Upgrading Wet Cell A'van Batteries

Yes A'vanners it's another minefield for all us retirees trying at all costs to reduce stress! The email below is fairly typical of most battery enquiries, but in this case Ross dabbles in electronics and is prepared to fiddle. We have included it here as it illustrates the problems with replacing with a different type. We suggested he use a Zenner diode set up after the Arlec or buy an ARRID charger from the 12 Volt Shop in Perth. 

The picture above is a Kyocera FM16C solar regulator ideal as a replacement if yours dies. We have this one fitted and our battery is now always fully charged. The cost was an horrific $215.00 from Battery World but truly it is worth every cent as the LED readout on the Arlec is just too difficult to read. Pressing the red button on the right gives you an instant digital reading of the AMPS going into the battery. The "16" in the model number means that we can add extra panels such as the popular fold up ones in a suitcase, all the way up to 16 amps total charge or power use in full sun. It has all the goodies such as temperature compensation, polarity protection and variable tapered rate charging. The red LED warns you s soon as the battery voltage drops below 11.4 To change from flooded to gel you simply remove a jumper. The set points are 14.1 for sealed and 14.4 for flooded. These vary with temperature. We should mention that it is very bad practice to use different battery types in the same bank due to the different charging rates. Warranty is "5 years limited" whatever that means! More info on the Kyocera website at:- (in PDF) www.kyocerasolar.com/PDF/SCSFM16C.pdf

As usual  of course we did make a boo boo! For a few dollars more we could have got the FM16C. What this little fellow does is as soon as your A'van battery is fully charged it trickle charges your car battery. To us at least this is a very desirable situation.  Now the bad news! After sales service on technical enquires placed with Kyocera is absolutely non-existent. We are still waiting three months down the track for an answer to the simple question - "does it have its own blocking diodes". To be on the safe side we fitted one in the line anyway (stops the current flowing back into the solar panel in darkness)

A good mate of ours in Broome, Collyn Rivers has just about finished writing a book on RV electrics. Watch out for a review in June 2002. The book is in response to requests for more info from those who bought his RV book we reviewed in the February 2002 A-What's New section.

PS. Take a peek at Ross's little B&B he runs - wonderful stuff! Now folks, just how does he find time to run around the country in his trusty A'van?

Bob Eustace