tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946325688134943823.post5293429625701918926..comments2023-03-23T10:14:33.879+00:00Comments on Narrowboat Ellis: Rotten Egg, Carbon Monoxide Alarms going off & Unwanted expense...Quaysiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04372015225898397642noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946325688134943823.post-84548116422441841482017-07-25T18:53:13.332+01:002017-07-25T18:53:13.332+01:00I have two of these sealed leisure batteries in my...I have two of these sealed leisure batteries in my camper https://www.tayna.co.uk/LFD230-Varta-Professional-DC-Leisure-Battery-930230115-P3650.html good value and bombproof in 2 years only charged by solar so far.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06628630191518899832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946325688134943823.post-27239779923427006212017-07-25T14:56:15.011+01:002017-07-25T14:56:15.011+01:00As soon as I saw the "Rotten Egg" refere...As soon as I saw the "Rotten Egg" reference I knew what was going to follow! There really needs to be a better understanding about batteries wired in parallel. It doesn't matter if they are all identical (and even if they came of the production line one after the other), ONE of them will always fail first! And when it does, in most cases, it will drag the others down with it. If you are lucky and the faulty one goes open circuit you'll just lose part of the overall capacity, but with lead-acid batteries it's usually one cell going short circuit due to debris across the plates. Then your 12 volt battery becomes a 10 volt one, and the remaining healthy cells are forced to operate at a higher voltage than they were designed for, hence the bad eggs smell. <br /><br />Any boater using multiple batteries really needs to carry out a simple test at least once a year (but preferably more often). Turn off the master switch, and any charger or inverter, then carefully disconnect the negative cable or clamps from all the batteries and measure the voltage across them, one by one. Ideally the readings should all be the same or very close - within 0.1 - 0.2 of a volt (100-200mV). Any which are appreciably lower than the rest must be regarded as suspect, and one showing more than 1 volt variation is a definite no-no. This would be a good time to check the electrolyte levels in non-sealed units. If much water was needed repeat the test after a few hours - you may be lucky. If not, leave the suspect battery disconnected (carefully insulating the cable/clamp). Depending on the age of the battery bank it may be better to continue with less capacity until another fails. You should NEVER replace just one battery - unless you're prepared to do this test on a regular basis. <br /><br />A basic digital multi-meter shouldn't cost more than £5-10 from car parts stores or the likes of Maplin, but if you have an onboard charge monitor you should be able to use that instead. Just make sure that no loads or chargers are running, and re-connect your batteries one at a time. Dave Wardnoreply@blogger.com