Charging vehicle battery

by Bigt99 Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:28 pm

I recently returned after being away from home and the van for about 6 weeks to find the (new) vehicle battery dead, and presumably the leisure one too, although I didn't check that. I hadn't engaged the shutdown button.

I put the van on EHU, hoping that both batteries would charge. After 28 hours,the leisure one is fully charged, but the vehicle one not.

So, should I expect the vehicle battery to be charged this way? If yes, can anyone suggest a remedy to make this happen, or suggest what might be faulty. It's due a habitation check next week, plus other faults so I can get it looked at. If not, I can charge the battery separately.

Can anyone suggest why it could have flattened so quickly. The previous Duetto lasted all winter.

Thanks

Tony

by Peter Brown Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:45 pm

The vehicle battery will last 2 - 3 weeks without a charge, manufacturers recommend disconnecting if you are going to be away longer. You can charge it by selecting vehicle battery on the Sargent Control unit but cant guarantee that it will recover.

I'm guessing that you have an EC500 unit, if you had shut it down your leisure battery should have been ok.

by Bigt99 Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:48 pm

Thanks Peter.

An ancillary problem is that the EC500 doesn't let me select the vehicle battery

T

by Peter Brown Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:50 pm

In that case it is likely that the fuse for the vehicle battery in the EC500 is blown.

by Bigt99 Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:01 pm

Thanks, I'll check

T

by Dbvwt Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:18 pm

Bigt99 wrote:Thanks Peter.

An ancillary problem is that the EC500 doesn't let me select the vehicle battery

T

It’s been a while since I messed with my EC500 settings but I’m sure you can in the advanced settings menu.

by PLOUGHLIN Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:10 pm

Dbvwt wrote:

It’s been a while since I messed with my EC500 settings but I’m sure you can in the advanced settings menu.

Smart charging ( solar or EHU) or normal charging option is in the "advanced " setting menu. Press up and down buttons on control panel together until screen changes.

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by Dbvwt Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:53 pm

Cheers Peter, that’s it. Before I fitted the “solar mod” I frequently manually chose the battery charging options from Solar and also EHU in the advanced menu.

by Bigt99 Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:03 pm

Thanks Ploughlin & Dbvwt

I'll now go out and play to see if I can get it to work

T

by Peter Brown Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:27 pm

Dbvwt wrote:

It’s been a while since I messed with my EC500 settings but I’m sure you can in the advanced settings menu.

The battery selection is on the main menu of the control panel, its the smart charging options that are in the advanced settings.

by Bigt99 Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:38 pm

Thanks all

I've checked and the fuse is OK, and that SMART is selected in the advanced settings. There is still no charge in the vehicle battery and I can't select the vehicle battery on the control panel.

Has anyone any further suggestions, please?

Tony

by Peter Brown Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:52 pm

There is also a vehicle battery fuse in the EM45

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by Bigt99 Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:54 pm

Thanks Peter

Can you, or anyone, tell me where I'd find the EM45 in a 2017 Symbol?

Thanks

Tony

by Peter Brown Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:16 pm

The habitation to chassis connection is in the drivers side B pillar so it could be behind the drivers seat or under a seat on the drivers side, hopefully someone with a similar van conversion can advise,

by Peter Brown Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:21 pm

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by v8oholic Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:26 pm

Bigt99 wrote:Thanks Peter

Can you, or anyone, tell me where I'd find the EM45 in a 2017 Symbol?

Thanks

Tony

Mine is newer (2021) but it has an EM40, not an EM45. They look similar though. It's at the front of the storage compartment underneath the sofa.

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by Dbvwt Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:52 pm

Bigt99 wrote:Thanks all

I've checked and the fuse is OK, and that SMART is selected in the advanced settings. There is still no charge in the vehicle battery and I can't select the vehicle battery on the control panel.

Has anyone any further suggestions, please?

Tony

I’m not questioning whether there is a blown fuse or not but in the advanced settings you DON’T want it set to SMART. I can’t remember exactly as it’s been a while but I think the other options are vehicle and leisure.

by Peter Brown Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:02 pm

Slightly different subject but in my experience Smart charging is good when on EHU as both batteries are kept charged and neither is overcharged as the charger is periodically switched from leisure to battery and after a few hours back.

Set the solar charging to Leisure (not Smart or Vehicle) in the Advanced Menu (this if for EC500, the Smart charging is in the front menu of the EC700) and any solar energy harvested goes to the leisure battery which is where you want it to go if camping without hook up (the vehicle battery will be fine for a couple of weeks).

Do note when camping without hookup to check that the Leisure battery is selected on the control panel otherwise you will be charging the leisure battery with solar but draining the vehicle battery with habitation load.

by Dbvwt Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:10 pm

I agree Peter.
I Just thought in this case it was worth setting the EHU to vehicle rather than smart to test things (if that is an option as it has been a while since I was in that menu). The automatic charging switch over in smart between leisure/vehicle sometimes froze for some reason in my van and needed a kick start! Chatting to Sargent soon after I bought my van confirmed they knew this happened even if they didn’t actually admit it!

by kevjan Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:04 pm

So when on hookup should the solar be just leisure battery to charge or would it make no difference does electric take over all of it. Kevin

by Dbvwt Sun Oct 15, 2023 8:06 am

kevjan wrote:So when on hookup should the solar be just leisure battery to charge or would it make no difference does electric take over all of it. Kevin

I will go out later and double check what I’m saying is correct but on the EC500, there are separate Smart settings for Solar and EHU (in the advanced menu). In an ideal world, both would be left on Smart and the Sargent would take care of it all. In practice however, the Smart function doesn’t particularly work very well.
I used to manually change mine frequently, especially the Solar Smart setting. I hate to drag it up again but the well documented Solar mod is the answer for many and bypasses the Sargent/Smart!

To answer your question, if the EHU is set to Smart that should take care of both batteries when EHU is plugged in whatever you have the Solar set to.

by Kdc Sun Oct 15, 2023 9:53 am

Just add to Dbvwt comments….. on smart charge the system will prioritise the vehicle battery first before changing over to leisure.

by Bigt99 Mon Oct 16, 2023 7:31 pm

Update

Thanks all for your advice, none of which, unfortunately, worked. I eventually partly charged the battery with a stand alone charger that gave up after stuffing enough juice in to get the lights, but not the starter motor, working. I still couldn't jump start it, so gave in and got roadside assistance who got it going after a couple of turns.

Interestingly, well to me, is that as soon as there was power in the battery I could select the vehicle battery, so now, once selected I hope that whilst on EHU I can maintain the charg

by Peter Brown Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:13 pm

It sounds as though all the infrastructure was OK but that the battery was so flat that it wasn't recognised. Even though it was a new battery it may be so damaged thar it will not hold a charge. Next time you have to leave it unused, disconnect the batteries - I do.

by marbarsymbol Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:00 am

You are recommended to shutdown the EC 500 when not using the van. This means any solar charge (via Sargent system) or ehu charging defaults to leisure battery.
A battery master from Vanbitz will allow any charge to trickle across from the leisure battery to the vehicle , once the leisure battery has reached full charge. This allows for charging both when the EC500 is shutdown.

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