Battery tender & storage

Gjac wrote:

Fisherman wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I believe keeping your batteries plugged in 24/7 eats your plates away quicker than leaving your MH unplugged and recharging when the SOC reaches 80-90%.

And where does belief come from pray tell.

When the charger is on constantly a chemical action is taking place that reacts with the lead plates and sheds lead from them. I dry camp 95% of the time so my 2 6v Sam's Club batteries only get charged after a week of camping. They were purchased in 2007 and still good. My first set of Trojans only lasted 4 years under constant charge, which seems to be typical. Battery maintenance is more than just keeping your batteries plugged in 24/7. I realize most batteries die from sulfation so a battery maintainer prevents an early death, but I thing equalizing and desulfating every so often is better for battery life.

That is why you change out the rv's cheep charger for a quality one that does the same things. if you leave the factory charger section in there you will kill batteries quick, if you change it out for a good one then you end up like me making a set of 4 GC batteries last for 16 years while doing heavy camping and using microwaves, furnace, electric coffee pot and so on on the inverter quite a bit. if all I was using was lights and the rv furnace I probably would have been able to sneak 20 years out of them..... all I used to do with thoes was check the water twice a year and plug it in as soon as I got home.

Steve