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Gjac's avatar
Gjac
Explorer III
Mar 18, 2022

Batteries sat for 5 months without charge

I post this for a data point because many on here ask the question about how long a battery can sit without a charge. In Oct I winterized the MH and fully charged the batteries, hit the disconnect switch on the house batteries and removed the negative cable on the chassis battery. Today I checked the voltage readings and the 12v chassis battery read 12.55 v and the 2 6v GC batteries read 12.48 v. That is very little self-discharge for 5 + months. Of course, in cold weather the self-discharge is less.
  • I do this with my car, left at home for winter. Pull the negative cable. Starts right up 5 months later.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    Once I installed the total disconnect switch on out 5er never had an issue with discharged batteries. While ours never sat for five months, it has sat for two months. During that time I did do some work on it, and would use just the battery to run the slides out and in.
  • Standard MO for battery long term storage has been to disconnect battery bank at the post & leave for 5-6 months untouched. Been doing this for 14 years. 12 of those 14 using AGM batteries. 1 of those years 10 months with no attention.

    9 years life out of first AGM. Second one still going strong.
  • I never use a trickle charger or my inverter/charger when my motorhome is not in use.
    I just disconnect the ground cable from the house and chassis batteries. when it is time to go the batteries are always ready.
  • You were lucky. Batteries appear to have survived. Low self discharge is one Lithium advantage.
  • My batteries in my hunting rig only get used in September. At the end of Sept they're fully charged, hit the disconnect switch and they're good until next Sept after sitting in the rig as far down as -60F during the winter. The last set of Interstates I changed out after 7 years and I expect to get the same out of this set.

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