How often to disconnect from shore power
Hello Everyone… I have a 2003 Ford F-53 RV I have questions regarding charging house & chassis batteries, How often to disconnect from shore power I usually stay hooked up to shore power for...
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Lead acid batteries prefer to be fully charged, and self-discharge over time even if there is no load on them. (Obviously, a load will discharge them as well.) The rate of self-discharge depends on several factors--the age and type of the batteries, etc.--but is very strongly related to their temperature. Cold conditions have much lower rates of self-discharge than warm or hot conditions: several months at subfreezing temperatures is equivalent to a few weeks or less at Florida summertime temperatures.
Anyhow, ideally the RV should be connected to shore power or have some other means for maintaining the battery charge all the time. Depending on the converter you have and what it's long-term output voltage is, it may be necessary to check and add water to the batteries fairly regularly if it's left plugged in all the time; if that's the case, a timer to turn it on for a couple hours per day or something like that would be helpful. On many RVs, the chassis battery is not maintained automatically by the converter, and there are various ways of getting around that (putting in a float charger for it, for instance, or installing an LSL Trik-L-Start unit, or having a little solar maintainer). Others have setups to keep it charged.
If you have to leave things for an extended period with no way of keeping the charge up, disconnecting the batteries entirely (by removing the ground lead) eliminates any parasitic loads that may be tending to discharge them.
Anyhow, ideally the RV should be connected to shore power or have some other means for maintaining the battery charge all the time. Depending on the converter you have and what it's long-term output voltage is, it may be necessary to check and add water to the batteries fairly regularly if it's left plugged in all the time; if that's the case, a timer to turn it on for a couple hours per day or something like that would be helpful. On many RVs, the chassis battery is not maintained automatically by the converter, and there are various ways of getting around that (putting in a float charger for it, for instance, or installing an LSL Trik-L-Start unit, or having a little solar maintainer). Others have setups to keep it charged.
If you have to leave things for an extended period with no way of keeping the charge up, disconnecting the batteries entirely (by removing the ground lead) eliminates any parasitic loads that may be tending to discharge them.
