T6.1 Control Panel heating element confusion

[Ladymuck]

Hi everyone,
So I thought the blue bars on the control panel represented the battery charge but after watching the California Chris vlog turns out they reperesent the heating element? He doesn't give any more detail, can anyone shed any more light on this ??

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Like you @Ladymuck I understood that graphic to be the status of the leisure battery charge and how much time they will support the present usage. Think California Chris might have it wrong.

 

[Ladymuck]

Like you @Ladymuck I understood that graphic to be the status of the leisure battery charge and how much time they will support the present usage. Think California Chris might have it wrong.

I hope not as it means my van isn't charging I've looked at the manual but that hasn't shed any more light on it

 

[Ladymuck]

From another thread I understood it's the Volts you need to look at to see if it's fully charged? Mine is around 12.4v around 70% charged ? See below.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

I hope not as it means my van isn't charging I've looked at the manual but that hasn't shed any more light on it

I’m pretty sure it is the leisure battery charge @Ladymuck. Have you had the van on EHU or driven any long distances recently? If so The display should be all blue bars and showing >60 hours. Do you have any consumers switched on i.e. fridge?

 

[Ladymuck]

I’m pretty sure it is the leisure battery charge @Ladymuck. Have you had the van on EHU or driven any long distances recently? If so The display should be all blue bars and showing >60 hours. Do you have any consumers switched on i.e. fridge?

I had it on hook up past night for 12 hours at home with nothing switched on in the van. When I checked it at lunch it moved from 60+ hours to 25hrs and then 5hrs at tea and now back to 25hrs, I'm very confused !!

 

[Stu@rt]

Hi everyone,
So I thought the blue bars on the control panel represented the battery charge but after watching the California Chris vlog turns out they reperesent the heating element? He doesn't give any more detail, can anyone shed any more light on this ??

View attachment 83543

Hi @Ladymuck when you say that the batteries are not charging, is that with normal driving, or on hookup? Is it possible that you have drawn more power than short journeys have replaced? When you place on hookup do you get the symbol on the display to indicate that there is a live feed?

 

[Stu@rt]

I had it on hook up past night for 12 hours at home with nothing switched on in the van. When I checked it at lunch it moved from 60+ hours to 25hrs and then 5hrs at tea and now back to 25hrs, I'm very confused !!

Apologies, our posts have overlapped. Do you see the Amber symbol when on EHU mains charge? When on hookup the 13amp UK style socket should be live too. If not, has the breaker in the wardrobe tripped?

 

[Ladymuck]

Apologies, our posts have overlapped. Do you see the Amber symbol when on EHU mains charge?

Yes the amber symbol came up when I put it on ehu last night. First pic shows it just before charging yesterday evening, second one is what it looked like this morning after 12 hrs charging. I was charging it ready for camping tomorrow with no ehu !

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

I had it on hook up past night for 12 hours at home with nothing switched on in the van. When I checked it at lunch it moved from 60+ hours to 25hrs and then 5hrs at tea and now back to 25hrs, I'm very confused !!

I believe all 6.1’s do that, ours certainly does. @WelshGas has explained why this in the past.

 

[Ladymuck]

I believe all 6.1’s do that, ours certainly does. @WelshGas has explained why this in the past.

Good to know that thanks, so hopefully at nearly 13v mine is fully charged, despite what the blue bars mean ! It's back on ehu tonight as I believe it needs a full 24 hrs to fully charge. I have been guilty of not charging it every month as we have been on campsites with ehu every 3 weeks or so.
Tomorrow is the first time we are camping with no ehu

 

[Stu@rt]

Good to know that thanks, so hopefully at nearly 13v mine is fully charged, despite what the blue bars mean ! It's back on ehu tonight as I believe it needs a full 24 hrs to fully charge. I have been guilty of not charging it every month as we have been on campsites with ehu every 3 weeks or so.
Tomorrow is the first time we are camping with no ehu

I share your confusion, as the blue bars don't seem to correlate to the voltage indicated. Hopefully someone more qualified than me can shed some light. I'm not sure how to confirm both batteries are performing as expected. If you have a reasonably long drive to site tomorrow you could try the Max Charge option on the panel. Driving will only take charge to around 80%. The Max Charge function overrides the energy saving functions and should take the batteries to full charge. When switched on you get another symbol at the top of the panel and once fully charged it turns the Max Charge back off. Be interesting to see if that increases your Blue Bar count.

 

[Ladymuck]

I share your confusion, as the blue bars don't seem to correlate to the voltage indicated. Hopefully someone more qualified than me can shed some light. I'm not sure how to confirm both batteries are performing as expected.

Maybe the blue bars will jump up to fully charged after another 12 hours of charging? Will see in the morning ..

 

[scabrero]

I also had this problem and the worst part is that the CU switched off the fridge a couple of times when the time jumped to a value below 8 hours.

I took the car to my dealer and they installed a software update. The good news are that now the time is directly proportional to the current consumption, no more jumps, and the fridge has not switched off again. The air conditioner seems to work better also, I think they increased the fan speed of auto mode.

The bad news are that now the heater does not start from time to time and the control panel shows a permanent 1 amp consumption.

It is VW, they can’t release a version without bugs.

 

[Stu@rt]

Maybe the blue bars will jump up to fully charged after another 12 hours of charging? Will see in the morning ..

Has the Blue Bar count previously increased with normal driving?

 

[Ladymuck]

I also had this problem and the worst part is that the CU switched off the fridge a couple of times when the time jumped to a value below 8 hours.

I took the car to my dealer and they installed a software update. The good news are that now the time is directly proportional to the current consumption, no more jumps, and the fridge has not switched off again. The air conditioner seems to work better also, I think they increased the fan speed of auto mode.

The bad news are that now the heater does not start from time to time and the control panel shows a permanent 1 amp consumption.

It is VW, they can’t release a version without bugs.

Thanks, I've heard about the software bugs, if the leisure battery is fully charged and the blue bars are wrong I'll just live with it for now, can't be bothered with the 3hrs round trip to them and the poor service I hear people are getting.

 

[Ladymuck]

Has the Blue Bar count previously increased with normal driving?

I don't know, I've never bothered to look at it before as I was always camping on ehu. Will keep an eye on it now though

 

[Stu@rt]

I don't know, I've never bothered to look at it before as I was always camping on ehu. Will keep an eye on it now though

Whatever the issue is, I do hope that it doesn't spoil your trip away.

 

[Ladymuck]

Oh dear, after another nights charge I've got the low battery warning. This is not good, I've charged it a number of times, why is it doing this now on the day I go on holiday with no ehu it looks like it's drained the battery instead of charging it...
Does anyone know about the max. Battery charge on the control panel and how that works ? I can't make sense of the manual

 

[andyinluton]

Does anyone know about the max. Battery charge on the control panel and how that works ? I can't make sense of the manual

Its pretty simple. start the engine then go to control panel & select max charge.
If you turn the engine off it turns off max charge & you will have to reselect it when you restart.
The only difference you will notice is that it raises the revs at idle & prevents any stop start kicking in.

 

[Rololux]

Oh dear, after another nights charge I've got the low battery warning. This is not good, I've charged it a number of times, why is it doing this now on the day I go on holiday with no ehu it looks like it's drained the battery instead of charging it...
Does anyone know about the max. Battery charge on the control panel and how that works ? I can't make sense of the manual

View attachment 83553

When you are driving, i.e. engine running, select max charge from the control panel. This will (should) charge the leisure batteries up to 100%. Bear in mind though, that when you turn off the engine, max charge will disengage, so needs to be selected again when you next set off.

This may be a control panel quirk though. Your battery voltage is fine, and it shows >60h, so everything is normal except the battery charge status. Go driving for a while, and see if it corrects itself.

 

[WelshGas]

Oh dear, after another nights charge I've got the low battery warning. This is not good, I've charged it a number of times, why is it doing this now on the day I go on holiday with no ehu it looks like it's drained the battery instead of charging it...
Does anyone know about the max. Battery charge on the control panel and how that works ? I can't make sense of the manual

View attachment 83553

Ignore the Graphic. The voltage is 12.7 v, that is fully charged. Good to go.

The Graphic is because they can. It is of no benefit at all.

 

[WelshGas]

Can you switch Off the Control Panel and switch On as you can on the T5/6?

 

[Ladymuck]

When you are driving, i.e. engine running, select max charge from the control panel. This will (should) charge the leisure batteries up to 100%. Bear in mind though, that when you turn off the engine, max charge will disengage, so needs to be selected again when you next set off.

This may be a control panel quirk though. Your battery voltage is fine, and it shows >60h, so everything is normal except the battery charge status. Go driving for a while, and see if it corrects itself.

Thank you, we are about to go on a 3hr drive to the campsite so should be enough, thanks for the tip on the max. battery charge

 

[Ladymuck]

Ignore the Graphic. The voltage is 12.7 v, that is fully charged. Good to go.

The Graphic is because they can. It is of no benefit at all.

Oh I hope so! Thank you, I'll find out over the next 2 days. We are in quite a remote part of the Lakes so will report back on Friday.

Either way it won't spoil our trip, we are next to a river so the wine can be cooled in there if needed