Yellow tops

[froggy Steve]

Hi everyone. Currently in Spain on holibobs. I have 2 Optima yellow tops as leisure batteries and am trying to run my Fridge for more than a fees hours camped up with no electric hook up. If we stop at 5pm, the fridge freezer has switched off and lost 10-15 degrees of freeze by morning!
I have an IBS split charge system that went belly up on day 3, but managed to convert the controller (dave2000 and mark) with a T max controller (same apart from plug)
The split charge is working ok.
The 2 batteries don't appear to want to hold any power. They are a good few years old now, do I need to change them or buy a Smart charger?
Cheers

 

[fbnss]

My single 55ah yellow top will.keepmmy national Luna going from 5pm til brekky just about depending how hot it is outside so two should do better! I remember Chris saying they needed to be charged correctly or else they don't stay happy. A whatever stage charger is required I think.

 

[Chris]

OK so it's a virtually impossible question to answer without knowing a great deal more, but I can say from both experience and from speaking directly to Optima, that their Yellow top YTS spiral wound AGM batteries will not last if charged below about 14v. They have lots of batteries back from people and when they question the charging regime it's clear they have not been on a DC 2 DC charger capable of continuous elevated voltage. A split charge such as the IBS good as it is only switches alternator voltage. I have 2 Yellows in the trailer and one in the truck both fed by CTEKs and they've been brilliant. When I had one of them in the truck fed normally, it virtually dies within the year. It's now working fine again having been supercharged. People will disagree and tell you they've had them for years and years being charged by an alternator and that's great. But the fact is that most don't fare well like that. Try them on an intelligent charger with a recon function for AGM batteries and you might pick them up again.

 

[fbnss]

What he said

 

[StarCruiser]

What he said

similar to what I’ve just said on the other thread.

 

[Jacob100]

I just plugged my secondary leisure battery in for a recond. It came with the trailer and hasn’t been very well looked after since it’s freestanding and only ever used to power LEDs. Hoping to revitalise it and put it to good use in both truck and trailer.

Has anyone had bad experiences with the Ctek’s recond function?

 

[StarCruiser]

My Ctek doesn’t have a setting for it (might just be automatic internally selected) but it’s brought 4 traction batteries back from the brink on a small fork lift. It’s got to be all good really, cos it’s a Ctek.