Battery Maintenance

A quart of water in a group 24 battery would mean the plates had been exposed. Battery damage results. A quart of water in a golf car battery is less significant but still worth noting. A maintenance battery charger would be a rational way to maintain stored batteries. On a fully charged group 24 flooded battery I like to see around .03 ampere maintenance charge, which of course has to be higher in cold temperatures, and lower in warm temperatures. Voltage output control of the charger resolves this.

Checking battery water level is something you have to do when owning RV - regardless of type of converter. Old fashion "dumb" converters are sometimes called "battery eaters" because they tend to use alot of water and if you don't check often your batteries die quick - modern "smart" converters use less water but you still need to check.

No matter what, if the floating voltage (after batts are fully charged) is over 13.4, DON"T leave it plugged in in warm weather. In the colder temps batts can handle highter voltages, 13.6 - 14

I know that w/ my PD9245c converter plugged in all the time, float voltage is always between 13.1 and 13.3, depending on temperature. And my batteries use very little water, once, possibly twice a year, but nothing like a 1/2 gallon.

I also installed a digital voltmeter right by the entry door, every RV should have one !

If your trailer has the smart mode type converter/charger on board this will keep your batteries in pretty good shape and not boil out your fluids.

The older single mode converter/chargers that always put out 13.6VDC when plugged into shore power is right at the point of boiling out your battery fluids. When I had one of those type of converter/charger units I checked my battery fluids at least every two weeks.

Letting the Battery fluids get below the tops of the internal cores will shorten your battery life big time.

Most trailer manf after 2012 usually have the smart mode converter/charger units installed. Post the model numbers...

Roy Ken

Disconnect the batteries and hook up a Battery Tender to them and no more worries. Will not boil the water out of the battery. I keep one hooked up to my MH all the time when it is parked.