# How To Test The Converter Is Switching To Trickle Charge???



## BritGirl (Apr 7, 2006)

Hi All Again............

Another question..................

I went and bought a new battery, we are starting with one battery if everything is fine we will then buy the second one. It is fully charged on a separate battery charger and we have now installed it on the OB. We tested output from the house which is all okay, nothing wrong there. We then tested the output current at the battery terminals from the converter with it plugged in to shore power and it was reading 13.6 VDC.....How soon should it drop to a trickle? and how do we test for it? and what should the voltage meter read at that point? since we want to avoid frying another battery.

Any input would be greatly appreciated..........Britgirl


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

It varies some but if it is fully charged it should drop to 13.2 within an hour. At 13.6 it is only putting a max of about 10 amps and will not hurt the battery in the short term. If it has not switched in 24 hours then you have an issue with the converter.

If it puts out 14.2 then it thinks the battery is really dead and is pumping the amps into it.

You can get a feel for the converts current flow even without an amp meter (which are nice to have for testing like this) by monitoring the fan in the converter. If the fan is not running it will be at very low current draw and will switch to float soon, if the fan is running then there is some current flowing and you should check everything every hour to see if it is changing.


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## BritGirl (Apr 7, 2006)

Thanks Camper Andy, that was good info, just out of curiosity....the fan only came on when I moved the slide in and out while hooked up to shore power, I am guessing that is normal and then the fan should be off...correct?

When we had the bad battery in there the fan was coming on and going off every few seconds, now with the new battery we have silence. Is that a good sign?

Britgirl


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

BritGirl said:


> Thanks Camper Andy, that was good info, just out of curiosity....the fan only came on when I moved the slide in and out while hooked up to shore power, I am guessing that is normal and then the fan should be off...correct?
> 
> When we had the bad battery in there the fan was coming on and going off every few seconds, now with the new battery we have silence. Is that a good sign?
> 
> Britgirl


Yes it is normal in all respects.

Slide in and out is a high current draw and will cause the fan to turn on until the converter cools or the current drops.

With the bad battery the converter was turning at high current (fan on) then cycling off due to what was most likely a fault detection (fan off).

New battery fully charged, fan off is what you want to hear.

It should cycle down to 13.2 soon.


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## BritGirl (Apr 7, 2006)

Thanks again...............will keep an eye on it and test it an 1/2 hr or so.


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