCO converter. When the battery is charged everything works good inside the RV. So does anyone have any suggestion on what may be the problem?


I'm having the exact same problem. We are getting ready for a week long of dry camping over 4th of July and I noticed the converter is not charging the batteries (I have two identical connected in parallel). I cleaned all connections and even changed the ring terminals coming from the coach. When I first connect to the batteries the fan comes on for a sec and then I hear a relay click and the fan goes off. The fact that the fan comes on for a moment eliminates the issue with bad line from battery to converter (or does it?). The voltage at the batteries are never at 13.6v as WFCo manual says it should be.

My batteries are about 4 years old but BatteryMinder seems to be able to get them to a good charge. I'm scratching my head with this one. I'm about to go pick up a new battery just to eliminate that variable too. My coach will be 4 this September and I find it hard the converter would go out that fast.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Fred R.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

For what it's worth, I think the WFCO converters are junk. I've replaced the converters on our last three trailers with the Progressive Dynamics 9260 converter and never had a problem. The external "Charge Wizard" pendant allows me to see at a glance which of three modes the converter is in, and I can select full voltage at the touch of a button if I want to. It goes into desulfation mode (14.4 volts) for 15 minutes every 21 hours automatically. The fan is whisper quiet, and you'd be hard-pressed to hear it even when every light fixture is turned on.


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## dirtengineer (Jun 6, 2010)

I upgraded my WFCO with a Progressive Dynamics 4655 and have been pleased. Quite easy if you have any mechanical skill.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Insomniak said:


> For what it's worth, I think the WFCO converters are junk. I've replaced the converters on our last three trailers with the Progressive Dynamics 9260 converter and never had a problem. The external "Charge Wizard" pendant allows me to see at a glance which of three modes the converter is in, and I can select full voltage at the touch of a button if I want to. It goes into desulfation mode (14.4 volts) for 15 minutes every 21 hours automatically. The fan is whisper quiet, and you'd be hard-pressed to hear it even when every light fixture is turned on.


I am not sure "junk" is the right word. I do 95% dry camping, never had a battery or converter issue. It charges my batteries fast and does not over charge them. Yes I can hear the fan but that has never bothered me. It would be nice to force the converter to high output but in the last 7 years that I have had a trailer with this brand of converter they have never failed to provide good service.

Keystone on the other hand could have run a larger gauge wire from the battery to the converter and better protected the thermal reset breakers but even those items are not the end of the world. If you put in a better converter without upgrading the wiring you may not have really improved things much.

I think a better word is that the WFCO converters are just mid-level in performance and features. No where near bottom of the line or top of the line.


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## coonchick22 (Jun 20, 2011)

fredr said:


> Our on board battery charger is not charging the bAttery in our RV. We have a WFCO converter. When the battery is charged everything works good inside the RV. So does anyone have any suggestion on what may be the problem?


I'm having the exact same problem. We are getting ready for a week long of dry camping over 4th of July and I noticed the converter is not charging the batteries (I have two identical connected in parallel). I cleaned all connections and even changed the ring terminals coming from the coach. When I first connect to the batteries the fan comes on for a sec and then I hear a relay click and the fan goes off. The fact that the fan comes on for a moment eliminates the issue with bad line from battery to converter (or does it?). The voltage at the batteries are never at 13.6v as WFCo manual says it should be.

My batteries are about 4 years old but BatteryMinder seems to be able to get them to a good charge. I'm scratching my head with this one. I'm about to go pick up a new battery just to eliminate that variable too. My coach will be 4 this September and I find it hard the converter would go out that fast.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Fred R.
[/quote]

We have been using a battery minder also. Hubby said if battery minder keeps up the battery he's not worried about the converter. We have been camping just using the battery minder and everything works just find. Our TT is only 4 yrs. old, I would like for everything to work like it is suppose too


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

coonchick22 said:


> Our on board battery charger is not charging the bAttery in our RV. We have a WFCO converter. When the battery is charged everything works good inside the RV. So does anyone have any suggestion on what may be the problem?


I'm having the exact same problem. We are getting ready for a week long of dry camping over 4th of July and I noticed the converter is not charging the batteries (I have two identical connected in parallel). I cleaned all connections and even changed the ring terminals coming from the coach. When I first connect to the batteries the fan comes on for a sec and then I hear a relay click and the fan goes off. The fact that the fan comes on for a moment eliminates the issue with bad line from battery to converter (or does it?). The voltage at the batteries are never at 13.6v as WFCo manual says it should be.

My batteries are about 4 years old but BatteryMinder seems to be able to get them to a good charge. I'm scratching my head with this one. I'm about to go pick up a new battery just to eliminate that variable too. My coach will be 4 this September and I find it hard the converter would go out that fast.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Fred R.
[/quote]

We have been using a battery minder also. Hubby said if battery minder keeps up the battery he's not worried about the converter. We have been camping just using the battery minder and everything works just find. Our TT is only 4 yrs. old, I would like for everything to work like it is suppose too








[/quote]

Use of an external battery charger without disconnecting the batteries from the converter may have damaged the converter.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> For what it's worth, I think the WFCO converters are junk. I've replaced the converters on our last three trailers with the Progressive Dynamics 9260 converter and never had a problem. The external "Charge Wizard" pendant allows me to see at a glance which of three modes the converter is in, and I can select full voltage at the touch of a button if I want to. It goes into desulfation mode (14.4 volts) for 15 minutes every 21 hours automatically. The fan is whisper quiet, and you'd be hard-pressed to hear it even when every light fixture is turned on.


I am not sure "junk" is the right word. I do 95% dry camping, never had a battery or converter issue. It charges my batteries fast and does not over charge them. Yes I can hear the fan but that has never bothered me. It would be nice to force the converter to high output but in the last 7 years that I have had a trailer with this brand of converter they have never failed to provide good service.

Keystone on the other hand could have run a larger gauge wire from the battery to the converter and better protected the thermal reset breakers but even those items are not the end of the world. If you put in a better converter without upgrading the wiring you may not have really improved things much.

I think a better word is that the WFCO converters are just mid-level in performance and features. No where near bottom of the line or top of the line.
[/quote]
Ok, maybe it's just the fan that's junk, or maybe cheap would be a better term. I don't think they could have found a louder fan, and it runs constantly when more than two light fixtures are turned on. It was so annoying on our old 23RS that we had to flip the breaker for the converter when we went to sleep (but that also killed the outlets).


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....

Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

Nathan said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

So to get ready for our trip next week I picked up a 10amp 3 stage charger until I can figure out the problem with the converter. So what I want to know is why can't I connect the charger to the battery while it is connected to the converter? Why would that
damage the converter?


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

fredr said:


> So to get ready for our trip next week I picked up a 10amp 3 stage charger until I can figure out the problem with the converter. So what I want to know is why can't I connect the charger to the battery while it is connected to the converter? Why would that
> damage the converter?


I don't think connecting an external charger will damage the converter - it's protected by big fuses (40 amp I believe). I frequently have a solar charger connected, and I don't take the converter out of the circuit. I know people who have solar and wind egenerators connected at the same time as well. If the converter was working properly, it would be a little redundant to have another charger hooked up at the same time, but the respective charge controllers should cut each charging source out as needed.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Insomniak said:


> So to get ready for our trip next week I picked up a 10amp 3 stage charger until I can figure out the problem with the converter. So what I want to know is why can't I connect the charger to the battery while it is connected to the converter? Why would that
> damage the converter?


I don't think connecting an external charger will damage the converter - it's protected by big fuses (40 amp I believe). I frequently have a solar charger connected, and I don't take the converter out of the circuit. I know people who have solar and wind egenerators connected at the same time as well. If the converter was working properly, it would be a little redundant to have another charger hooked up at the same time, but the respective charge controllers should cut each charging source out as needed.
[/quote]

The damage potential is to the control and protection circuits on the WFCO. This is more of an issue if both the converter and an external charger is connected. Connection of a low wattage solar system when no shore power is present is not really an issue.

The choice is yours but I wouldn't do it.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

fredr said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.
[/quote]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Where on the tongue should I look for it. I've never had to deal with it. Not even sure what it looks like. A link or a picture would be great. Btw, I just noticed that gfci outlets don't have any power either. I checked the fuse and it was fine. Other outlets have power.


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

fredr said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.
[/quote]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Where on the tongue should I look for it. I've never had to deal with it. Not even sure what it looks like. A link or a picture would be great. Btw, I just noticed that gfci outlets don't have any power either. I checked the fuse and it was fine. Other outlets have power.
[/quote]

Nevermind. I reset the gfci in the bathroom and that took care of that issue. the ones I was checking don't have a reset button so I only checked the fuse box. Sometime you are so focused about one thing you miss the obvious stuff.

I also checked the thermal breaker and it looks fine. The voltages coming in and out are the same. After all of this I think the converter is blown.

FR


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

fredr said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.
[/quote]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Where on the tongue should I look for it. I've never had to deal with it. Not even sure what it looks like. A link or a picture would be great. Btw, I just noticed that gfci outlets don't have any power either. I checked the fuse and it was fine. Other outlets have power.
[/quote]

Nevermind. I reset the gfci in the bathroom and that took care of that issue. the ones I was checking don't have a reset button so I only checked the fuse box. Sometime you are so focused about one thing you miss the obvious stuff.

I also checked the thermal breaker and it looks fine. The voltages coming in and out are the same. After all of this I think the converter is blown.

FR
[/quote]
Did you check the 40 amp fuses for the converter?


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## fredr (Jun 26, 2006)

Insomniak said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.
[/quote]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Where on the tongue should I look for it. I've never had to deal with it. Not even sure what it looks like. A link or a picture would be great. Btw, I just noticed that gfci outlets don't have any power either. I checked the fuse and it was fine. Other outlets have power.
[/quote]

Nevermind. I reset the gfci in the bathroom and that took care of that issue. the ones I was checking don't have a reset button so I only checked the fuse box. Sometime you are so focused about one thing you miss the obvious stuff.

I also checked the thermal breaker and it looks fine. The voltages coming in and out are the same. After all of this I think the converter is blown.

FR
[/quote]
Did you check the 40 amp fuses for the converter?
[/quote]

I checked all the fuses on the panel. Could these be located somewhere else?

FR


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

fredr said:


> Regarding the loud click, that sounds like a thermal breaker tripping....
> 
> Regarding the converters, a single stage like I had in my 5'er was junk. I replaced it with a progressive dynamics and was pleased with it. The WFCO 3 stage from my OB and now the Rockwood works fine for my useage. I don't see a big difference other than the WFCO's fan is much noisier, but then again, there's no fan most of the time as we do a lot of dry camping....


Is the thermal breaker on the main board? What should I look for and can I change it?
[/quote]

The auto reset thermal breakers are located on the tongue, next to the battery and can be changed in a few minutes. Do not over torque the terminal nuts or you will damage the breaker.
[/quote]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Where on the tongue should I look for it. I've never had to deal with it. Not even sure what it looks like. A link or a picture would be great. Btw, I just noticed that gfci outlets don't have any power either. I checked the fuse and it was fine. Other outlets have power.
[/quote]

Nevermind. I reset the gfci in the bathroom and that took care of that issue. the ones I was checking don't have a reset button so I only checked the fuse box. Sometime you are so focused about one thing you miss the obvious stuff.

I also checked the thermal breaker and it looks fine. The voltages coming in and out are the same. After all of this I think the converter is blown.

FR
[/quote]
Did you check the 40 amp fuses for the converter?
[/quote]

I checked all the fuses on the panel. Could these be located somewhere else?

FR
[/quote]
If you have the WFCO converter, the two orange colored 40 amp fuses are located in the main electrical panel.


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