Inverter/Charger Problem, Maybe ?.

[shadow]

Ever sense I bought my RV I have had it plugged in to keep the house batteries charged.
Everything was doing fine until last weekend, when I turned on one of the lights in the RV and
noticed the light was pulsing very slightly.

I didn`t think anything about it at the time, but the same thing was happening this weekend.
So I decided to unplug the RV and run it on the house batteries, and everything was fine, no more
pulsing lights.

Any idea what might be causing this problem ?, is it possible that the inverter/charger is going bad ?.

[tx2sturgis]

First thing to check is all the battery connections and water levels.

[sternwake]

Do you know if you have a combo inverter charger, or a regular converter and a separate inverter.

The standard Wfco converters are known to go out and many people report they notice the lights pulsing.

A voltmeter raising and lowering quickly will likely point to the converter, or the connections leading to or from it.

[frater secessus]

Maybe there is a recurrent/repeating draw that is pulling down voltage.

[Optimistic Paranoid]

The charger (or converter) is supposed to convert the ac to dc. The light pulsing suggests to me that it is not doing that 100% any more.

[shadow]

Maybe there is a recurrent/repeating draw that is pulling down voltage.

Nothing in the rv is turned on at all. I have the rv plugged in to keep the batteries charged, and that`s it.
I noticed the pulsing lights for the first time about a week ago, and it was still happening this past weekend.

If I unplug the rv and it on the house batteries only, the pulsing of the lights stops.
That`s why I was thinking that maybe the inverter/charger was possibly going bad.

[shadow]

Do you know if you have a combo inverter charger, or a regular converter and a separate inverter.

The standard Wfco converters are known to go out and many people report they notice the lights pulsing.

A voltmeter raising and lowering quickly will likely point to the converter, or the connections leading to or from it.

Here is what I have.

MagnaTek Converter.

Electrical rating input - 5 amps at 120 volts A/C 60HZ
Output 32 amps at 12 volts DC.
Average charge rate .5 amps.

When I went out to the rv to get this information, I turned on two lights and
they were not pulsing this time.

I still have the new converter that I bought for the other rv, it has three stage charging, but I can`t
remember the output amp rating, but I think its around 45 amps output.

It is an option to install it in this rv.

[sternwake]

The Magnatek converters were called battery boilers, buy those that constantly plugged into the grid. the set and constant 13.6v voltage is too high for flooded batteries over say 60F, once they are already fully charged.

The 13.6v voltage is also way too low to properly recharge depleted but healthy batteries to 95%+ within say 30 hours of first plugging in.

A three stage can likely Achieve 97% SOC+ in 6.5 hours.

A 45 amp converter could be an Iota or a Progressive dynamics, perhaps others.
Both are many times superior to the magnatek in each and every aspect.

If the lights were not pulsing this latest time it points more to a bad connection than a failed/failing converter.

Ditch the magnatek. Always ditch the magnatek if one is actually coing to cycle flooded batteries. Those with AGM batteries and who mostly plug in 99% of the time can keep it until it fails.

When if fails, it might kill the batteries.

It will fail, at some point.

Wfco converters are also known to fail and kill batteries and seem to be the the max profit converter used by manufacturers. Also known to NEVER enter boost mode and seek 14.4v, even though they are supposed to.

If you have a 45 amp onverter, i would recommend no less than 8awg from converter to battery. If existing converter location is distant from batteries requiring a long circuit, install new 45 amp converter much closer to batteries over adequate cabling. The effort and cost of the thicker copper cabling will pay for themselves with additional battery life, likely on the first set of batteries.

Ditch the Magnatek.

[shadow]

The converter is about eight feet from the batteries, and its not
possible to move it closer to the batteries.

[tx2sturgis]

On my old class A I disabled the built-in POS converter and installed a decent 3 stage 15 amp charger right above the battery compartment. 

I also wired in a manual parallel switch to charge the house batteries from the starter battery during travel.

This, along with a smallish (64 watt) solar panel and charge controller, kept the batteries in good shape. I averaged about 5-7 years per set of house batteries.