Brand new battery dies quickly

I appreciate all the feedback from everyone. Cheers!

If 6V - get a pair of Troan T-105 or T-125, this will get you 225-240 AH total bank.

If 12V - don't know. My cup of tea are AGM. Too lazy to take care of flooded batts.

Somehow it slipped my mind that you did charge it with generator during daytime. (Not a perfect way to charge fully, see the previous post). Without 120V appliances like microwave, and with a generator, you don't need more than 200-300 AH bank.

Not solar "charger" but a 100W portable kit or a larger permanently mounted system. Looking for "chargers" at Amazon etc will fetch you funny toys ~5W, good only for battery in storage. Get 100W suitcase, those are funny in their own way but 100W is still something.

Almot wrote:

Jack004 wrote:
I'll look into adding more batteries. Is there a specific brand that I should look for? Do you think going with a sealed battery will make a difference? Should I look into 3 12volt batteries or 3 6volt batteries? Thanks

#1: "Adding" or "replacing"? Adding would mean another one or two 12V, this will not be cheap and you won't have a lot to choose from. If money is a problem, get the cheapest that says "deep cycle". If you can spend more, discard the first one and get a pair of decent 6V or 12V.

#2: No. Not for low currents like furnace and fridge.

#3: Very energy-savvy user needs at least 200 AH bank for 2-3 days with no charging.
Meaning 2*100 AH @12V, or 2*225 AH @6V.

3*6V is IMPOSSIBLE, and tells me that you should read some more on electricity basics before you blow yourself up to kingdom come.

#3.1: Charging on dry camp is neither difficult nor expensive. Small $200-300 solar - even a portable one - will make a world of difference for somebody with moderate energy draw on a 2-3 days stay.

I didn't want to spend any more money on it, so I went with the cheapest option = Walmart. One day I will get a pair of 6V or 12V, and I did realize I shouldn't have said 3 6V but 2 or 4 (probably no space on the A-Frame for one). I will also consider a solar charger. What brand would you suggest? Thanks

Jack004 wrote:

So it is possible that it is the furnace drawing too much current. I still haven't had the chance to test out the circuits.

If I were to guess - not much else can be done at the moment - I would think that abnormally high current of furnace is less likely than battery incompletely charged before the night. Generator run a few hours in daytime will not charge battery full 100% - this time it's not a guess.

Or it was not "completely" (i.e. 90%) discharged when you thought it was.

Or there were more loads than just fridge, furnace and detectors. 80AH battery has mere 40-50 AH of usable charge. 2 dome lights with regular incandescent bulbs run for 2 hours will consume 30% of that, and I have a gut feeling that you were not using candles :)

Most likely, - all of the above: not fully charged, not fully discharged, and more loads than initially mentioned.

Sandia Man wrote:
Yup, furnace will take a battery out overnight with all the other items that require DC voltage. Changing to LED lighting 4 years ago really helped us cut down on consumption of our 12 volt reserves. Depending on your converter it could take sometime running the generator, even after running 2-3 hours you may be nowhere near fully charged, the poor battery gets drained even further down the next night. If your battery is not a true deep cycle it will certainly meet an early demise under this scenario.

If you camp off the power grid often you need to have at least a couple of fully charged batteries, a converter capable of delivering multi-phase charging, and some solar to help get the batteries further charged after running generator. Enough solar along with good weather conditions and the genny may not be needed for charging, being used primarily for powering heavy AC loads such as convection microwave and air conditioner. We use a pure sinewave inverter to power entertainment electronics or charge our portable devices.

Thanks, I'm going to consider all of the above.

jmckelvy wrote:
Do you have a 3 way fridge? If so make sure it IS NOT on the DC setting. They suck lots of current on DC and will run down your battery overnight.

My furnace would not run down even a wimpy battery in one night.

So it is possible that it is the furnace drawing too much current. I still haven't had the chance to test out the circuits. Time will tell.

westend wrote:
IMO, I wouldn't gamble with my own health nor a child's by trying to overcome an RV battery issue by using an unvented space heater. Yes, most are perfectly safe when used according to the instructions but I think the science is yet to come out on what are safe levels of byproducts or oxygen in the enclosed space.

Again? :) ...

There has been a lot of science done about CO levels of unvented cat heaters vs unvented blue flame heaters in completely enclosed space, like in "airtight". I posted links to some scholarly articles earlier. Govt funded studies.

RV is not airtight, and yes, propane heater needs to be used according to the instructions. Like everything else. Don't remember, have to find it and read - one or two inches crack in a typical 3ft long window. You'll get poisoned more when driving on busy highway for several hours.

Quality CO detector, placed near your bed, will tell you the truth. The best model with alarm, numbers displayed and memory for peak readings will cost a whooping $60, no installation required.

Though it seems like OP should learn first how to charge batteries before the trip. 85 AH is not adequate, but it still shouldn't completely drain overnight down to 11.x volts with only furnace and fridge. That is - IF it discharged completely. I don't see any volts reported.

Ovenighting at 40F is not a "battery issue", it's a "goose down blanket issue" :B

If ya use 80 ah a night then ya need 160+ ah min for one day!

IMO, I wouldn't gamble with my own health nor a child's by trying to overcome an RV battery issue by using an unvented space heater. Yes, most are perfectly safe when used according to the instructions but I think the science is yet to come out on what are safe levels of byproducts or oxygen in the enclosed space.

A single group 24 battery is inadequate for RV use when off the grid. Typically, you have 40 AH of usable reserve with a small battery like that.

Second the suggestion to buy two 6V GC2 batteries at Sam's, Costco, local golf cart distributor. You'll have some minor installation details but the 6V batteries are a durable solution.

Good links for knowledge about 12V systems and batteries:
Battery university

12 V side of life

I think energy audit and a solar over 100W would be too much at this stage of learning curve.

A pair of "bigger" 6V like Trojan T-125, 240 AH each, should get them through the weekend. Even with a toddler.

You may also consider catalytic Olympian heater. A lot of people are using it (me including). Zero 12V draw. $260 or so, at Amazon.

Converting lights to LED is so mandatory... The subject has been beaten to death in the last few years. Though it seems that most RV manufacturers have no clue what the LED is.