I am trying to track down something that is drawing down my battery & I disconected the positive side of the battery & installed an amp meter in between the battery & the meter . My reading is .8 unless I cover my solar panels & then it drops to .3. I have gone thru all the fuses & nothing changes. Does this make sense ? The input charging amp reading on the solar controler reads 1.5 amps.

Has it got a shorted cell? That would kill a battery quickly. Take it to a battery place like intrstate or batteries plus they will test it for you free. ( Interstate will want the battery fully charged b 4 they will test it.)

.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue.

smkettner wrote:.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue. Yes I have the meter in series & I was just rounding off the amps. I am definitely confused, does the meter show only the amps being used, or a cobination of amps in (from solar) & amps used(Propane dector etc,)Thanks for the help. I have checked the batteries with a hydrometer & they are good. Thanks

cdcorpe wrote:...I disconected the positive side of the battery & installed an amp meter in between the battery & the meter .Hard to follow this sentence. What meter? Did you hook the positive back up?

Turn a single bulb light on and see the effect. Careful as the meter has a limit and internal fuse.You should see a change from positive to negative amps. Or if the meter is reversed the negative amps will increase.Otherwise you will need to start disconnecting branch circuits until you get zero.

Amp draw reading | Good Sam Community

2oldman
Explorer II
Feb 06, 2015
cdcorpe wrote:
...I disconected the positive side of the battery & installed an amp meter in between the battery & the meter .
Hard to follow this sentence. What meter? Did you hook the positive back up?
cdcorpe
Explorer
Feb 06, 2015
smkettner wrote:
.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.

I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.

Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue.
Yes I have the meter in series & I was just rounding off the amps. I am definitely confused, does the meter show only the amps being used, or a cobination of amps in (from solar) & amps used(Propane dector etc,)Thanks for the help. I have checked the batteries with a hydrometer & they are good. Thanks
time2roll
Nomad
Feb 06, 2015
.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.

I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.

Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue.
aruba5er
Explorer
Feb 06, 2015
Has it got a shorted cell? That would kill a battery quickly. Take it to a battery place like intrstate or batteries plus they will test it for you free. ( Interstate will want the battery fully charged b 4 they will test it.)

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