Battery condition

5 yrs sounds about right for lifespan. A good battery shop can load test it for you and let you know how good it is. I take ours out during the winter, place on piece of wood in cellar, and charge it @2amp rate 1x month for 24 hours. Add distilled water if it needs it as well.

In most cases, the battery should last 5-7 years. The real difference is the care it receives. Like mentioned above, sitting at a low charge will shorten life, as will being low on water.

With good care, some may go longer, and some may have to replace every other year, due to no maintenance.

Jerry

Did you ever read The 12 Volt Side of Life?

It will help you understand your battery system.

Thanks guys. We aren't experiencing any specific problems but I can tell the battery is low. It is 5 years old. How long do these deep-cycle batteries usually last?

YES.......

While on shore power the converter supplies the DC System Voltage and recharges/maintains charge on battery

Bad battery or a battery with very low voltage will cause converter to possibly go into 'overcurrent' mode and limit it's DC output.
Limited DC output will cause issues with lighting, circuit board functions (water heater/fridge/furnace), water pump etc.

What are you experiencing ie: problem ?

Discharged will always shorten the life of a lead acid battery.
If you have a battery switch use the 'in-use' position so that it will stay charged.
Otherwise it does not affect the use of the RV. otoh a bad battery can cause issues.

You should maintain your battery all the times. They may not be used much when you are hooked up to shore power but are necessary when you are in travel mode to provide power to your Electric brakes in the event your trailer becomes disconnected going down the public roads. This is a DOT Safety Requirement.

Also the working battery provides additional support for the large DC Current draws from your on-board converter/charger like the slides and other high wattage 12VDC items.

There is also a whole bunch of parasitic 12VDC items connected to the 12VDC System that needs to be powered up when you are between shore power connections... ALot of your high wattage items have monitor and control boards that are powered by the 12VDC system...

Here is a 30A Power Distribution configuration layout that identifies some of the 120VAC and 12VDC items being utilized in the trailers... The 50A Electrical Configuration is much the same except it will have have two 50A Electrical 120VAC power Zones so that you can run additional high wattage items like two Air Conditioners etc...



Roy Ken

Hi,

The difference is that when the battery bank is "hungry" the converter may draw a lot more power. That, in a 30 amp RV, may limit the use of power to the roof air.

i.e. if the battery bank is full you may be able to run the roof air and the electric water heater without excessive voltage drop.

If, on the other hand, the converter is going at it "hammer and tongs" you may not be able to run more than one other heavy draw item.

If you are in a 50amp RV this is probably not much of an issue.