dstock
Explorer
I've been discussing this issue in a couple of threads on here but seeing as how others are running into the same issues, I thought I start a dedicated thread.
I have the National Luna Split Charge system in my Jeep Rubicon paired with 2 Diehard Platinum batteries roughly 2 years old. The main battery is for starting and winching (so far hardly any winching) and the aux is for everything else, lighting, air compressor, phone/tablet/etc charging and running the fridge.
Everything worked great the first year or so, and then last May after a trip to Death Valley, the NL System would disengage, i.e. stop charging the aux battery, if the ambient temps got into the 80's and above. Sometimes this could occur just 20 minutes into my commute. When this occurs you cannot even connect the batteries manually through the controller. After several discussions with Paul from Equip the Intelligent solenoid was replaced and the problem seemed to be resolved. Then it occurred one more time although this time it recovered on it own. I had a spare controller, so I swapped that out as well and have not seen the issue occur again however we have not had the high temps as we did this past summer.
I have an Aeroforce gauge that monitors the voltage of the Jeep and it shows 14.0-14.3 when the Jeep is running so I believe the alternator is doing it's job. I will double check this at the batteries this evening.
Over the last month or so, I have noticed the overnight resting rate of both batteries dropping to 12.3 or 12.4. As far as I can tell there are no parasitic draws on either battery, and last night I disconnected the aux fuse box which powers pretty much all my add-ons so there would be no load on the aux battery and the result was the same.
With the NL system you can hear the solenoid engage and dis-engage, and that does appear to be working correctly, so I don't believe the batteries are staying connected when the Jeep is off.
It's for sure possible the aux battery was damaged during the under charging, but it doesn't explain why the main battery is showing the same behavior.
After posting around in a couple other threads, it appears I am not alone in this issue both with the NL system and Diehard Platinums and with the NL system and other batteries.
So possibilities I see are:
- NL system is not working properly and some how dragging down both batteries
- NL System ruined both batteries during malfunction
- NL system not up to the task of charging the Platinums
- Alternator issue
- Some sort of parasitic draw
- Both Diehards are just defective, I bought them at the same time so maybe a bad batch, it's certainly been known to happen.
- And of course some combination of one or all of the above
I've already gotten an education on charging, maintaining and the demands of these types of batteries in the "Odyssey vs Diehard Platinum" thread, good reading for those who haven't read it already, so I don't think we need to re-hash that here.
I'm mostly curious to see how many others are having this same issue with the NL system. I know of two others already who are experiencing the same thing and am hoping someone has come up with a solution even if it means ditching the NL system.
As for my situation, I'm going to start un-hooking things and see if it makes any difference in the overnight resting charge level and I will also bypass the NL system to see if the main battery will at least come back up. If nothing changes, I will be visiting Sears this weekend to have the batteries checked out.
I have the National Luna Split Charge system in my Jeep Rubicon paired with 2 Diehard Platinum batteries roughly 2 years old. The main battery is for starting and winching (so far hardly any winching) and the aux is for everything else, lighting, air compressor, phone/tablet/etc charging and running the fridge.
Everything worked great the first year or so, and then last May after a trip to Death Valley, the NL System would disengage, i.e. stop charging the aux battery, if the ambient temps got into the 80's and above. Sometimes this could occur just 20 minutes into my commute. When this occurs you cannot even connect the batteries manually through the controller. After several discussions with Paul from Equip the Intelligent solenoid was replaced and the problem seemed to be resolved. Then it occurred one more time although this time it recovered on it own. I had a spare controller, so I swapped that out as well and have not seen the issue occur again however we have not had the high temps as we did this past summer.
I have an Aeroforce gauge that monitors the voltage of the Jeep and it shows 14.0-14.3 when the Jeep is running so I believe the alternator is doing it's job. I will double check this at the batteries this evening.
Over the last month or so, I have noticed the overnight resting rate of both batteries dropping to 12.3 or 12.4. As far as I can tell there are no parasitic draws on either battery, and last night I disconnected the aux fuse box which powers pretty much all my add-ons so there would be no load on the aux battery and the result was the same.
With the NL system you can hear the solenoid engage and dis-engage, and that does appear to be working correctly, so I don't believe the batteries are staying connected when the Jeep is off.
It's for sure possible the aux battery was damaged during the under charging, but it doesn't explain why the main battery is showing the same behavior.
After posting around in a couple other threads, it appears I am not alone in this issue both with the NL system and Diehard Platinums and with the NL system and other batteries.
So possibilities I see are:
- NL system is not working properly and some how dragging down both batteries
- NL System ruined both batteries during malfunction
- NL system not up to the task of charging the Platinums
- Alternator issue
- Some sort of parasitic draw
- Both Diehards are just defective, I bought them at the same time so maybe a bad batch, it's certainly been known to happen.
- And of course some combination of one or all of the above
I've already gotten an education on charging, maintaining and the demands of these types of batteries in the "Odyssey vs Diehard Platinum" thread, good reading for those who haven't read it already, so I don't think we need to re-hash that here.
I'm mostly curious to see how many others are having this same issue with the NL system. I know of two others already who are experiencing the same thing and am hoping someone has come up with a solution even if it means ditching the NL system.
As for my situation, I'm going to start un-hooking things and see if it makes any difference in the overnight resting charge level and I will also bypass the NL system to see if the main battery will at least come back up. If nothing changes, I will be visiting Sears this weekend to have the batteries checked out.