[Darren H]

If i turn my flow controller up past 60 it starts to flash up bat and the pump sounds like it cuts out intermittently.
Its wired up to the van battery which i replaced with a new one when the problem started so its not the battery.
If i leave the van running it does not do it.
Before i replaced the battery i noticed the flow at brush head dropping of when the pump seemed to cut out intermittently,since the new battery its not noticeably but i think this will happen again in time.
The flow controller is 16 months old.
The controller is wired to the live on the interior light in the back off the van
Any solutions would be great.

Thanks darren     

[Alex Gardiner]

If i turn my flow controller up past 60 it starts to flash up bat and the pump sounds like it cuts out intermittently.
Its wired up to the van battery which i replaced with a new one when the problem started so its not the battery.
If i leave the van running it does not do it.
Before i replaced the battery i noticed the flow at brush head dropping of when the pump seemed to cut out intermittently,since the new battery its not noticeably but i think this will happen again in time.
The flow controller is 16 months old.
The controller is wired to the live on the interior light in the back off the van
Any solutions would be great.

Thanks darren     

These controllers are designed to protect you from a battery failure situation which makes them alert to potentially dangerous (for the battery's life) voltage situations.

If it is flashing Bat then the voltage that the controller is receiving is below its cut-off point. If you have changed the battery and you know the replacement battery is in good condition then the only other thing it can be is a voltage drop in the wiring or the connections. As you are running off of an interior light you are probably using wiring and connections that are not a high enough rating. They will have worked OK to start with but with age, moisture corrosion, etc, they are causing an issue (most probably). It would be worth running a new set of wires direct from the battery to the controller (10amp minimum) and seeing if this cures the problem.

I had this myself on my van and in the end needed to upgrade all of the wiring - not had the problem again.

The newer versions of these controllers often now come with a switchable low voltage feature for those that do not mind what happens to the battery or who are using Gel batteries. This allows users to switch the feature off so that it continues pumping whatever the voltage it is receiving.

[Darren H]

Thanks for the advice alex not to hot on wiring do you mean take the live from the interior light and put it straight to the battery to see if it stops the problem.

[P @ F]

Darren , what Alex meant was to run a new piece of red wire directly from your van battery live to your contoller live and do the same with a black wire from van battery negative to controller negative .

If your not hot on electrics then the sign + means positive (live) red in colour
                                         and the sign - means negative (earth) black in colour.

other than that , get a leisure battery and wire direct 

Rich

[Darren H]

Rich my electrical expertease does extend to knowing what + and - means but thanks anyway.
Once wired to the battery all was well so it was the connection to the interior light live that causes the problem,so its now wired into the fuse box and works perfect again this was how my previous van was wired up and all was good with that one.
Probably did not need the new battery i brought but at least i no ive got a decent battery now aswell.

Thanks everyone for your advice great help.

[traps7]

I think Alex is saying you need to make sure your wiring is heavy duty enough.

I had this problem and went to Alex for help a year ago.

After new battery, pump and controller the only thing left was the wiring or connections. I was very reluctant to change the wiring because I new the connections were fine and thought it very very unlikely to be the cable but it was the only thing left to change.

Turned out my cables weren't man enough as I had used 5 core household flex to save on multiple cables which was fine but it needed to be much thicker. I was getting a voltage drop but wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes and already replaced everything else.

[Ian Sheppard]

Some very good advice here re the wiring. Another factor to consider is that a vehicle battery and leisure battery discharge at different rates.  Vehicle batteries are designed to provide very high but short bursts of current to start the engine.
This can mean that for a short period the battery voltage drops significantly due to the power required to start an engine.
The controller only needs to see the voltage drop to 11V or below for a fraction of a second to show the low bat warning. In effect a Vehicle battery will see big spikes and drops in voltage.

The reason you do not see this BAT with the engine running is that the alternator is effectively powering the pump via the battery.


A leisure battery is designed to discharge slowly at steady rate.