No dc on shore power and battery is not charging (solar disconnected)

WanderingOg

Hello group, newbie here. I have read great information on here. 

I just bought a used 2021, 320 S lat week. They put a new battery in it before I picked it up.  I turned on the Aldi heater for a hot shower and stepped out of the trailer, when I returned, the aldi  monitor was flickering and said low battery and overheat. I turned it off 
Now the battery will not recharge. None of the DC items work on shore power. I have disconnected the two wires connected to the solar and have no voltage coming from WFCO converter at the battery terminal. 
I have checked in line battery fuse and all the fuses in the box and all appear to be intact. 
When I disconnected all of the trailer leads and charged the 12v with car cables, the battery does take a charge and all dc items work until the battery dies. 

Is there another way to check the output of the inverter besides disconnected leads that go to the battery?  What could be done next to trouble shoot this? 

Thanks

Yoshi_TAB

Hi,

Hear is a video for a complete teardown and testing  of a WFCO converter.  They go through how to check power both AC and DC.  It might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qyur-fsAw

NHCraig

Bit of a longshot, but in my 2018 320, the first 15 amp circuit breaker on the panel feeds the converter (and the inside GFCI outlet, and the household outlet over the sink). You might check that and reset it, especially since you seem to be getting shore power to the other circuits. Or, plug something into the one of the outlets I mentioned. If they're getting power, then it indicates the problem is in the converter itself.

WanderingOg

Thank you. I’ll try that. 

pthomas745

What battery is installed?  If this is a Battleborn lithium, and it reached "low voltage disconnect", it may not be able to take a charge until it is "jump started".  So, the battery type is important.

You have a meter.  What are you getting on the disconnected battery for voltage? 

Why disconnect the solar?  The solar panels are connected directly to the battery, and will charge no matter what is happening to the WFCO.

You also have the Victron solar controller.  If you have the Victron app, you can read battery voltage and solar input with it.  We can show you how to set it up, it will take some re-setting, etc.

Bottom line: you may just have a bad battery.

WanderingOg

I was working under a roof when I disconnected the solar and wanted just the inverter wires to be in the equation. It was just a matter of taking the leads off the terminal. I have not tried it in full to see if that recharges the Battery. It’s looks like a regular 12 V car Battery.  I used my car and allowed it to sit for about a half an hour, and it got a pretty decent charge, but neglected to record. It was enough to run all the appliances and lights is it inside for an hour or so. Then the battery became drained again so that was plugged into short power with , disconnect in the horizontal “on” position “not disconnected”. 

Disconnected battery voltage very low below 1

as far as having a bad battery, it seem to be all working well before I turned on the heater, and the flickering monitor of the Aldi kicked in. 

And, I am able to recharge that battery with my car battery without a problem 

I’ve always enjoyed your entries, you are so thoughtful and I appreciate the time you took to answer and help me get this fixed. All of you. What a great forum 

I talked to New # camp service center and a gentleman there told me to replace the 30 and 40 amp fuses and in-line battery fuses even though they look good. Sometimes they malfunction and it’s not visible he said.  I hope to get to where it is stored and try that today

pthomas745

Sounds like a "stock" lead acid battery.  Recharging with a vehicle can be very slow, especially if the battery is depleted.  If you have access to a regular outlet and a plug in battery charger, you really should charge the battery.  If the battery is very depleted, the longer it sits in a depleted condition, the worse it is for the battery.

Once you are sure the battery is charged, then you can start looking at the other issues you think you might be having.

ScottG

I agree with the above comments regarding the battery. You may or may not have a bad battery. The only way to tell is to properly and fully charge it, and see if it holds that charge over time, and under light load. A bad battery may appear to take a charge, but the charge doesn't last.

However, even if the battery is bad (or even completely disconnected), 12VDC devices should still work when the camper is plugged into shore power. If they don't, that points to a problem with either the 120VAC power supply to the converter, or the 12VDC output from the converter. 

WanderingOg

Yes scott. I agree. I still haven’t gotten back over to the camper, but I’m looking forward to testing all these theories. I will definitely keep y’all posted.

WanderingOg

Update and much appreciation to all!
I changed the in line 30 amp battery fuse. 

It did not appear to be blown, but apparently it was malfunctioning and a new fuse seems to have fixed the problem. The nu camp service advisor suggested that I change all the applicable fuses snd that seems to have fixed it. 

I am greatly encouraged by all the very insightful tips that I received. Good information and I appreciate the help.