The sensitivity of battery chargers . . .

[jwnall]

Since this took me a bit of troubleshooting, just thought I would share my experience and perhaps save someone else some trouble.

I have been having trouble with my Xantrex TrueCharge 2 battery charger lately. It would quit operating, and the fault light would be on and also the "chgr" light. The troubleshooting part of the manual said to call Xantrex if this happened, so I did so. Spoke to a nice guy who said to try resetting it. Turns out this means to disconnect it from the A/C line and from the batteries and let it sit for at least an hour. I did so, connected it back up, and it began working again. About a week later, the same thing. So I again reset it, and it worked again. However, the last time I went in and cleaned the battery terminals good and tightened all the connections good. So far it has been about a month now and the problem has not reoccurred. It may just be coincidence, but I think that the charger is just really sensitive to corrosion and terminals which are not sufficiently tight. If anyone else has an opinion on this I would be pleased to hear it.

John

 

[motion30]

John. do a search on xantrex on this form or any other you will quickly see the problem I bought a new true charge to when they first came out ,it killed a $600 a$600 agm battery. the charger was replaced under warranty ,I never read installed it I went to iota chargers , and never need to give them a second thought

 

[Phil Fill]

Hex and lock washers should be used on the battery terminals to keep the tight. Wing nuts come lose to easy and create poor connections and corrosion.

Reading the manual helps!

 

[jwnall]

Hex and lock washers should be used on the battery terminals to keep the tight. Wing nuts come lose to easy and create poor connections and corrosion.

.
That is interesting. I never knew that! And the terminal which had a wing nut on it was indeed the one which was loose! So thanks. I shall replace it the next time I go down there.

John

 

[Nomad Willy]

Frequently and perhaps most of the time only a small amount of current is involved and a small amount of resistance could seemingly foul things up.

I have a Xantrex and it's worked 8 years flawlessly .. w AGMs.

 

[Tom.B]

Hex and lock washers should be used on the battery terminals to keep the tight. Wing nuts come lose to easy and create poor connections and corrosion.

I am curious how wing nuts can come loose more easily than hex nuts? Won't a properly tight nut hold the same no matter what shape the nut is?

Oh... And BTW... I love my Iota charger too. Sure, it doesn't have all the bell and whistles like temp sensors, but if you keep your eye on water levels, etc. Iota chargers are great, single bank, basic chargers that will float charge for way cheaper than the major brands of marinized chargers.

 

[Moonstruck]

John,

Check the cooling fan. It is usually just a little computer pancake fan. Try running a good fan facing the charger. It it stays on, it is probably the fan that is bad. If so remove the case. snip the wires, and remove the old fan. Check the model # and do a search on the internet. You can usually find them for $10 or under. Just make certain to note the way the blades are facing when removing. Then make sure the fan is blowing the right direction when installed.

 

[READY2GO]

Just bought and installed a Xantrex Truecharge 2 battery charger and remote monitor two weeks ago. Hope it wasn't a mistake.