Ironman 65L dual compartment Fridge / Freezer

[rafa]

Does $429 with free shipping sound ok?

Cheers

[Cuppa]

Does $429 with free shipping sound ok?

Cheers

If it is from this ebay seller then yes. They are authorised redarc resellers (unlike most on ebay) which means you get a proper return to Redarc warranty.

Cuppa

[Cuppa]

So in a nut shell. Instal the redarc next to arcpak. Then run decent wires back to main under bonnet battery and then when driving it will charge pod battery. When not the solar will top up the arkpak and not draw from crank battery?

Correct, but just to be clear..... you would connect the BCDC directly to the battery, NOT via the arkpak's charger (which become superfluous).

[rafa]

Correct, but just to be clear..... you would connect the BCDC directly to the battery, NOT via the arkpak's charger (which become superfluous).

Got it. It has terminals so that's easy. It was from that seller. Will order tonight. Thanks again.

Marty

[rafa]

Here's a weird thing. Well my battery got to 12.7v today by solar and nothing drawing on it. Fridge on mains and dc plug removed from fridge)

Just checked it then and battery is back at 12.4v.

The only thing connected to it is a solar panel?

Maybe my problem lays here some how?

Marty.

[rafa]

Still at 12.4v in morning.

[Cuppa]

12.4v 'rested' is only 50% capacity. (If your reading of 12.4v was taken with the panel picking up any light the situation is worse). Regardless of the beliefs that continue to be held strongly by some, deep cycle batteries are NOT intended to be used until 'flat' & then recharged. If they are to last then 12.3v to 12.4v (rested) is about as low as you would want to go. I'm guessing that your battery was so flat that even with a day's worth of solar input it has only brought it up to half full. Hopefully you will see a higher rested voltage tonight. Was the 12.7v with the sun shining? If so that also indicates just how depleted the battery was. When the battery is reasonably full you should expect to see a charging voltage of around 14.4v & when it's full a float voltage of 13.2 to 13.8v (depending upon the make of regulator). The figures you see with the sun shining however are pretty meaningless in terms of knowing the battery's State of Charge (SoC). . To get a sense of how full the battery is, it needs to be disconnected from all loads, & with no solar input (night time or blanket over the panel) & taken after sitting for at least half an hour without either charge or load. Expect to see anything up to 13.1v - this will be a 'surface charge' (as I suspect your 12.7v was). Place a small load on the battery & that voltage should drop quickly back to between 12.7v to 12.9v.
It is possible significant damage has already been done to the battery, but fingers crossed that that is not the case. They can be more 'forgiving' when new. There is no doubt however that if you continue to discharge your battery into the 11's that you will kill it quite quickly. It's capacity will gradually reduce until you reach a point where it will appear to not be holding it's charge, whereas in fact it's more likely that it will no longer be taking a full charge to hold.

Cuppa

[rafa]

Well back in Darwin and went to battery world. They swapped the battery no questions asked. Going to test the old one this week and let me know. New one has say 13.9 all day and panel on float charge. Let's see what happens overnight and see if it charges up again tomorrow. Be interesting to see what this one drops to overnight.

Marty.