Battery Disconnect?
On reading info. on battery disconnect, it says to disconnect battery if it will be on converter power for extended time.Anyone do this? Mine stays on shore power/ converter power for months. Am I rui...
Forum Discussion
I have read many times in various forums (here and elsewhere) of advice to use the battery disconnect to take the battery offline so it will not be overcharged when plugged into shore power for any long period of time. In the case of the Magnetek I have, thats bad advice. On newer converters with modern 3 or 4 stage chargers, its unnecessary.
The manual for my Roadtrek talks about how the converter and battery disconnect switch inter-operate, as well as the isolator and charging. It also states to use the Battery Disconnect switch when not using the RV to prevent discharge of the house battery by drain from CO, LP, smoke detectors, etc. It doesn’t state any length of time which could lead some users to disconnect anytime they are leave the RV for the day since they are ‘not using it’ during that time ;) I can see how this could be confusing for RVers that don’t understand how the electrical system works. It also doesn’t mention you should NOT do this if you are plugged into shore power!!
What I noticed on my RV with a Magnetek 6300 series completely by accident, is that if you use the battery disconnect switch while on shore power two things bad happen.
1. The light showing the battery is connected, stays illuminated. I assume thats because it simply checks for power, regardless of where it comes from. So you receive an indication that the battery is connected when its not, assuming everything is fine.
2. At the same time, the converter voltage jumps to 16.5V causing appliances to start behaving erratically. I.e, my TV and stereo go into a constant power cycling loop. Others just exhibit odd behavior.
The manual for my Roadtrek talks about how the converter and battery disconnect switch inter-operate, as well as the isolator and charging. It also states to use the Battery Disconnect switch when not using the RV to prevent discharge of the house battery by drain from CO, LP, smoke detectors, etc. It doesn’t state any length of time which could lead some users to disconnect anytime they are leave the RV for the day since they are ‘not using it’ during that time ;) I can see how this could be confusing for RVers that don’t understand how the electrical system works. It also doesn’t mention you should NOT do this if you are plugged into shore power!!
What I noticed on my RV with a Magnetek 6300 series completely by accident, is that if you use the battery disconnect switch while on shore power two things bad happen.
1. The light showing the battery is connected, stays illuminated. I assume thats because it simply checks for power, regardless of where it comes from. So you receive an indication that the battery is connected when its not, assuming everything is fine.
2. At the same time, the converter voltage jumps to 16.5V causing appliances to start behaving erratically. I.e, my TV and stereo go into a constant power cycling loop. Others just exhibit odd behavior.
