ESS problems need input.

[Steph1]

Alright 2 good news… first our boy was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks second, as expected, I received the charger. As said, I had one before, but never used.
Is there a sequence to plug this thing?? I mean wall first then battery, or vice versa?? It is the Noco 5A. Negative before positive??! I know I’m overthinking this, but too much at stake here

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[rogerutley]

Alright 2 good news… first our boy was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks second, as expected, I received the charger. As said, I had one before, but never used.
Is there a sequence to plug this thing?? I mean wall first then battery, or vice versa?? It is the Noco 5A. Negative before positive??! I know I’m overthinking this, but too much at stake here

Congrats! Mainly for the awesome news on the new Draftee!! . That is HUGE!!

 

[WranglerMan]

Alright 2 good news… first our boy was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks second, as expected, I received the charger. As said, I had one before, but never used.
Is there a sequence to plug this thing?? I mean wall first then battery, or vice versa?? It is the Noco 5A. Negative before positive??! I know I’m overthinking this, but too much at stake here

Per NOCO Tech Staff… when plugging in the charger attach the positive to battery then negative then wall plug and when fully charged you can just leave it hooked up or remove in reverse, unplug then remove negative then positive.

They advised doing it this way keeps the built in charging algorithm straight, I actually had a issue as I had removed the positive during charging half way thru and just clipped it back on and the built in program got confused and indicated the charge was complete before it actually was, it caused no harm to batteries just confused the program that’s built in so all one has to do is completely disconnect and then reconnect per their instruction.

 

[Steph1]

Per NOCO Tech Staff… when plugging in the charger attach the positive to battery then negative then wall plug and when fully charged you can just leave it hooked up or remove in reverse, unplug then remove negative then positive.

They advised doing it this way keeps the built in charging algorithm straight, I actually had a issue as I had removed the positive during charging half way thru and just clipped it back on and the built in program got confused and indicated the charge was complete before it actually was, it caused no harm to batteries just confused the program that’s built in so all one has to do is completely disconnect and then reconnect per their instruction.

Although I kinda fealth silly for asking the question, I’m actually glad I asked. Thank you much for the answer. Can the hood be propped open ? Or it’s better to pass the electrical cord from the engine bay to under the Jeep to allow hood to be closed.
I know there’s no lights under there, but there are switches.

 

[Gee-pah]

Although I kinda fealth silly for asking the question, I’m actually glad I asked. Thank you much for the answer. Can the hood be propped open ? Or it’s better to pass the electrical cord from the engine bay to under the Jeep to allow hood to be closed.
I know there’s no lights under there, but there are switches.

Mine's affixed with super strong double stick tape to the top of the Power Distribution Center (PDC): the block fuse box closest to the firewall on the pasenger's side in the 3.6L JL. I have it's cord connected to a NOCO water resistant plug that sits below my bumper.

Charging is going to be a regular thing Steph1. I'd keep the hood closed to keep water away from the device and make yourself a semi-permanent install---unless you plan on using the charger on more than one vehicle.

 

[Steph1]

I do this in my garage. Another question, which setting ?

 

[Steph1]

Well that didn’t take long, 5 minutes after connecting…

 

[Steph1]

And after a full 7 minutes altogether…

 

[Steph1]

Could I connect the positive on N3 cable to see what the secondary battery has to say ??

 

[Gee-pah]

Could I connect the positive on N3 cable to see what the secondary battery has to say ??

No. Connecting the positive of the battery charger to the N3 slot will, just like it is now, have the trickle charger take a composite reading of the current in both batteries.

This is simply an electrical fact and byproduct of the batteries being connected in parallel on the 3.6L JL when the vehicle is at rest.

If you desire such readings that badly: to know either battery's current metrics in isolation, as seen by the charger, you need to follow the steps I gave you prior about disconnecting the negative (ground) cables from the main battery's negative terminal and place the negative of the charger on the main battery's now naked negative post to get a main battery only reading, or move that negative of the charger to the dangling cables originally on the main battery's negative post to get an ESS battery only reading.

If you do this make sure to put the cables back on the negative post of the main battery afterwards.

All this said Steph1, my strong advice: leave the charger on the main battery's posts, with the wiring connected as per factory, with the charger energized, and come back hours from now--tomorrow morning.

Then you can take your multi-meter to each battery as per the advice above, or simply take the rig for a test drive to see if ESS has been restored.

Steph: trickle charging is a process. It takes time. If that ESS battery alone was at around 12.3 volts you will need time with the trickle charger attached as described, to bring both batteries to an ESS happy 12.7 v range, provided there are no other issues.

 

[Steph1]

No. Connecting the positive of the battery charger to the N3 slot will, just like it is now, have the trickle charger take a composite reading of the current in both batteries.

This is simply an electrical fact and byproduct of the batteries being connected in parallel on the 3.6L JL when the vehicle is at rest.

If you desire such readings that badly: to know either battery's current metrics in isolation, as seen by the charger, you need to follow the steps I gave you prior about disconnecting the negative (ground) cables from the main battery's negative terminal and place the negative of the charger on the main battery's now naked negative post to get a main battery only reading, or move that negative of the charger to the dangling cables originally on the main battery's negative post to get an ESS battery only reading.

If you do this make sure to put the cables back on the negative post of the main battery afterwards.

All this said Steph1, my strong advice: leave the charger on the main battery's posts, with the wiring connected as per factory, with the charger energized, and come back hours from now--tomorrow morning.

Then you can take your multi-meter to each battery as per the advice above, or simply take the rig for a test drive to see if ESS has been restored.

Steph: trickle charging is a process. It takes time. If that ESS battery alone was at around 12.3 volts you will need time with the trickle charger attached as described, to bring both batteries to an ESS happy 12.7 v range, provided there are no other issues.

Ok will wait, no rush as we have guests and I have no intention to use the Jeep today. I was quite surprised to see how quickly the charger showed a fully charged reading, making me think I must have another problem than a battery one….. But I’ll wait for a few days to rule the batteries out.

As per the battery charger pictures, is it at the right setting, or should I have it on another one.

 

[Gee-pah]

Ok will wait, no rush as we have guests and I have no intention to use the Jeep today. I was quite surprised to see how quickly the charger showed a fully charged reading, making me think I must have another problem than a battery one….. But I’ll wait for a few days to rule the batteries out.

As per the battery charger pictures, is it at the right setting, or should I have it on another one.

The 3.6L JL's batteries are of type AGM. While I am not familiar with the NOCO trickle charger product line (I have a Deltran brand) I would imagine that some 12V AGM setting would be appropriate for your NOCO trickle charger.

 

[WranglerMan]

As @Gee-pah pointed out set the charger to AGM, so use the “ mode” button to cycle to the AGM charge mode and you only have to do it the one time, after that there is likely an EPROM or PROM chip inside it that remembers the last charging function, the 12v non AGM cycle charges at a slightly lighter rate so no harm done.

Also @Steph1 the NOCO Genius line has a advanced repair mode, how this works is once the batteries indicate 100% you press and hold the mode button and the selected charge cycle will flash then you just continue to press the mode button and it will cycle thru the options and once you get to the repair selection stop, this will toss a full volts up to 16.5 and 5 amps to the batteries for a total of (4) hrs then will automatically go into STBY, the repair mode by design is supposed to heat the electrolyte fluid up to the point of removing any solids that have attached to the lead plating of the batteries.

Note: Manual says 16.5 volts but I spoke to NOCO support on this and they advised that was a max only if needed, most AGM batteries don’t like over 14.5 but if you have a concern you can meter the charge, on my NOCO 10 when using it does spike up but then immediately drops, I believe it ramps up to 16.5 to do a battery health check then drops down

Below is from the NOCO manual so proceed with caution, I use it and have had no issues but during my use of this mode I monitor volts via a BT adapter and I also don’t use a stock setup as I’m charging two full size batteries with a high parasitic draw.

CAUTION. USE THIS MODE WITH CARE. THIS MODE IS FOR 12-VOLT LEAD-ACID BATTERIES ONLY. THIS MODE USES A HIGH CHARGING VOLTAGE AND MAY CAUSE SOME WATER LOSS IN WET (FLOODED) CELL BATTERIES. BE ADVISED, SOME BATTERIES AND ELECTRONICS MAY BE SENSITIVE TO HIGH CHARGING VOLTAGES. TO MINIMIZE RISKS TO ELECTRONICS, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE USING THIS MODE.

After that repair mode choice is done if you choose to do it the batteries will have a high metered voltage and most likely be 13.5+ but if you wait an hour or so the surface charge will drift off and you should be in the 12.8 range

 

[Steph1]

It is with an immense feeling of satisfaction that I am writing to say that after leaving the trickle charger on overnight, my ESS showed ready as I was driving around the block to test it this morning, and then as nervous as I was coming to my first complete stop after the engine had warmed up, that ANNOYING as heck feeling of an engine shutting down happened. Wow, very impressed and satisfied !!!!

Thank you much to everyone for excellent coaching and bearing with all my questions.

Now I will see how I can make the charger a semi-permanent place in my engine bay.

Thanks again,

Steph

 

[Steph1]

So I ordered the Noco terminal eyelet accessory to connect to the battery and an heady duty 6 feet extension cord to route from inside the engine bay to outside hidden in my rubicon steel bumper.
Question is…. Is there a particular place on each terminals, that I should connect the eyelets to??

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