{"id":2185,"date":"2018-03-09T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T23:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/news\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2018-03-12T10:33:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T23:33:06","slug":"understanding-battery-voltage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/understanding-battery-voltage\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Battery Voltage"},"content":{"rendered":"

12v systems in a car, van or 4×4 are a huge part of camping<\/a><\/strong>. They allow us to run 12v accessories like portable fridges<\/a><\/strong>, air compressors<\/a><\/strong> and LED camping lights<\/a><\/strong>. They can also get incredibly complicated, incredibly fast! If you\u2019ve ever been a little confused by just how much charge your battery has left in it, you\u2019re not alone. It sometimes seems like you need to be an electrical engineer to understand battery voltage! However, if you break it down it\u2019s actually a little easier to understand than it seems at first glance, and all you need is a very basic $10 multimeter to help you understand what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

The Adventure Kings deep cycle AGM batteries<\/a><\/strong> are built for 4WDing. They\u2019re tough, have a large reserve capacity so they can power accessories like a portable fridge<\/a><\/strong> for a long time off a single charge and the Absorbed Glass Matt technology means you can run them safely inside a vehicle. Using your multimeter or a volt meter wired to the deep cycle battery<\/a><\/strong> is how you can read what your 4WD battery<\/a><\/strong> is doing in terms of charging and discharging, and while it isn\u2019t an exact science, it will give you a rough idea of how much power is left. Here\u2019s our guide to understanding the basics of battery voltage.<\/p>\n

BATTERY VOLTAGE AT REST<\/p>\n

A healthy deep cycle battery<\/a><\/strong> that has been sitting for at least 15 minutes and has no load on it (i.e. nothing being powered off it) should have a battery voltage that reads somewhere between 12.6v and 13.1v. If it\u2019s anything less than 12.6v and there\u2019s absolutely, definitely nothing being powered off the battery<\/a><\/strong>, it\u2019s a good indication that the battery<\/a><\/strong> isn\u2019t in the healthiest condition. That most likely means it\u2019s time to replace the battery<\/a><\/strong>, so make sure you check out the Adventure Kings range of AGM deep cycle batteries<\/a><\/strong> before you shop anywhere else!<\/p>\n

BATTERY VOLTAGE WHILE CHARGING\/ENGINE RUNNING<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it gets a little tricky. Traditionally, a battery<\/a><\/strong> that is being charged by the vehicle\u2019s alternator should read somewhere between 14.0v and 14.4v. However, modern vehicles equipped with \u2018smart\u2019 alternators don\u2019t always put out a full charging output in an effort to reduce load on engine and emissions. Sometimes you\u2019ll see as little as 13.0v-13.2v coming from your alternator, which often isn\u2019t enough for a dual battery system<\/a><\/strong> like the Adventure Kings Smart Isolator Dual Battery Kit<\/a><\/strong> to realise that the motor is actually running and connect the auxiliary battery<\/a><\/strong> to the crank battery to charge. That\u2019s why a DC\/DC charger<\/a><\/strong> like the CTEK D250SA<\/a><\/strong> is a better option in a modern vehicle with a smart isolator.<\/p>\n

BATTERY VOLTAGE WHILE AT CAMP<\/p>\n

Okay, so now onto the bit everyone wants to know about. What should a healthy deep cycle battery<\/a><\/strong> read at camp, while it\u2019s powering your 12v fridge<\/a><\/strong> and LED camp lights<\/a><\/strong>? As soon as you introduce any sort of load onto the battery<\/a><\/strong>, the voltage is going to drop. With a 12v fridge<\/a><\/strong> running and the compressor kicked it, it\u2019s completely normal to see the voltage drop by as much as 0.5v-0.7v. That means you may see your auxiliary deep cycle battery<\/a><\/strong> reading somewhere around 12.0v-12.2v while your fridge\u2019s<\/a> <\/strong>powering away keeping your tucker cold. If you want to properly, genuinely figure out the voltage level of your battery<\/a><\/strong>, you need to turn your fridge<\/a> <\/strong>and LED lights off, and make sure there\u2019s no load on the battery<\/a> <\/strong>for about 15 minutes before taking a reading. This will allow the deep cycle battery\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> voltage to settle so you can get a decent reading.<\/p>\n

If the reading is anything under about 11.8v once the battery<\/a> <\/strong>has settled, it\u2019s time to recharge! That may mean going for a drive, or connecting your solar panel<\/a><\/strong>, or even running your generator<\/a><\/strong>. Don\u2019t be fooled though into thinking that it\u2019s okay to run a battery<\/a> <\/strong>right down in voltage to nearly zero, because by about 10.5v the battery<\/a> <\/strong>is dead flat and will often cop internal damage to the point it can\u2019t be recharged.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, a rough guide. A much better and more accurate way to properly measure battery<\/a> <\/strong>capacity is to fit a proper battery gauge that uses a shunt to measure capacity in and out. These even can give you exact percentage figures about how much power is remaining, but if you work on the voltage method, you\u2019ll have a fairly decent idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12v systems in a car, van or 4×4 are a huge part of camping. They allow us to run 12v accessories like portable fridges, air compressors and LED camping lights. They can also get incredibly complicated, incredibly fast! If you\u2019ve ever been a little confused by just how much charge your battery has left in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}