House Batteries ???

Omurray · 08-10-2007, 06:46 PM

I am having a long standing problem with my house batteries in my 2002 Journey DL. They die very quickly and the fridge refuses to continue working.

My questions are:
1. What charges the house batteries?

2. What is the relation between house batterries and the fridge:

3. New batteries burnt up very quickly, what would cause this?

4. How long will your house batteries last while dry camping?

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Omurray · 08-10-2007, 06:46 PM

I am having a long standing problem with my house batteries in my 2002 Journey DL. They die very quickly and the fridge refuses to continue working.

My questions are:
1. What charges the house batteries?

2. What is the relation between house batterries and the fridge:

3. New batteries burnt up very quickly, what would cause this?

4. How long will your house batteries last while dry camping?

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

BryanL · 08-10-2007, 08:31 PM

All of these questions depend. Large class A's often run everything like a house and use a large battery bank, massive inverters, and automatic genset starting to accomplish this. Wee tiny rigs run everything on gas and 12v. Some do everything on diesel. In general, for the modest typical RV...

Your house batteries should be charged by either the engine alternator while on the road or by a converter when hooked up to park A/C or a genset.

The house battery should be isolated from the engine battery with a device that prevents house loads from draining the starting battery.

For the fridge, it depends. Common LP/DC/AC types need a couple of amps DC all the time for the control board. They run off maybe 10 amps of DC if the engine is running else they run off propane. If park AC is available, they run off that.

There is quite an argument about running the fridge on LP while on the road. There is a safety hazard in a fridge or water heater or whatever doing an auto ignite at the wrong time in a gas station.

A short battery life is usually caused by too deep a discharge or by overcharging or by poor maintenance during storage (more than a month). Overcharging is indicated by the batteries needing water frequently.

House batteries should last at least two days and nights in moderate weather with occasional furnace use. If they don't, you need either more battery or a more frugal lifestyle.

Do not discharge your batteries past 50% (below 12.0v for a 12v system) if you want them to live a long life. Prompt recharging with an intelligent 3 stage battery charger will keep them in good shape.

The serious off-grid campers use solar panels and frugal energy saving technique to run off grid for as long as they want. It is all in how you choose to enjoy your RV.

AFChap · 08-10-2007, 09:27 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">My questions are:
1. What charges the house batteries?
2. What is the relation between house batterries and the fridge:
3. New batteries burnt up very quickly, what would cause this?
4. How long will your house batteries last while dry camping? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Omurray
1. Your house batteries are charged by the inverter/charger when plugged into shore power or when running the generator. My charger function comes on automatically when power is connected ...it is possible you might have to turn the charger function on on your rig. The house batteries likely are also charged by the engine alternator while driving.
2. I suspect your 02 DL refrigerator is setup like my 03 UA. If you are not plugged into shore power, and if your inverter is on, and if the refrigerator is set to automatically sense AC power, the refrigerator will run on AC from the inverter. HOWEVER, my 4-door fridge will run the batteries down fairly quickly in that case. When on inverter power, we ALWAYS switch the refrigerator to LP. (and of course, we also run the water heater on LP rather than electric when on inverter power as it is also a heavy draw).
3. Batteries will burn up prematurely if consistently run down too low and/or if the water level in the cells is allowed to go below the plates. I check my battery water level at least monthly. If boondocking/dry camping, I recommend you check the battery water level weekly.
4. How long the house batteries last while dry camping will depend on how heavily you use them, how much solar assist you have, what their condition is, etc. We can easily go overnight, particularly if we turn the inverter off when not using it (the inverter burns energy just standing by). While dry camping at several RV rallies, we have run the generator for a few hours in the evening while using the microwave for cooking, etc. The wife likes to sit up late reading (reading light on of course, sometimes watcing TV), and that has caused me to also run the generator for a couple hours in the morning to avoid pulling the batteries down too far. We are using the original batteries in our coach. If your inverter has a "equalize" function, running that procedure a couple of times a year will help your batteries unless they are too far gone. It made a huge difference in how long our batteries lasted the first time I equalized them about a year after we bought the coach.

FrankO · 08-11-2007, 06:51 AM

Chap is right on with most suggestions but I need to make one clarification. The batteries are charged by the "Converter/Charger" and not the Inverter. This is true for both shore power and gen operation. Also, if you have a DC mode for your Refridge, it should only be used when you are traveling as it will take your batteries down quickly. When boondocking, I believe one should only use Propane unless you use the gen at which time it should auto switch to the 110AC mode. Be sure to check that when you kill the gen that it does not switch to 12DC.
JMHO -- Frank

FrontRangeRVer · 08-11-2007, 10:02 AM

If your coach has the Parallax/Magnetek Converter, get rid of it as it is only a single stage charger and will boil your batteries dry in hot weather.....

I just bought a Progressive Dynamic Inteli-Power PD9245 Converter with a 3 stage Charge Wizard built in on Ebay for $128 with free shipping.

Now I can keep my motorhome plugged in year 'round without worrying about the batteries...

Omurray · 08-11-2007, 01:10 PM

Found out that all three batteries are fried. They were checked for water every two weeks. Added very little water. Less than one year old. One battery is corroded with acid over it. The other two are like new.

Thanks for all the good info you all gave me. I am checking on replacing with 6v golf cart batteries.

FrankO · 08-11-2007, 02:16 PM

FRRVer:
How difficult a job is it to replace the Converter? Are there additional leads to run or is it a one for one wire replacement? I also bought the BatteryMinder charger that will charge and desulphate multiple batteries. I was thinking whether it makes sense to disconnect the charging circuit of the converter and using the BatteryMinder in place of the Converter Charge circuit. What do you think?
Frank O.