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Old 09-21-2020, 07:28 PM   #1
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2?'s about batteries

I have three 100ah and one 60ah battery - all are AGM batteries, the latter was installed by the dealer when we picked up the unit. I've been told that one should not mix batteries with different amp hour ratings. True or False; Why?

The converter in our 2020 Kodiak Ultra Lite (201QB) contains a 3 stage battery charger in the power center. Given that fact that I have installed additional batteries do I need to upgrade the battery charger? Is there any advantage to having a "charge controller" like used for a solar installation? Any recommendations or advice would be appreciated.
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Old 09-21-2020, 08:35 PM   #2
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The charger circuit will respond to the smaller capacity battery first. When that battery is charged and the charger is satisfied then charging stops. The 100 amp hour batteries won't get above 60 amp hours.
Another consideration is the age of the 100 amp hours batteries vs the 60 amp hour battery. Rule of thumb is no more than one year age difference between the batteries.
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Old 09-21-2020, 09:23 PM   #3
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Thank You. From other sources this verifies them.
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Old 09-23-2020, 04:18 AM   #4
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There is no problem as long as the chemistry in the batteries is the same. In your case AGM. (Disclaimer- I am assuming these are all 12V batteries hooked up in parallel.) Because they are hooked up together in parallel, they equalize voltage to each other. The charger charges to a voltage, not capacity. When you draw power from the batteries, they again are equalizing each other at the same time you are drawing from them, so because the voltage is the same, you are actually drawing them down at the same percent of capacity rate.



As far as the charger, unless you are not able to recharge the batteries to 100% I would not think any upgrade to your charger is needed. Its going to regulate its charge current to its own capabilities regardless of if you need to charge 10ah or 1000ah. A solar charge controller is great for solar because the input to the charger is always changing. If you are not in that situation, your battery charger is fine.
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Old 09-23-2020, 04:58 PM   #5
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Thanks for your reply. I did some further research which supports the use batteries of the same voltage and amp hours for a battery bank. So, I'm going to remove the 12Vdc 60ah battery and just use the three 12Vdc 100ah batteries. Here's the link that provides an extended explanation as to why you don't want to have a mix of battery types:
https://batteryguy.com/kb/knowledge-...mpere_capacity
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Old 09-24-2020, 09:57 PM   #6
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I have three 100ah and one 60ah battery - all are AGM batteries, the latter was installed by the dealer when we picked up the unit.

I've been told that one should not mix batteries with different amp hour ratings. True or False; Why?

Not quite true. Battery banks work best together when the batteries are identical. Two 6 volt batteries need to have the same amp hour rating and chemistry. They live long and prosper if they are identical. They are connected in series.

You have 3 AGM batteries. If they are 12 volts, the same brand, the same age and the same model line, they will work well together. Even the 60 amp battery will cooperate if it has identical chemistry. 12 volt batteries will be connected in parallel.

If one or more of the batteries have a little different chemistry, you may need to periodically separate the batteries and fully charge each one for 14 to 18 hours to equalize them. Most people would not take the trouble to do this.

The converter in our 2020 Kodiak Ultra Lite (201QB) contains a 3 stage battery charger in the power center. Given that fact that I have installed additional batteries do I need to upgrade the battery charger?

The converter charger may be a WFCO. Mine is a 30 amp model and I use it to charge a 200 amp hour AGM battery bank. The charger will work fine with any size battery bank.

You would probably benefit from a 40 or 50 amp charger. A charger with higher capacity will charge a large battery bank faster during the first few hours. This is more important when using a generator to charge the batteries.

Lead acid batteries absorb high currents when they are deeply discharged. They only absorb low currents when they are finishing the charge. So you could start putting 50 amps in. Current will slowly decrease. After 4 hours current may begin to drop until it is only a few amps.

No matter the size of charger there is still a long slow finishing charge at low currents to do a full clean charge.

Is there any advantage to having a "charge controller" like used for a solar installation?

The WFCO converter/charger is a charge controller. It converts 120 volts AC to 12 volts DC that is used to both run 12 volt appliances and charge the batteries.

A solar array needs a different kind of controller to charge 12 volt batteries. A generator would power the WFCO converter/charger.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead!
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Old 09-24-2020, 11:36 PM   #7
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Thanks for your reply. Your insights have been confirmed by additional research I have done.
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:47 PM   #8
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battery balancer

You can add a battery balancer like this to keep the batteries in balance
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Equal...d-0c3639671b2d

I have had lots of bad luck with the WFCO chargers, and so have many others as reported on the internet. I often upgrade them for a good, American Made Progressive Dynamics from Bestconverter.com
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Old 09-27-2020, 04:38 PM   #9
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I have had excellent service from my WFCO converter/charger. It is about three years old. It is extremely easy to use. It works well for both flooded and AGM batteries.

Other than my own experience I have also seen a few recommendations to upgrade if the owner has a WFCO. I have not seen any reasons that are inherent to a WFCO such as failure of the WFCO or the WFCO causing battery failure.

I have seen lots of good reasons when owners want more control over their battery systems. The low end WFCO chargers are pretty much hands off operation wise.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead.
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Old 09-27-2020, 08:00 PM   #10
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Thanks To All who have replied

I think we have beat this to death and should move on to other issues. Lets close this thread.
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Old 11-12-2020, 03:58 AM   #11
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Since you said nothing about the battery chargers capacity its not possible to give you much of an answer other than to say you can force more than one fast charge cycle by turning on and off the AC breaker to the charger. A higher capacity charger will give out more power and get you faster charging. In general you want to replace all the 12v batteries at the same time with the same type Mfg and Mfg date. You want to wire them so each battery has the same cable distance to the charging cables. The basic reason for doing that is different batteries by age and mfg have slightly different voltages and you can get circulating currents where battery try's to charge another when mixing them or with different cable lengths.
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Old 11-12-2020, 01:33 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kimbo@alum.mit.edu View Post
...
to say you can force more than one fast charge cycle by turning on and off the AC breaker to the charger.
...
Forcing additional fast charge is not a good idea with most AGM batteries. Increasing the high (14.4 volt) charging time increases hydrogen gas production. Exceeding the chemistries ability to reabsorb the hydrogen will cause venting. With AGM's, venting is permanent loss. With flooded cells, just add water to replace.
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