2018 ESS battery charge?

[AndySpill]

Cool thanks buddy. My start-stop hasn’t worked much in the last year, intermittent and unpredictable. Everything else, totally fine, none of the weird electrical happenings you see people post about that are indicators of batteries dying. Just thought I’d do this in advance so I knew what to expect. I was gone 10 days in early Oct and only short trips since then, considering connecting it all back up and taking an hour drive tomorrow. Also considering just leaving it and seeing what happens.

In light of this additional 411 on your part it is conceivable that your battery voltage is low because of this infrequenty use, but (most important) the battery is not in need of replacement if it is capable of accepting charge.

Taking it out for some longer or more frequent trips or subjecting it to a charger would be a more prudent first step.

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[AdamG]

In light of this additional 411 on your part it is conceivable that your battery voltage is low because of this infrequenty use, but (most important) the battery is not in need of replacement if it is capable of accepting charge.

Taking it out for some longer or more frequent trips or subjecting it to a charger would be a more prudent first step.

With the aux neg disconnected, if I put a charger on, it’ll charge both batteries because the positive is still all hooked together, right?

 

[YBABRAT]

With the aux neg disconnected, if I put a charger on, it’ll charge both batteries because the positive is still all hooked together, right?

Nope! A misconception. You need both batteries to be connected to ground and positive for both to charge.

 

[AndySpill]

With the aux neg disconnected, if I put a charger on, it’ll charge both batteries because the positive is still all hooked together, right?

Sadly Adam the answer to your question is "no."

In order for the charger to effect its task it must complete an electrical circuit: a fancy way of saying that in uninterrupted conductor (i.e. a cable) must flow from one battery terminal, to the charger, and out to the other battery terminal.

Given your current setup, when you put the charger's cables on your main battery cables, only the main battery will receive charge.

If you wish both batteries to be charged you will need to reinstall that loose cable, uninsulated back on to the main battery's negative terminal.

Alternatively, you can charge the main battery and then switch the charger's negative lead to the uninsulated dangle cable. This will charge solely the Aux battery: yes, even as the charger's postive lead remains on the main battery's postive terminal, as now only the Aux battery would complete an electrical circuit.

 

[AdamG]

Thanks to you both. I put a charger on the main and it registered full then fault, so don’t know what’s up. Haven’t used the charger in years, maybe it’s not working right. Gonna just roll with it and see what happens.

 

[AdamG]

So far everything is fine. ESS still showing the “not ready, charging” message but I also haven’t taken long trips. Don’t have a way to measure the actual battery voltage, though with the key on, vehicle not running, the dash shows 12V. Don’t know how accurate that is, never looked.

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