The NorthStar AGM Battery + Voltage Booster Upgrade

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Installed the 27F Northstar and voltage booster during my lunch break today. Stoked! Thank you for all the info.

 

...wellllll on cold start up this morning my Scangauge read 14.9v for about 3 minutes before dropping down to 14.6-14.7...now I’m thinking I should’ve just went with the non-adjustable 0.5v! Thoughts?

 

My 0.5 fixed settles at roughly 14.6-14.7v on these cold days, according to the SGII. You got the adjustable one right? Set it as you please

 

Can the adjustable be set to 0.5v? I thought it was 2, 4, 6, or 8v only. My apologies if this has been discussed already.

 

No you are correct. It steps in 0.2V increments. I was just saying if you felt it was too high you could drop it 0.2v

 

Yeah I’ll give that a shot today. From what I’ve read in this thread, it’s not ideal for voltage to ever exceed 14.8v, correct?

 

depends on the temperature. Just good "AGM battery voltage temperature" and you will see lots of tables and graphs that show the voltage will increase as temps get lower, and is often why the "cold" setting (often the same as the AGM setting) on battery tenders will charge regular batteries at a higher voltage.

 

I just emailed Northstar about my concerns. We’ll see what they say...

 

Are you worried about the voltage being too high for the battery? My Northstar has a sticker right on it that specifies the float and service charging voltage ranges. I seem to recall the high end was 14.8V. What the ECM and truck and can take is a different question though.

 

Yes. I want to verify that the temporary voltage of 14.9 at cold start up will not adversely affect my battery or truck ECU.

 

Well, here’s the response a Northstar rep gave me:
“Ryan,
Yes, this is not good long term for the battery in regular driving conditions. We do not recommend using voltage boosters in conjustion with our batteries. Thank you!”

Didn’t expect that last little tid bit.

...I lowered the voltage on my booster to 0.4v. Cold start up this morning showed 14.7 - 14.8v. I guess I’ll keep it there and continue to monitor.

 

that last sentence sounds like more of a CYA than anything else. With that said, it sounds like your adjustment should keep voltage in check. ~0.1v at start up is insignificant.

 

I validated the voltage change running the booster and submitted my output charts and data to NorthStar, they agreed that the changes looked much better for the battery. I have had a rare spike to 14.9 running the 0.6v boost, which is why I think the 0.5v is the sweet spot. My voltage monitor died though, I have been contemplating getting a new one as it would be interesting to see if that happened more often with it getting colder out, though my truck is garages in doors so it doesn’t sit outside over night.

 

For us 3rd gen guys, how often should we be hooking up to an AGM battery charger?

 

I was doing it once a month before finally getting a voltage booster

 

would you guys trust something like this to read battery voltage?

AINOPE USB 12V Car Adapter, Cigarette Lighter Voltage Meter 4.8A All Metal Dual Port USB LED Display Car Flush Fit Car Charger Compatible for iPhone X/XS MAX/XR,iPad Mini 3,Galaxy Note 9/S9/S8-Silver

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BZFPZ3J?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Is that the consensus? Once a month is good?

 

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. Like you, my truck is garaged at night, but it does sit outside all day when I'm at work. I don't have a dedicated voltage monitor so, when I installed my adjustable booster, I configured my UltraGauge to alarm any time voltage goes above 14.8V. I got no alarms until temps dropped. Now, I get them occassionally, usually after the truck has been outside all day and temps are low. FWIW, the over-voltage condition is brief, usually lasting no more than a minute or two.

 

Not plug and play on 3rd Gen.