Having Issues? Start Here!
The most common support calls we receive about the Watersecure are about battery charging, installation and conducting a power audit. Check through the following information, and maybe you’ll be able to quickly self-diagnose the issue.
If self-diagnosis doesn’t work, here are four questions to answer before contacting our support team….
1. Is your controller on?
2. Are any of the LED controller lights on? If so, are the lights solid or blinking?
3. What is the current voltage of your battery bank?
4. What is the current voltage of your solar panel array?
5. Take note of the LCD screen readouts on AC Input(Vac), AC Output(Vac), Battery Capacity(Vdc), Total Energy Generated(kW/h) and PV Input(Vdc). If unsure, please take a picture of the LCD screen and send it into our engineers for them to read during the call.
Initial Battery Troubleshooting
- Check combined voltage of all batteries hooked together AND the voltage of each individual battery. Note each number down for troubleshooting phone calls with the engineers. Use a multimeter for this test.
- If you’re finding your batteries drained overnight, double check all connections and re-tighten wires. Batteries may drain power from improper or loose connections. Then you’ll run a short experiment: fully charge the batteries (see below). After fully charged, disconnect the pump for the night. This will test if the pump was drawing a load overnight. If the batteries are not drained in the morning, the pump has been pumping during off hours. If batteries are drained in the morning test each battery’s’ individual voltage, if one battery’s readings is significantly lower than normal range of voltage (11V-13V) you may have a bad battery that is acting as a “vampire drain” on the rest of the bank.
Charging Batteries
If your batteries are drained you’ll need to budget some time to charge back up! How much time depends on the number of panels, more panels means faster charging but generally a few hours will do the trick. Our engineers recommend measuring the voltage of each battery with a multimeter to test for state of charge. Battery power disconnects at 11.5VDC, but a fully charged battery will read 14.5VDC on a multimeter. Extremely low voltages like 11.5VDC might require up to 8 hours of charging in full sun.
If you want to know the systems rate of charge, take a “Time #1” voltage measurement and a couple hours later take a “Time #2” voltage measurement. By comparing the change in voltage over a period of time, you can extrapolate an estimation of charge performance. You can take the measurement either by individual battery or battery bank, connecting positive battery wire to positive probe and negative battery wire to negative probe.
Connecting Batteries
Connecting Batteries
Connecting Batteries
LCD Display Meaning
Fault Code Meaning